The Lansing State Journal has disturbing information from Michigan's knock-down, drag-out budget battle in today's editions. Apparently, Governor Jennifer Granholm has refused to cut an October check to the Michigan State University Agriculture Experiment Station and MSU Extension. She is also, apparently, seriously considering use of the line item veto to end this $64 million in annual funding permanently.
State to Cut MSU Extension and School of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Why is this important? Michigan State is the epicenter of the new "green" economy in the state. The university provides the intellectual and scientific base for Michigan industries in agriculture, travel and tourism, alternative power and the environment.
These cuts would cut many of these efforts at the knees. And they raise the question of whether Michigan can afford to participate in the new "green" economy.
Before I go further, let me explain the political situation from which this decision was born. The State of Michigan is in budget turmoil. As the fiscal year expired at the end of September, Michigan had a budget hole in the $2.5 to $3 billion range. That's what happens when a state's major industry halves its size in two or three years.
The economic stimulus package allowed that shortfall to decrease to the $1.2 billion range. The MI State Senate, because of Republican redistricting and wins in crossover districts, is overwhelmingly Republican. The MI House is led by Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat who hopes to run for governor next year as a Perot-like centrist on a message of budget cuts. Governor Granholm has had to cut budgets pretty much every year that she has been in office. There are no gimmicks left.
So, what happened is that Dillon, and the Republican Senate leader, Mike Bishop, created a backroom deal in which education, libraries, the arts, local governments and other necessary state agencies took massive cuts. And they "promised" that after the cuts were agreed to, they would then look at "revenue enhancement" or tax and fee increases.
After months of negotiations, a temporary state budget and the passage of most state budget bills, the only power that Granholm has left to urge legislative passage of any revenue enhancement is the line item veto. So, she unilaterally cut an additional $130 per student from the state schools budget. She cut more funding from the top 30 or so highest funded school districts in the state. And, now, she is cutting Michigan State Extension and funds that provide for roughly 75% of the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Her hope, it appears, is to shock Michigan's citizens, Republican legislators and the Dillonites to actually consider needed tax increases.
But the danger is that incredibly important programs like MSU Extension will actually get cut. And Granholm has few options. A budget without revenue enhancement would include cuts like this one. But one can also accuse Granholm of picking the most drastic and widely popular programs as line item veto targets to build public support for tax increases. In fact, these types of threatened cuts might be fantastic political strategy.
However, it is a strategy that uses schoolchildren and Michigan's growing "green" industries as bargaining chips.
Let me describe why MSU is so important. The School's Extension program runs 82 offices around the state that test local soils and give advice to local farmers and gardeners. Those who want to open a local farm market or develop a local food program make use of these extension offices heavily.
Mind you, agriculture is Michigan's 2nd biggest industry - $64 billion - and it has actually grown in the past few years as the auto industry has entered Armageddon. While MSU is derisively called "Moo U" by University of Michigan grads like myself, the school is THE BEST at promoting agriculture within this state.
MSU also supports Michigan's $18+ billion travel and tourism economy. It generates annual tourism forecasts for the state's leisure industries. Its graduates help to administer a host of state parks and planning offices.
And Michigan State's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources provide technical expertise to cities who want to remove dams, restore rivers and wetlands and develop plans to welcome "green" industries like wind farms to local lands and lakes.
Of course, all of these budget cuts are occurring at the same time that the U.S. Congress is contemplating passage of the climate bill. Michigan gains 70% of its electric power from coal-burning power plants and it still hosts many factories that are targeted for transformation under cap-and-trade.
There is no possible way that the state will be able to transition without MSU extension and the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
So, here's the question: Can Michigan afford to participate in the new "green" economy?