Picture a family in Metro Detroit. Mom works at a manufacturing plant, dad runs a small painting business. They’re not asking for much: pay so they can get ahead, schools that prepare their kids to read and an energy bill they can afford.
Last year, a family member moved to Tennessee while another moved to Florida, and last month their son’s best friend moved to Indiana. They wonder if, for their kids, they should move, too.
That family is not imaginary. Michigan now ranks 32nd in economic outlook among the 50 states. Indiana sits in the top 10. Ohio has climbed to 15th. We won’t accept losing to Ohio on the football field — so why are we accepting losing our families to that state?
The numbers tell a hard story. Michigan has fallen to the bottom 10 in personal income growth, educational outcomes and job creation. Lansing’s answer has been the same tired playbook: pick favorites with the latest business tax incentives, appease education lobbyists, hope for the best and call it a strategy. It hasn’t worked.
Michigan families deserve bold solutions, not another round of favors for the well-connected. Starting with how we treat job creators. Those wanting to start a business in Michigan navigate a maze of permits, registrations and agencies that seem designed to exhaust you.
Instead of working for their favored corporations, the state should turn the MEDC into a true one-stop shop for all. It should task the corporation with helping anyone start, grow or relocate a business by removing barriers that prevent them from serving customers. It wouldn’t cost taxpayers another dollar — only the willingness to make Michigan more open and accessible for everyone.
The same principle applies to workers. During Michigan’s decade of Right to Work, unions remained free to make their case, and workers simply gained the freedom to make their choice. Employment rose, manufacturing grew and income climbed. Since repealing the law, the trend has reversed. That’s not politics; that’s the record. Restoring that freedom and growth deserves an honest conversation, not a political veto.
On the topic of keeping faith with people, we must also talk about pension funding. Michigan’s teachers, state troopers and public employees were promised retirement security. We must keep that promise, and we cannot leave that burden to our kids and grandkids. If we stay on the current course, those obligations can soon be fully met, saving taxpayers more than $3 billion annually. Money that could offer meaningful relief to the cost of working and creating jobs in Michigan.
That brings us to the tax burden itself. My dad’s comfortable state pension isn’t taxed, so why are we taxing my daughter’s sweat and hustle from her small business? Five of the 10 fastest-growing states by in-migration have no income tax, and the five states Michiganians move to most often have an average income tax rate of just 1.96% — less than half of Michigan’s 4.25% rate. We can phase this out responsibly, but we can’t pretend it isn’t driving people out the door.
The people we most need to keep are our kids.
Michigan ranks 44th in the country for 4th-grade reading. Mississippi catapulted into the national top 10 by committing to the science of reading, training teachers and tutoring kids to ensure they were promoted based on literacy performance and holding schools accountable with A-F grades.
Michigan knows what works. What’s missing is the will to achieve it. Alongside that accountability, families deserve more choices. Thirty states have opted into the federal Scholarship Tax Credit, giving roughly 90% of their children access to scholarships at no cost to taxpayers or existing school budgets.
Keeping that door closed is a political choice, not an educational one. The same pragmatism needs to apply to energy. Demand is rising, driven by changes in manufacturing and our economy. Mandates that raise costs and risk reliability hand a competitive edge to states with more practical energy policies.
Michigan workers deserve sound planning, not ideology. While some may argue these changes are hard for politicians, none of these ideas are extreme — they’re proven. They are choices other states have made, and those states are gaining the residents and investment that Michigan is losing. The residents of this state are not failing Michigan. The policies are.
Other states aren’t waiting for us to figure this out. They’re recruiting our workers, businesses and our families right now. Michigan can keep ignoring reality and managing decline, or we can choose to compete and win. Our workers and our kids aren’t asking for the middle ground. They’re asking for a future worth staying for — and we owe them the courage to deliver it.
Jase Bolger is President and CEO of the West Michigan Policy Forum. He served as Speaker of theMichigan House of Representatives from 2011–2014.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: A better future for Michigan families starts with better policy | Opinion
Reporting by Jase Bolger / The Detroit News
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