VIEWPOINT

Michigan Needs Immigration Reform     June 2013

OUR EVENTS

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ADVANCING THE MICHIGAN TURNAROUND PLAN & THE NEW MICHIGAN STRATEGY

Step 1: Responsibly Manage Finances

Our view: To ensure that the state is consistently managed well in the future, BLM strongly supported adopting good fiscal principles into law rather than by administrative practice.

MI Legislature Passes FY14 Budgets

Thanks to the hard work of the Legislature, Michigan now has a 2014 state budget that is structurally balanced, pays down debt and increases Rainy Day Fund reserves. Another huge step forward was the Legislature's approval of expanding the state's Great Start Readiness Program to all income-eligible preschoolers over the next two years. Michigan's universities did not fare as well, only receiving an incremental increase of 2% next year which falls short of BLM's goal to make college more affordable for our students by funding our universities better. We remain optimistic that the Legislature will make higher education a top budget priority as it is critical to our children's and the state's future. 

Step 2: Effectively & Efficiently Provide Public Services

Our view: While significant progress has been made to reduce the cost of public services in Michigan (local, state and school), BLM continues to support efforts to improve the return on the investment from these service providing entities.

Giving Our Preschoolers a Great Start at Success

One of BLM's priorities was providing access to quality early childhood education to address the sad facts that 1 in 3 kindergartners are not ready to learn and 7 in 10 fourth graders are not proficient in reading. The Michigan Legislature approved what represents the largest expansion of preschool in the nation by 

Step 4: Invest in Growth

Our view: BLM supports making strategic investments in areas that promote future growth such as higher education and infrastructure. BLM believes a comprehensive transportation funding strategy is essential to creating the infrastructure MI needs to leverage our geographic location and connect us to the global economy. 

MI Public Universities Receive Small Funding Increase; Legislature Improves Performance Metrics

The 2014 Higher Education budget recently passed by the Legislature, includes improved performance metrics and a 2% budget increase for MI's universities. We are pleased to see metrics included that provide better reflect how our universities are performing and stack up to their peers, and increased funding overall for the P-20 education.  However, we are disappointed in the lack of support overall for providing our state universities with more funding as it impacts MI's ability to grow its' talent pipeline, support its' businesses and the state's competitiveness. This legislation now awaits the Governor's signature.

Read about it: 

CBS-Detroit: Michigan Budget Panel OKs Fund Boost for Colleges 

Step 6: New Michigan - Gateway to the Midwest

State Announces Michigan Logistics Plan

The state recently released its strategy for growing the logistics sector.  The plan was developed, in part, based on research that BLM conducted to make MI a Gateway to the Midwest as part of our New Michigan strategy.  BLM engaged a broader group of stakeholders and are starting to see greater statewide focus on leveraging a key MI asset.  Our focus going forward is on implementing aspects of the plan including: re-launching the Aerotropolis, building support for additional logistics infrastructure investments and attracting logistics site location projects related to the new bridge. Download the full report.

Step 6: New Michigan - Higher Education Marketplace

Our view:  Michigan's higher education system is one of our state's most significant assets to drive economic growth. BLM supports making college more affordable and growing the state's talent pipeline by providing additional investment to higher education; and leveraging the innovative strengths of MI's higher education system.

MSU, Wayne State & U-M grads starting businesses at twice national average 

Michigan's URC | May 30, 2013

Michigan's University Research Corridor is proving to be a powerful business incubator for students and alumni, playing a dramatically increased role in nurturing start-up efforts and providing a boost to aspiring entrepreneurs, a new report shows.

Graduates of the three universities that make up the URC - Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University -- have started or acquired businesses at double the national average rate among college graduates since 1996, according to the Embracing Entrepreneurship report by the URC. Read more. . . 

DATA SUPPORTING THE TURNAROUND PLAN

Michigan Ranked 8th Most Competitive State

Site Selection magazine just ranked Michigan as the 8th most competitive state in the nation based on a number of factors including recent job growth, ranking in the annual Site Selection Governor's Cup race for new and expanded facilities and Tax Foundation business tax rankings.  Read more. . .

College Graduates Employment Prospects Brighter

More good news is that college degree holders are continuing to see their employment prospects rebound.  An analysis of 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that jobs requiring a four-year college degree have continued to increase, while those requiring a two-year degree have held constant and those only requiring a high school degree or less have shrunk.  Read more. . . 

Michigan Will Need Population Growth To Accelerate Economic Growth

A study in the Economist shows that, in general, post-recession growth has been a product of population increases large enough to offset falling output per person.  The chart below highlights how much population is driving GDP growth in selected regions.  Michigan's slow population growth will be a challenge to becoming a Top Ten state. Read more. . .

