MACKINAC ISLAND – A new agenda of state policies, driven by the concerns expressed by thousands of Michigan residents, and focusing on several key issues including a revised tax system, extending term limits for state politicians and changing spending priorities, is critically needed, said Phil Power, president of the Center for Michigan.
In addition, Power and others announced at the Detroit Regional Chamber conference creation of a truth squad that will review all the advertisements issued by candidates during the election for facts, as well as provide information online on all the election issues and candidates.
Power said the center has started an online petition to push for the changes the agenda urges.
Endorsing the agenda was Doug Rothwell, president of Business Leaders for Michigan, who said at a press conference that the agenda was similar to the action plan his group has proposed.
But the agenda does not include specific tax, spending or term limit change proposals. In some respects the agenda’s thrust is to get politicians to focus on those broad issues.
Power said the agenda was based on the comments from some 10,000 people made during gatherings across the state. From those discussions it was clear, Power said, that the public felt “Michigan was digging itself into a hole, and the political system was broken.”
In terms of taxes, Power said the public felt “too many people were being taxed too much to spend money on the wrong thing.”
One critical change the state needs to make is to spend more money on higher education than it does on corrections, Power said.
And the state needs to change, though not end, term limits. Power said the public was sick and tired of the current term limits, which he said has resulted in “mandated inexperience” and in a Legislature that “talks and bickers and doesn’t get anything done.”
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