LSJ Blogs: Derek Melot is Just Asking

Governor's plan missing something

At first blush, the governor’s “four-part” reform plan on state government really seems to boil down to trimming employee costs.

And, if I’m reading it right, paying more later.

If you get people to retire earlier than they planned and increase their retirement formula, it seems to me that they will be in retirement longer and at higher rates -- all of which should cost more money in the long term, right?

I’m not an actuary, so if someone can explain such is not the case, please do.

As for the rest of her reform plan, it sure seems like she pulled a lot of disparate ideas off the shelf and threw them in the pot. I’m all for no-reason absentee ballots and tighter ethics rules for lawmakers, but what does that have to do with the fact that Michigan has about $7 billion to spend for the coming year and oh, about $9 billion in commitments?

Michigan needs spending reform and tax reform. This proposal, again at first review, seems decidedly incomplete.

High marks for Michigan

This columnist at governing.com thinks most highly of the state's ongoing efforts to streamline and improve its handling of info tech.

County tackles budget

It looks like Ingham County will get out of its immediate budget crisis — a $3 million hole — with a variety of accounting gimmicks and standard budget cuts. (Go here to see suggested cuts from the county controller’s office.)

I’d be shocked if any commissioner signed on to some of the high-profile items on a list the controller prepared previously for cuts. For example, no one ran for office on the platform of eliminating animal control enforcement

The largest cut is to “Change Cooperative Reimbursement Funds Fiscal Year” to save $265,000. Not sure what that is, but there you go.

$250,000 each would be saved from health care and from a six-month hiring freeze, according to the list. Then there is $195,000 from “Funds Reserved from Sheriff’s Savings – 2010 Budget.”

Then there’s a list of possible long-term savings for the county. That’s where it will get interesting.

This list also has the animal control shutdown on it. It also has shutdowns of county parks and health clinics and scenarios for a reduced work week for county employees.

Take a good look. The county’s budget woes aren’t going away — and neither are these budget cut ideas.

Ready for Ferguson's bid?

LCC President Brent Knight says the college is “not giving up” on addressing its parking problem, which regularly chokes Grand Avenue with cars whose drivers are trying to make a class.

Lansing Community College has a bid in to buy the city’s North Capitol ramp. But, once again, the City Council doesn’t seem interested. Last week, acting as the Committee of the Whole, the council voted 4-2 against a motion to hold a public hearing on LCC’s bid of $2.8 million.

Voting to move on the hearing were Kathie Dunbar and Jessica Yorko. Voting against were Carol Wood, Eric Hewitt, Brian Jeffries and Derrick Quinney.

Asked what LCC’s plans were now — with its bid technically alive but apparently dead politically — Knight said “there are other ways” to address parking.

He listed 3 options: 1. LCC can still build its own ramp. 2. LCC could lease the North Cap ramp from the city. 3. LCC could “work with a private developer.”

Private developer Joel Ferguson has filed his own bid for the North Cap ramp of $2.9 million. If the city were to accept Ferguson’s bid, it would have the advantages of an additional $100,00 for the parking fund, plus it would bring the property on to the city’s tax rolls.

So, is it Joel’s time to shine?

Mayor Virg Bernero had advanced the LCC bid and held back on Ferguson’s bid because he rated the former better than the latter. If the former is not acceptable to enough council members, why not fire Ferguson’s offer over.

The city gets the sale, then it falls to LCC to figure out how it wants to deal with Ferguson, if at all.

What's GOP's plan for BWL?

This must make Virg Bernero feel better about his nascent gubernatorial campaign: The Michigan Republican Party is attacking him.

It’s not a particularly clever attack and it carries a whopper of an error, but still, an attack is an attack. And if your potential foes think it worth the trouble to run you down, that’s far better than simply ignoring you.

To quote the state party release:

“As Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, also a potential candidate for governor, gives his State of the City Address tonight, the Michigan Republican Party asks: Where will the focus be—on the job the residents of Lansing elected him to do, or his self-interested potential gubernatorial bid?

