Government Reform
Government Reform: Fixing the Mess in Lansing
Lansing is broken. Our state legislature is dysfunctional. We need new leaders who can set aside party politics and craft bipartisan solutions, make government more efficient, and insure valuable taxpayer money is not wasted. We need government to work for the people, not special interests, career-politicians, and privileged insiders. We need Lansing to be more transparent, accountable and efficient. I will stand at the forefront of government reform.
Two out of the last three years, the legislature Lansing has failed to passed the budget on time. Ever year, the budget process deteriorates into the spectacle of posturing, proxy fights in the media, and brinkmanship with the prospect of insolvency and government shut downs looming. Last minute decisions lead to ill-conceived raids on our long-term investments – such as education and roads – and poor policy decisions – like the Michigan Business Tax. Schools wait to do their own budgets, not knowing what the real funding numbers will be. Many go through an annual ritual of issuing pink slips to teachers, only to rehire some of them after the state budget is finalized. Cities wait for revenue for public safety, often laying off police and fire personnel based on worst-case guesses about revenue from the state. Road projects stall because planners cannot count on infrastructure funding. This is not how state government should work. We should instead have a clear, long-term plan for what we want for our future Michigan and the guts to implement that plan.
Transparency and Accountability
As your State Senator, I will:
1. End lifetime healthcare benefits for legislators. I will not accept such a benefit for myself after my term is completed.
2. End the revolving door as legislators become lobbyists by instituting a two-year ban on former lawmakers working for lobbying firms. With term-limits, all too often politicians are actually auditioning for jobs at lobbying firms after they are term-limited out of office. I am the only candidate in the race to promise to never become a lobbyist.
3. Pass a personal financial disclosure law for all legislators so the public can decide if someone has a conflict of interest. I am the only candidate in the race who has disclosed their personal finances.
4. Mandate that staff not be employed in the for-profit sector. I have had my campaign staff sign such a pledge. Citizens can rest assured my staff will not be involved in situations where they can profit by abusing their influence with state agencies.
5. Make our budget process needs to be more transparent. State government must post all expenditures on the internet in a simple-to-understand format.
Structural and Budget Reforms
As your State Senator, I will:
1. Institute multi-year budgeting so we can make long-term plans rather than lurch from crisis to crisis.
2. Mandate that the state budget be passed by July 1st or legislators will have their pay docked.
3. Institute a system of community conversation forums to discuss key state issues, such as the budget and governmental reforms. We need more collaboration and communication between our elected leaders and our citizens. We have done this in Grand Rapids with the budget forums and the Green Grand Rapids initiative. We need to take our West Michigan tradition of citizen-involvement to state government.
Efficiency
1. Incentivize regional cooperation among neighboring cities, towns and townships and between those units and county governments. We ought to encourage local governmental units and school systems to share services such as human resources, administration and information technology.
2. Work to make sure public employee contributions for health care benefits more closely aligns with private sector levels. When I was on City Commission in Grand Rapids, my colleagues and I led the way in bringing city employees closer to private sector health care cost levels. However, we must understand and take into account that our public employees are some of the hardest-working and most productive in the nation.
