August 2013  

Common Core Helps Prepare Our Children to Succeed                   

The Legislature is currently holding hearings on whether or not Michigan should continue implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for our K12 public schools. In our view, the answer is a resounding yes. 

Consider this: In Michigan today, only 68% of third graders are reading at proficiency; only 76% of our students graduate from high school and, of those who graduate, about only 20% are ready for a career or college. We must do better if our children are to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy that rewards those with more knowledge, more skill, and who are more innovative.  

Read more. . .

Mark Your Calendar! 

Business Leaders Forecast: Michigan Will Continue To Grow Faster Than U.S. Over Next 18 Months

Over half of state's largest employers will be adding jobs in MI

Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), the state's business roundtable, continues to forecast that Michigan's economy will grow faster than the U.S. economy over the next six to eighteen months. The forecast is reinforced by 52 percent of BLM members planning to increase hiring in Michigan in just the next six months. "Michigan's business leaders continue believe Michigan will out-perform the national economy over the next year and a half," said Doug Rothwell, President & CEO.  Read more. . .

BLM Supports Exploring the Consolidation of School Functions to the ISD Level

Business Leaders for Michigan developed the Michigan Turnaround Plan, a six-step comprehensive, holistic strategy to make Michigan a Top Ten state for job, economic and personal income growth.  One of the steps calls for providing effective, efficient government services, and a key recommendation under this step is to accelerate the consolidation of school functions where appropriate and the sharing of school services to direct more resources to student learning. Intuitively, it seems unnecessarily duplicative that 550 school districts should house separate information technology, accounting, and other administrative functions. The concept of consolidating these functions at the county level should be given a full review to determine if it will provide greater efficiency and savings. 

Click here to read our letter to the legislature. 

Detroit Looks to a New Beginning

The Governor recently approved the Detroit Emergency Manager's request to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection. While this is nothing to celebrate, it represents another major step in rebuilding our largest city. Detroit is experiencing a level of foundation support, private investment and influx of population not seen in the last thirty years. In our view, bankruptcy offers Detroit the opportunity to fix its balance sheet in order to start delivering the services needed to sustain and accelerate this momentum.

Here are a variety of resources to give you a fuller understanding of the issue:

• Governor Snyder's video on his decision
• Governor Snyder's news release announcing his decision
• The Emergency Manager's recommendation letter to the Governor
• Next steps in the process
• A video on what happens in Chapter 9 
• Opinion column from Doug Rothwell, President & CEO, Business Leaders for Michigan

Our view: Michigan's geographic location is one of our state's six most significant assets to drive economic growth. Passenger hub airports have the ability to become major business centers and air cargo is projected to experience significant growth. BLM supports policies, infrastructure and programs that leverage our geographic location to become a Gateway to the Midwest.

Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corporation Announces CEO, New Name & Marketing Plan

The Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corporation (ADC) announced it has hired a CEO, has completed a strategic marketing and organizational plan, and is rebranding itself as VantagePort.

Verna McDaniel, Washtenaw County Administrator and Interim ADC Chair, said "It took us longer than we had hoped but we're pleased to have a highly qualified CEO dedicated to leading our efforts. We conducted a public search, received over 60 applications and after a complete review, we are confident that Tim Keyes is the best candidate to accomplish what we want done.  Tim is very familiar with the Aerotropolis as he has been engaged to some degree with our work from the beginning, which will enable him to jumpstart the initiative and re-energize our efforts." Read more. . . 

CNBC Best States for Business: MI #29

The latest national business climate ranking is from CNBC which puts Michigan at #29 overall, up from #33 last year.  Michigan was rated highly (#12) for technology and innovation density and lowest (#33) for cost of doing business.  Read more. . .

Total Effective Business Tax Rate: Michigan Among Ten Best

A new study by Ernst & Young and sponsored by the Council on State Taxation shows that Michigan's total effective tax rate on business (including state and local taxes) is among the ten lowest in the nation.  Another finding of the study shows that Michigan businesses receive over a 3 to 1 rate of return on their taxes when considering the degree to which business uses public services, such as transportation, health care, the courts and public safety.  Read more. . . 

 

State Rainy Day Fund Balance: Michigan Ranks #11

  

Federal R&D as % of State GSP: Michigan Ranks #13

The National Science Foundation tracks Federal R&D expenditures and ranks Michigan as the 13th top state receiving these funds when adjusted for the size of a state's Gross State Product.   Read more. . . 

First Detroit Meijer store: Fred would have been 'thrilled', say his three sons

MLive.com | July 25, 2013

The late Fred Meijer was on the minds of his three sons as they celebrated the opening of the retailer's first Detroit store. "This would have been his crowning achievement," said Doug Meijer, who is co-chairman with his older brother, Hank, of the Walker-based retailer that operates 203 supercenter stores across the Midwest. "He would have been so thrilled to be walking around here. He would have loved it." Read more. . .

Why Detroit's Bankruptcy isn't Scaring Away West Michigan Businesses

MLIVE | July 29, 2013

Retailer Meijer Inc. celebrated the opening of its first Detroit store last week as the city made its debut in bankruptcy court to begin the process of clearing billions of dollars of debt.  Although bankruptcy is expected to take years and make it harder for the state's biggest city to borrow money, the move isn't scaring away West Michigan companies. 

Meijer's $20 million investment is the most recent show of support from the other side of the state.  Just eight miles from the new Meijer store, down Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, another Grand Rapids business quietly opened its first location within the city limits this month.   Read more. . . 

There's No Formula for Fixing Detroit, and That's a Good Thing

GRBJ.com | July 24, 2013

The news of Detroit's bankruptcy has brought countless explanations of what went wrong, some of them pretty interesting. But the main point of a bankruptcy - especially this bankruptcy, which has been looming for decades - is to get a fresh start. Read more. . . 

Don't Let Bankruptcy Fool You, Detroit's Not Dead

Richard Florida | July 22, 2013

On Thursday, the city of Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Cue the panic. The media, internet, and social media exploded with predictable stories of the city's imminent demise. There's the shrinking population, which dwindled from a peak of nearly 2 million to 700,000 in 2012. Over and over again, we heard the long list of other woes - mass joblessness, the sky-high murder rate, street lights that don't work, unthinkably long waits for police and emergency services, huge numbers of vacant buildings, and neighborhoods that are all but abandoned.  Read more. . .  

Why the furniture industry is still important to West Michigan

GRBJ.com | July 26, 2013

Although NeoCon 2013 is over, the really difficult work is just beginning. Now the challenge is to improve, modify, tweak and refine what was shown to more than 40,000 people over three days and turn it into products that the working, learning, healing and leisure industry buyers and specifiers want to purchase.

If you have lived in West Michigan for more than a decade, you already know the furniture industry is part of our social, cultural, economic and perhaps political DNA. For three-quarters of a century, the production of furniture made from locally processed hardwoods, leather, milled fabrics and hardware made in West Michigan made us the "capital" of furniture manufacturing. Names like Baker, Berkey, Bergsma, Forslund, Kindel, Sligh and Witticomb were just a sampling of brands that exemplified "the best money could buy." Read more. . .