Gubernatorial race vital to all, and yet
where were the voters? Finley asks

Michigan faces the most critical election it has held in decades this November but no one is asking who can lead this state and take it where it needs to go, the editorial-page editor of The Detroit News said last week.

“We had less than a third of our voters come to the polls in the primary,” Nolan Finley, left, told the Grosse Pointe Senior Men’s Club. “A state in this terrible condition and an election this critical and a third of our voters cast their ballots for a new direction or a different direction for the state.

“As this election shapes up, I’m happy Virg Bernero (Lansing mayor) won the Democratic primary because I think it sets up an election in November where it forces a contrast. Andy Dillon was too much like all the Republicans in the race. Virg Bernero represents something starkly different than Rick Snyder represents."  

The opinion writer, who was recently voted by a liberal blog site as Michigan’s most biased journalist, said, “I’m not here to proselytize for one party or the other. But it does set up a marked contrast for the fall.

“You’ve got Virg Bernero elected in the tranditional fashion for Democrats with union money, bringing up that people versus the powerful message, bringing up that anti-business message, anti-corporate and in many ways an anti-reform message. He’s trying to convince Michigan voters the status quo will still work with a little fixing.

“And hopefully on the other side you’ll have a candidate who finds his voice to say: ‘We need new ideas, drastic reform or we’re not going to make it’.”

Finley, a Grosse Pointe resident, said “on a proportional basis our financial situation is every big as bad as California or New York. We’ve got to make this state more competitive for business and jobs.

“This election also sets up a very useful debate and previews the coming battle that I expect to be the battle of the next 10 years between public-employee unions and the private-sector taxpayers. Nowhere is the difference in lifestyle enjoyed by private-sector workers and public-sector workers greater than it is in Michigan.

“Our public-sector employees rank in the top 10 compensated in terms of salaries and benefits in the nation. Teachers are fourth. The rest of Michigan has fallen to 34th in terms of household income. We’re basically Mississippi. We’re where Mississippi and Alabama were before they started growing."

He pointed out that Wayne County commissioners wouldn’t agree to end a 13th bonus pension check to retired employees although it isn’t required and was voted on in the 1980’s when pensions were fully funded. They are now funded at 67 percent.

“Maybe paying that bonus check is a bad idea,” Finley said.

He also pointed out that while most private-sector workers were taking wage freezes or cuts, the state legislature couldn’t agree to freeze a 3.5-percent pay increase for state employees.

Finley said House Speaker Andy Dillon suggested modifying state worker benefits, not cutting them in order to save $100 million a year and that’s why Bernero was able to raise the money to beat him.

“That brought the unions out like a tornado,” Finley said.

“This is going to be a brutal battle and a necessary battle," Finley told the 165 men meeting at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. "But it is one these candidates should be talking about during the campaign. What are these candidates willing to do on that issue? What are they willing to do on other reforms, like corrections spending? We talk about education, but higher-education funding has been cut. We can’t let them dodge these questions. They dodged during the primary. Where do they stand, really, on tax hikes? Where do they think we can get more revenue?

“Hold their feet to the fire. If we go into the fall and Snyder and Bernero are fighting about abortion, we all lose. If we go into the fall and Democratic state Chairman Mark Brewer is allowd to marginalize Rick Snyder as ‘a CEO’ the way he did Dick DeVos four years ago, we’ll be at risk of making the same mistakes we did four years ago and allowing distraction issues to keep us from making a solid choice for Michigan.

“This is a critical election. This is not an election we can afford to be apathetic about. We have to force them to address the issues that are unpopular.

"This is the election in which we have to start the process of repairing Michigan. In January every decision (should) be about fixing Michigan, creating jobs and putting people back to work.”

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