LANSING – Both the Republican and Democratic candidate for governor said at a Thursday forum that government has a role in business development for the state, but they disagreed on what the extent of that role should be.

In the forum, held at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit and broadcast on WJR radio, Republican Rick Snyder and Democrat Virg Bernero both said they had experience in terms of helping grow companies and development.

Unlike other joint appearances between the two, including their only debate on October 10, issues such as outsourcing jobs to China or taking action to halt foreclosures did not come up. Questions, most of which were asked by younger business people and entrepreneurs, focused more on items like Bernero’s proposal for a state bank and helping revitalize Detroit.

Bernero said his bank would be able to backstop smaller, local banks and credit unions so those institutions could help lend out money to companies that need to expand. As he has in other forums, Bernero said the biggest issue facing businesses right now is access to capital and that North Dakota had successfully run a bank for nearly a century.

Snyder said banking is a complicated field, and since no other state had started a bank besides North Dakota, it was unwise for Michigan to do so. Besides, he said, Michigan has not run state government well, so “I think they should run a state right before they run a bank.”

But when asked directly by one entrepreneur who said he was having trouble getting financing to fund an expansion whether government should help him find that financing, Snyder said the individual should approach an organization like Ann Arbor SPARK, which Snyder helped found. He called the organization a private-public partnership that has helped establish hundreds of businesses, as well as helped them find financing and personnel.

The role of government, he said, is not to write checks.

But Bernero said the money Ann Arbor SPARK lends is government money forwarded to it by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “Ann Arbor SPARK relies on money from the MEDC,” he said, “So government has a legitimate role” in business development.

Much of what Snyder described that Ann Arbor SPARK could do a state bank could do as well, he said, without taking an attitude of “wait for things to get better” that he said Snyder displayed.

Snyder shot back that the MEDC did not offer the money, but that he and others had to put together a proposal that relied on Ann Arbor businesses and residents together to work.

“Government can play some role,” Snyder said, “but not to run the economy.”

The two came closest to a sharp disagreement over the issue of whether Snyder’s proposal for a 6 percent corporate income tax to replace the Michigan Business Tax would amount to a tax increase on small incorporated firms. Bernero insisted that Snyder had acknowledged in an interview with Crain’s Detroit Business that the proposal might affect those businesses with an increase.

Snyder, who in that Crain’s interview said there may have to be adjustments for those businesses, said in the Thursday forum the disagreement showed one reason he was running to help create a new model for running government.

Bernero also said he would keep Michigan’s film credit to allow it more time to work. The credit seems to help promote the state and provide jobs, he said, and so long as a tax credit is doing the job it intended, he would keep it in place.

Snyder said the credit is costing the state too much money. He would modify the credit so it wouldn’t cost the state money.

He said the fact the credit was in place and the Legislature had not funded the “Pure Michigan” campaign showed what was wrong with the state, since the “Pure Michigan” campaign was critical to the state’s economic future.

Bernero said both the “Pure Michigan” campaign and the film credit could co-exist and work together to promote the state.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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