Exercises in cluelessness

by: Eric B.

Sun Nov 01, 2009 at 10:46:23 AM EST

Tim Skubick makes a point during this week's Off the Record:

I think the general public wants both sides to sit down at the table and cooperate and try to find a compromise. I don't believe they respond positively to "take it or leave it."

When he got to Bill Ballenger -- who prompted the question by comparing the governor to Bill Clinton in 1995 -- he waved the entire thing off difficult, as if he was saying, "Compromise in one hand, shit in the other and see which one fills first."

Ballenger wasn't the first of Skubick's panelists to answer the question. That was Dawson Bell (Detroit Free Press), who said that he didn't think the public responds favorably to the government coming back with their hands out.

And with that sweep of the hand, gentle reader, I give you Lansing's self-perception problem. If the so-called watchdogs of the public good don't understand how Lansing is perceived, then it's a sure thing that most of Lansing doesn't understand how Lansing is perceived.

To wit ... no one gives a rat's ass about the shouting concerns of the teabaggers, who are the people reflected in Dawson Bell's comment. Even at their high point, when they managed to bring 2,000 people to Lansing for a rally, they managed to bring all of 2,000 people to Lansing for a rally, i.e. a very tiny minority in a state of about 8 million people (if you club in rallies from around the state from that day, you maybe get a total of 3,500, which is still just 3,500 people in a state of 8 million).

I could point to polling data which shows an appetite for a compromise solution (blend of taxes and cuts) and also that the Legislature is being blamed for this year's budget failures, and I could point to the overall trend of lost faith in government as partisanship and bickering keep hold in both this state and in Washington, but that would grossly undersell the point of what the general public wants.

For starters, the last man the tax man came a-calling, nobody but those already prone to hating taxation noticed.  The constant droning, "largest tax hike in Michigan history ... $1.3 billion dollar tax hike ... tax hike, tax hike, tax hike" we've heard since 2007 from various corners has fallen entirely on deaf ears when it's come to the public at large. Barely anyone noticed the income tax hike, so barely anyone cared.  Those very same people would care even less about a beer tax that they'd never notice (beer pricing being a product of the marketplace), or about a tax on gross tax receipts by wealthy pathologists, or a tax on smokeless tobacco products.  No one would notice these things, so no normal people would care.

What will they notice? They will notice when information fliers start arriving home with their school children announcing the suspension of busing services and athletics. They'll also notice when their local library closes, or the intramural parks and rec program they've participated in every year since becoming an adult is shut down.  They'll also take notice when their local media outlets reports things like that the state has stopped conducting safety tests on school buses, or that the local city government had to lay off firefighters and police officers. If you think people are angry over taxes, wait until they have to adjust their family morning schedules mid-school year to make sure the kids get to school on time.

Unfortunately, Lansing has its little games that it plays while the rest of the state burns. If I understand Ballenger correctly (and by way of noting that he appears to think this appropriate), the state Senate voted on the physicians tax not because they wanted to discharge it promptly for consideration but to take a shot at the governor because they were mad at her for visiting school districts. Very nice. Meanwhile, the clock to fill the revenue hole ticks away. If those cuts become a reality because of a "take it or leave it" approach, hindsight just might tell those responsible agents that if they value their public reputations lashing out in revenge is probably not the best way, especially if your reputation is already sour because the public thinks you bungled the job in the first place.