Posted on 01/29/2007 8:45:01 AM PST by Incorrigible
By PETER LUKE
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan could use a big gulp of Zoloft, given last week's depressing announcement from Pfizer Inc. that it's following up its 2003 slashing of research operations in Kalamazoo by doing much the same in Ann Arbor.
The good news is that the anti-depressant is a lot cheaper now that Pfizer's patent on Zoloft expired on June 30. So there will be plenty of generic sertraline to go around in these shaky economic times.
Of course the times are shaky in part because Pfizer's U.S. sales of Zoloft plunged 88 percent between fourth-quarter 2006 and fourth-quarter 2005, from $653 million to $76 million, once the less expensive generic became available.
Still, for consumers the money saved by buying generic can go toward the purchase of a new Frigidaire refrigerator. Those should be cheaper, too, since they're no longer assembled in Greenville, but in Mexico.
Greenville and Ann Arbor don't have a lot in common, but now, to use Gov. Jennifer Granholm's phrase last week, they've both been "punched in the gut.'' No one is really exempt from what's happening, whether you're a high school graduate assembling freezer compartments or a university graduate crafting drug therapies.
And it's not going to stop. What's going on is economic change wrought by global-scale corporate decision-making.
The short-term response to the Pfizer announcement has to include state funding to support the viable business plans of pharmaceutical researchers who want to stay in Ann Arbor. The state did much the same in 2003 when it pumped $10 million into a new life sciences incubator at Western Michigan University after Pfizer scaled back research operations in Kalamazoo.
The money is available, through new venture capital, loan and grant programs of the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which will receive a fresh $75 million infusion of cash in fiscal 2008.
Now what to do in the long term?
The Pfizer decision is the latest reminder that the state, once and for all, has to settle on an economic strategy. State government can't reshape the state's economy. What it can do is decide how to address seven continuous years of net job loss.
Should Michigan be a low-tax, low-service state, as it's becoming? Or should its tax levels be marginally above the national average to fund the state services the public says it wants? That's the debate that has consumed Michigan politics for years, and it's about to be refreshed.
Michigan job losses commenced a year into an eight-year stretch of cuts in the state's two main taxes on income and business. Those tax cuts, according to the House Fiscal Agency, will cost the state some $1.3 billion in the current fiscal year. Tax cuts didn't cause the job loss. They didn't stop them either.
Now some Republicans are actively arguing that the Single Business Tax, which they eliminated last year and for which they have yet to offer a replacement, shouldn't be fully replaced. Do nothing and the tax cut would cost more than $1.2 billion next year.
Well, it will be replaced or lawmakers will have to start closing prisons, or universities. Take your pick. A post-election K-12 budget shortfall that could more than wipe out the pre-election funding increase for schools has been greeted largely with silence. Some say transfer the money from somewhere else. From where? Who knows?
What kind of state decides to cut its education budgets when work-force development is widely seen as the most critical step to securing its economic future?
What kind of state, moreover, seeks to attract business when for more than a year, it hasn't been able to tell those businesses what their tax liability would be because the Legislature voted to eliminate the main business tax without identifying a replacement?
What kind of state can't find the will to raise a gasoline tax that is stagnating in the face of rising costs to rebuild decaying transportation infrastructure — presumably an important economic development feature?
If you're scoring at home, the answer to all those questions is: Michigan. You get what you pay for.
(Peter Luke is a columnist for Booth Newspapers. He can be contacted at pluke(at)boothnewspapers.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
The beauty of having 50 states with 50 different types of taxation. You don't like the taxes in state A, then move next door to state B. Repeat process until company is large enough to go global.
well, over half the state budget goes to various social programs, including head start, paid day care, and lifetime welfare benefits.......by all means, we cannot possibly touch those !!!! (sarcasm on)..let the working people continue to provide a living for those that refuse to work........while we tear up our cars going to work on the pi$$ poor roads in this state...
It's obviously Granholm's fault. Government is what creates jobs, and her government has not been creating jobs.
"Take your pick."
Personally, I would vote to close universities, as opposed to prisons. You could also save money by using the old dormitories as prisons.
Michigan is an economic basket case that makes upstate NY look good. The voters put the same loser back in office. They'll get what they voted for. More of the same.
With Granholm, Stabenow, Levin, Kilpatrick, and the unions, why oh why is Michigan bleeding to death?
The libs claim that government creates jobs. So if jobs are declining, then it's her fault.
Do you have a source for this? I've had to put up with colleagues throwing Tax Foundation reports at me saying Michigan has the 22d highest tax burden. My impression is that taxes (including fees) are higher than any place I have lived except Mass. The regulatory burden is also far higher than any place except Mass. There's lots of bureaucrats, lots of hoops, but very little service. Now I just need proof.
2 years ago I ordered the 900 page budget of the state of michigan.....400 million for child care alone (including head start, welfare recipients can send their children, but us poor working folk cannot send theirs)....you can order it from the michigan state website.... it opened my eyes to the vast amount of waste in our budget...I found close to 80 million in just plain waste....29 million for the state fair....2 million for a union ombudsman....and on and on..
Born and raised in MI - and I just did my taxes, and just noticed that my federal tax credit is much, much larger than my State of MI tax credit. I'm certain that it has been that way for years, I just haven't noticed it until this year.
Left in 1976 and never looked back. It is much more beautiful than many people know, I still vacation there sometimes.
The voters decided that they like this mess. I sincerely believe that a little more than half of the residents of this state are narcissists that enjoy the quagmire of the stale economy. That gives them a reason to bash the President.
This Michigan resident believes that giving Detroit to Ohio and making it a suburb of Toledo would be a step in the right direction...
Unfortunately, there are many that agree with the author. I have already contacted my rep about the proposed 5% service tax the legislature have been running up the flagpole as of late. I am disgusted by the idea that government is the solution...and increasing taxes, growing government and corporate welfare are the best the lawgivers can come up with.
It is the population of Detroit that skews this generally conservative state to the left.
Who would want to move their company to such a schizophrenic state?
I"ll see your secession of Detroit to Ohio and raise you some education budget cuts. Let's start at the top. Let's cut one-half of all administration positions. Let's use one-half of those savings to upgrade our schools, and use the other half to upgrade our roads.
And then, let's cut out all these tax-free deals. We give a company tax-free status, they stay as long as they pay no taxes, then they leave and we get the shaft.
I'll see you and raise you a part time legislature and a reduction in state fuel taxes...
LOL! OK, I'm not sure about how to play poker, but I think now is when one of us tells Jenny to fold or call! Oh, heck, let's just tell her to go home!
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