The Detroit News. January 9, 2019
State contracts should put taxpayers first
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hit the ground running, issuing a flurry of executive directives in her first week as governor. Many of these rules are about setting the tone for her administration, and rightly focus on ethics and transparency. But others may not serve the best interests of taxpayers.
Gubernatorial directives apply to Michigan’s executive branch departments and agencies and allow the governor to set policy and ensure laws are being followed. They differ from executive orders in that they don’t have the force of law.
“State government must be open, transparent and accountable to Michigan taxpayers,” Whitmer said in a statement.
We agree. That’s why one of her decrees caught our attention.
In a directive Friday, Whitmer announced the state must do more to buy from small businesses in disadvantaged areas and increase contracts with them.
The governor’s intentions may be good. But when it comes to the operation of state government, any policy that deviates from the commitment to getting the most bang for taxpayer dollars is misguided.
This strategy was tried during the Granholm years without success. The state should have learned from its past errors.
“Our elected officials should use the contracting process to find the public the best deal at the best price instead of trying to use it to serve other social functions,” says James Hohman, fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center.
Hohman says it’s nothing new for the state to add social aims into government contracts, and that’s helped create a complicated set of rules and regulations for businesses when bidding on and fulfilling state projects.
By the 2022-23 fiscal year, Whitmer wants contracts with so-called disadvantaged businesses to make up 3 percent or more of annual state expenditures. She’s tasked the Department of Technology, Management and Budget to adopt policies that increase purchasing from and contracts with these challenged businesses for a range of products and services.
Former Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who recently took a job as president of the Small Business Association of Michigan, is cautiously optimistic about the directive but says the details will be important.
“Clearly, the state has a strong interest in making sure that all communities have a vibrant and growing economy,” Calley said in an email. “Supporting small businesses is a great way to accomplish that. At the same time, the state of Michigan is a major purchaser of goods and services.”
After eight years of helping put sound fiscal measures in place, Calley surely can see red flags in such policies.
The state already has programs to help spur economic development. Using government contracts - on the taxpayer’s dime - to do so is the wrong approach.
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Grand Haven Tribune January 11, 2019
Plenty of shame to go around
Those of us old enough to remember TV’s Gomer Pyle will recall his catchphrase, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
There is plenty of shame to go around in Washington, D.C., and Lansing, Michigan - these past few weeks especially.
The members of Congress, both sides of the aisle, should be ashamed of themselves for not doing more to end the partial federal government shutdown.
There are hundreds of thousands of government employees, including Coast Guard personnel right here in Grand Haven, who are no longer seeing paychecks because of the shutdown. Not only that, this is putting our country at risk, perhaps more than a $5.7 billion border wall would solve.
Will it end soon? Who knows? But one thing is clear: Congress and President Donald Trump should be ashamed of themselves for holding all of us hostage over the controversial building of a wall across our southern border. Besides, wasn’t Mexico supposed to being paying for it?
Closer to home, the 99th Michigan Legislature should be ashamed of itself for rushing through some half-baked legislation in its lame-duck session last month. It became a national joke.
Shame on Ottawa County’s now-former representative in the state Senate, Arlan Meekhof, for leading the push for such things as trying to stifle the voice of Michigan residents who had just approved the recreational marijuana proposition. Whether you or Arlan think it is a good or bad idea to legalize pot, Michigan voters had already spoken.
Shame on one of Michigan’s new members of Congress, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who dropped a public F-bomb during her first day on Capitol Hill. Tlaib, D-Detroit, tried to justify it by saying the expletive to describe the president “was a teachable moment,” according to a report in the Detroit News. Well, we certainly do hope she learned from her inappropriate behavior.
The only regret that Tlaib says she has about the moment is that it distracted the nation from the government shutdown. She should regret that she offered a poor example to her young children, and perhaps overshadow what good things she can do as a role model to women, Muslims and other minorities in Congress.
The shameful name-calling and political poking at each other is certainly distracting from the task at hand, and that’s running this country in the most-efficient and safe manner as possible. It is truly shameful that grown men and women can’t do what they are elected and highly paid to do.
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Lansing State Journal. January 10, 2019
It’s time to protect Michigan’s LGBTQ population with Elliott-Larsen
In her first week in office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive that strengthened LGBTQ protection by prohibiting discrimination in state employment, contracting and providing services.
This is a positive step for Michigan.
Now it’s up to the 100th state Legislature, which met for the first time Wednesday, to show its hand and - hopefully - follow suit.
It is far past time for LGBTQ protections to be made permanent in Michigan.
And only through legislation will that be possible.
Legislators must pass an update to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which currently provides Michigan residents protection from discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status and marital status.
This Legislature must put this part of Michigan’s history - the part where people can be fired or evicted from their homes simply because of their sexual orientation or identity - in the past.
Whitmer’s directive builds on a similar one signed by Gov. Snyder near the end of his tenure in 2018 that prohibited state contractors from discriminating against LGBTQ employees.
It’s good the state’s top executives recognize the need for protection. There are enough Michigan residents, businesses and communities that recognize that, too.
The time for legislators to act is now.
Make 2019 the year that LGBTQ protections become permanent in the state of Michigan.
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