(Left to Right) Mayville Republican Mike Green & Jeff Mayes, Bay City Democrat. Michigan Journalists' "Truth Squad" Calls "Foul" on Green Ads Against Mayes
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The bipartisan Center for Michigan has engaged several top Michigan journalists to referee political wars during this election season.
One of their first calls has been a foul against Mayville businessman and former Republican state representative Mike Green who is vying to upset Democrat Jeff Mayes, outgoing state representative from Bay City in the race for the 31st District State Senate seat now held by Jim Barcia.
The "Truth Squad" is comprised of Rick Haglund, former Booth Newspapers business columnist now a freelance journalist, Susan Demas, weekly syndicated political columnist with three million readers a week, John Lindstrom, national award-winning writer for Gongwer News Service and several Michigan newspapers; Zachary Gorchow, former Gongwer and Detroit Free Press writer, and Chris Andrews, former political editor at the Lansing State Journal.
The Truth Squad has so far issued several "no foul calls" and has penalized the Democrats for at least two ads, one ripping Yooper Republican Dan Benishek for allegedly backing privatizing Social Security and Medicare and another against the Dems for trashing GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder as a "proud" job outsourcer.
Green draws the yellow flag for his radio ad statement: "It's criminal what has been done to this state in the last 8 years. The last thing we should do is promote one of Jennifer Granholm's willing accomplices to the State Senate."
TRUTH SQUAD CALL:"This statement is a wild accusation, suggesting Gov. Jennifer Granholm committed unknown and unproven "criminal" acts as governor."
Green doesn't name the 'willing accomplice' but it appears to refer to is Rep. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, a three-term House member who is Green's Democratic opponent in the 31st District Senate race.
Green said: "In the 8 years since I left Lansing, the liberal administration has made it more expensive to do business here while unemployment was rising, allowed property taxes to rise while people were losing their homes, and tried to make health care even more costly."
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: "Green doesn't say how the administration has made it more expensive to do business in Michigan. But he may be referring to the Michigan Business Tax, which the Legislature passed and Granholm signed in 2007 as part of an effort to balance the state budget that year.
"The MBT contains a 22 percent surcharge. Many business owners and Republican candidates for office now complain the surcharge hurts the competitiveness of Michigan's business climate."
The TRUTH SQUAD agrees the state's unemployment rate has risen under Granholm, from 7.1 percent in 2003, her first year in office, to 13.2 percent in June.
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: Green claims the Granholm administration "allowed property taxes to rise," but local units of government set most property tax rates. The state does impose a 6 mill education tax on real property. That tax was adopted in 1993 as part of the Proposal A school finance reform, said the Truth Squad.
Property tax revenues have fallen statewide from $14.3 billion in 2007 to $14.1 billion last year, according to the latest figures from the state Department of Treasury.
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: "Property taxes have been declining in recent years, not increasing, as Green claims. That's mainly because property values have fallen, a result of the housing market collapse."
Green does not explain how the Granholm administration "tried to make health care even more costly."
GREEN STATEMENT: "As a State Representative, I voted to cut taxes 31 times, we had the fastest growing job market in the nation, and a billion dollar surplus in our 'rainy day fund.'"
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: "Michigan experienced strong job growth during the 1990s, but lagged the nation's overall growth. The number of nonfarm payroll jobs in the state grew 10.6 percent from the beginning of 1995, when Green began serving in the House, to the end of 2000, when he left because of term limits."
The number of jobs in United States during the same period rose 12.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
TRUTH SQUAD ANALYSIS: Michigan had at least $1 billion in its Budget Stabilization Fund, the so-called "rainy day fund," every year from 1994 to 2000. But the fund balance had dropped to zero in the 2003 fiscal year, which coincided with Republican Gov. John Engler's last year in office.
GREEN CLAIM: "Now, under the current Administration, we have more government jobs in our state than manufacturing jobs."
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: "It's true that there are more government-related jobs than manufacturing jobs in Michigan. There were 464,300 manufacturing jobs in the state in June and 644,600 government jobs, including jobs in state and local government, universities and public schools."
GREEN CHARGE: "Liberal Lansing has failed. We need to get back to conservative values-living within our means, attracting employers to our state by cutting taxes, and bringing property taxes back down so our kids can afford to live here."
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: Green doesn't say how he would trim spending to pay for tax cuts.
OVERALL TRUTH SQUAD IMPRESSION:
Green makes loose claims about the Granholm administration and inflates his record during the years he served as a state representative. He calls for tax cuts without saying what programs he would cut to make room for the cuts.
TRUTH SQUAD CALL: Foul for overheated accusations and an undocumented blame game for the economy.
The Center for Michigan is a "think-and-do tank" founded by publisher Phil Power in early 2006. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, The Center's objective is to assist our state through its current period of wrenching economic trouble and to lay the foundation of informed hope for a better future Michigan. It will help develop and execute comprehensive, long-range and, in some cases, radical policy solutions to transform Michigan?s business, economic, political and cultural climate. In so doing, it will work to help reform the structure and workings of Michigan's political system.
In particular, The Center is working to:
Encourage a globally competitive, diversified, high-productivity and high-income economy based on Michigan's talent, innovation and individual achievement.
Bring forth a public investment program focused on Michigan's enduring and distinctive competitive assets, in particular our research universities, our environmental assets and our talented and productive citizens. State taxing and spending practices should be aligned with these priorities.
Promote a government that is representative, responsive and agile, sustained by a healthy political system.
Facilitate a citizen culture that embraces change and is forward-looking, well-educated and entrepreneurial.
The Center believes that the Michigan political system has in large part failed to live up to its responsibilities in that it has tended to be excessively partisan and largely driven by ideologues of the left and the right and thus failed to scope adequate policy responses to our present crisis. One result has been that most people, who are naturally in the middle of the road, feel discontented and left out in the cold. The Center intends to encourage a citizen movement of people who are moderate in attitude, bi-partisan in approach and aggressive in policy orientation. ###
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"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers! |
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mosher Says:
On October 04, 2010
at 08:13 AM
Good piece, Dave. I really look hard for temperate Gerald Ford Republicans to consider, but Green's ads are all whine, whine, whine. His several glossy mailers missed the chance to intelligently talk to voters about local issues and what he'd do. Granholm-bashing and mindless CUT TAXES! CUT TAXES! robothink are tired and lame.
Mike |
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eibhlin722 Says:
On October 08, 2010
at 10:55 AM
good article and the only thing I have to say is SHAME on you Mike Green, Mayes is CLASS all the way!!!!!!
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Dave Rogers |
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