Michigan in 2nd Quartile for Patent Production

Michigan ranks in the second tier of states for patent production - comparable with most of our surrounding Great Lakes states, but behind the top tier states clustered on the east and west coasts according to the latest data from the U.S. Patent Office. Read more. . .

 

Michigan Communities Getting Fiscally Healthier

Bridge Magazine completed an analysis of the relative fiscal health of Michigan's local governments using third party analysis of data local governments send to the state.  Overall 28 communities face worsening fiscal conditions while 100 are stronger than a year ago.  Click on this link to read the full report.  

 

College Educated Continue to Earn More

A report from the U.S. Education Department shows college attainment directly correlates with earnings and employment levels.  Highlights of the report include:

• People with more education make more money, on average, and their employment rates and rates of full-time, full-year work are higher. In 2012, 81 percent of 25- to 64-year-olds with at least a bachelor's degree were employed, compared with 66 percent of people whose highest level of education was a high-school diploma.
• The median earnings of adults ages 25 to 34 whose highest level of education was a high-school diploma were just shy of $30,000 in 2011, while those with an associate degree earned a median of more than $37,000. Those with a bachelor's degree earned a median of nearly $45,000, and those with a master's degree or higher earned a median of close to $60,000.

 Read more. . .

SPOTLIGHT ON BLM MEMBERS

Automotive titan builds city with Habitat

Detroit News | June 5, 2013  

It was 2009, and Dan Akerson, then new to the General Motors Co.'s board, was stuck in traffic trying to get to a meeting. He ventured off the main route and drove into Detroit neighborhoods. He saw homes in desperate need of repair. Houses burned out. Neighborhoods in worse shape than what he saw in East Berlin in 1969.

Those images stuck with him when he became CEO of the automaker in September 2010 and later chairman on Jan. 1, 2011. He knew how important it was for the city of Detroit that GM succeed. And he believes corporate leaders should be involved in their communities and help when able.  Read more. . .

Native Detroiter brings 'buzz' downtown

Detroit News | June 5, 2013 

To Dan Loepp, nurturing Detroit's comeback makes good business sense, but it's also a work of love. The president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been a catalyst for multiple initiatives that have strengthened the city center, from moving thousands of employees to the heart of downtown to enticing employees to live here. "It makes financial sense, but there is no doubt that my longstanding love for the city of Detroit had something to do with it," Loepp says. Read more. . .

Charter One Foundation Leads $210,000 for Detroit's Food Industry

DBusiness.com | May 16, 2013

The Charter One Foundation announced that it is increasing its investment in Charter One Growing Communities program by donating $160,000 to the initiative and again partnering with Eastern Market Corp. The multi-faceted effort will accelerate economic growth and job creation in Michigan by providing grants to entrepreneurs, small businesses and urban farmers involved in Detroit's local food industry. The program will also support nutrition, public health and financial education. Read more. . .

CEOs Advocate for State Issues

ChiefExecutive.net | May 6, 2013 

Patrick Doyle is one of 80 CEOs of Michigan's largest companies-in an unusual, if not unique, group nationwide-in Business Leaders for Michigan, and they're targeting higher education as the most important way for the state to build on the increasing business friendliness of its fiscal policies."Making higher education more affordable again and increasing the percentage of the population with four-year degrees will drive growth," says the 49-year-old Doyle, a MI native whose company employs about 500 people a few miles from the University of Michigan-including nearly 200 in IT.  Read more. . .

IN THE NEWS

Michigan can't let economic momentum slow

Detroit News | May 29, 2013

Four years into Detroit's automotive revival and two-plus years into a fiscal re-engineering in Lansing, the hard work is beginning to pay handsome dividends for Michigan and to buoy the confidence of its business community. Job creation is up and the unemployment rate is down. Business investment in the state is growing, a budget surplus is expanding, and the downward arc of Detroit's financial collapse now is under the unprecedented scrutiny of a Gov. Rick Snyder-appointed emergency manager and his high-priced team of restructuring experts.

Read more. . .

Michigan stocks are (mostly) on a roll

Detroit Free Press | May 18, 2013 

If stock market returns are truly a leading economic indicator, Michigan appears poised for more prosperous times after a long, painful shakeout. With a gain of 50% over the past three years, stock prices of Michigan-based companies have outpaced the Standard & Poor's 500 index (up 35%) by a wide margin., according an analysis produced for the Free Press by David Sowerby, investment portfolio manager for Loomis Sayles.  Read more. . .