Put 600 business leaders in a room for two days and what do you get?
Well if you’re in West Michigan and at the Regional Policy Conference, you get this:
(P)articipants set these top five priorities for legislative action:
1. Eliminate Michigan Business Tax and corresponding spending cuts.
2. Implement a Right to Work status for the state of Michigan.
3. Increase funding for health care providers with effective prevention practices.
4. Streamline the state’s permitting process.
5. Update funding mechanisms for transportation infrastructure.
This is the politics of the dead end, the politics of rage. It will not restore our State or for that matter safeguard their businesses.
For Democrats, it means we will continue to look opposing candidates who are quite simply, out of touch with the economic needs of our region. Without a positive agenda for the State, they offer little in terms of the way out. I will keep banging the drum, but now is the time for leadership, for a positive future.
And though I seldom (have I ever?) agree with him, Richard DeVos Sr. had it right when he said,
“Stop dreaming somebody’s going to come to town and build us a new factory,” he said. “It’s going to come from here, and we are going to make it happen.”
That’s actually an agenda Democrats can seize.
Cross posted at West Michigan Rising.
Filed under: Economy, Michigan, Democratic Party, Right to work, West Michigan Regional Policy Conference
Windmillin' 