“Tonight’s address will give us insight into where Bernero’s priorities lie,” said MRP Chief of Staff Josh Venable. “Is he building Lansing’s future, or his own?” ...

During his time in the state Senate, Bernero voted in favor of at least 23 tax and fee increases, costing Michigan taxpayers an estimated $1.9 billion.

In 2006, Lansing’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent and in 2009, it was 11.1 percent, nearly an 85 percent increase on Bernero’s watch.  And while residents are hurting, he is watching as The Lansing Board of Water and Light, a public utility company, holds hearings on proposed water and electrical rate hikes. The proposal would result in an annual hike of $80, on average, to Lansing-area families.”

I didn’t know it was Bernero’s fault that local unemployment doubled. I do know, however, that BWL says its rate increase plan would raise an average bill by $8 dollars, not $80. (Correction: The GOP's Jennifer Hoff was kind enough to point out that their mention of $80 refers to an annual increase, whereas the $8 increase I refer to is a monthly boost. So the GOP figure is not a typo.)

None of us are immune from the occasional typo. I would be curious, though, what the state Republican Party’s business advice would be to BWL to help the utility close a budget gap. Would it be job cuts -- which would drive up local unemployment and thereby make Bernero an even worse mayor?

BWL report doesn't answer big question

After reading the Board of Water and Light’s citizen panel’s report on new power generation, I must say there’s not much there there.

The panel wants BWL to hold off on any plan to burn biomass to create power. It want it to be energy efficient and use renewable power. It acknowledges that BWL has plans to start shutting down coal-fired, “baseload” generation at the Eckert Station in 2017.

But the panel’s report provides no real guidance on what BWL should burn in the next generation units to keep the lights on here.

Yes, the energy and utility markets are unsettled right now. I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon, though. BWL has to make some decisions about what to burn and I don’t see how the utility is any further along in that assessment than the day it withdrew its coal/biomass proposal nearly a year ago.

I personally think natural gas should be the “baseload” power source. And the citizen report makes some mention of gas. But it doesn’t really stake out a position.

Maybe that was appropriate for this panel. Still, someone is going to have to decide at some point how to replace the Eckert generation.

TomTom report: Michigan doesn't speed

An analysis of driving data put forward by traveler guide TomTom seems a bit of bad news for the Michigan State Police, as the Legislature girds for another bruising budget year.

Based on speed and location data that’s routinely transmitted from GPS units, TomTom has found that Americans are not quite the road racers you might think: “Although the average speed on some U.S. roads slightly exceeded the speed limit, data from GPS users show that, overall, drivers tend to stay within speed limit range on most major U.S. highways.”

More political winds blowing

More fun on wind: “Developing any offshore wind energy proposals in Michigan would be placed on hold under legislation introduced today by Rep. Goeff Hansen that will give the state time to implement an oversight system that includes state and local guidelines, as well as policies for public review and appeals.”

Hansen, R-Hart, represents Oceana County — near ground zero of where that Norwegian firm wants to invest billions for an offshore wind farm.

“Our first priority should be to protect the surrounding natural resources as well as existing commercial, residential, recreational and tourism aspects of any potential sites,” said Hansen in his press release. “Our dependence on the lakeshore is too great not to take the time to fully understand the impact of this type of development.

Oh yeah, those turbines are right around the corner.

Each legislator owes state $35,000

Here’s a number I find most interesting in Senate Republican’s $2 billion savings plan for Michigan:

$5 million.

That’s the amount of sacrifice (via estimated savings by cutting retirement benefits) that would affect legislators, as opposed to everyone else in this state.

Naysayers take Wind round 2

Yep, this whole wind energy  effort is going gangbusters in Michigan.

The Norwegian group that wants to invest billions in a wind farm off Ludington had another public meeting on their proposal. And as with the first session, the majority position was “NO.”