I live in Michigan. Until August 2000 I had lived most of my life in Illinois, with a few years in Ohio and two years in the Air Force. I really see the difference in Michigan. Michigan has been ruined (at least for a while) by the 'successes' of the UAW, which then led to the same in the public sector.

Mr. Golich is a prime example of the problem in Michigan. Faced with the reality of competition and idiot promises made to unions on pay and benefits and future benefits (pensions and health care) in *both* the private and public sectors, he prefers anger to thought.

I teach Public Budgeting, and the number of my students (grad students) who are 'in service' (already working in the private or non-profit sectors) who don't seem to understand that you can't consistently spend more than you take in, or that 'promises' of future benefits can bankrupt a system. Highland Park, Ecorse, Hamtramck, Pontiac, and Flint have all been in the state equivalent of receivership, Detroit probably should be, and at least 45 cities are on the State watch list for budgetary problems (including Ypsilanti, where I teach). Various school systems are currently hitting the delayed wall of pension/healthcare retirement benefits.

The teachers' unions (one of which I belong to, unforunately) make the UAW look like pansies when it comes to bargaining. They're more like the UMW of yore. You'd think they spent their days digging coal by hand and hauling it in buckets to the surface. Personnel costs in most public schools are approaching 80% of revenues. One local district currently has an average of just under $80,000/teacher for salary, benefits, and future benefits.

As near as I can tell, these idiots would prefer $80/hr (including benefits) jobs that don't actually exist to $40/hr jobs that actually pay. They seem to think that there's some mine or something out back that is just full of 100 dollar bills and all management has to do is scoop them up and fork them over.

The anger around here could be cut with a knife. Seething resentment like a five-year-old whose holiday has been cancelled because his mother died. They just don't see the point.

The professors' union (AAUP) at my university just concluded a year without a new contract (went to 'referees' and got just about what the uni had been offering a year ago and more) and are unhappy with 5% raises for the next 3 years (also retroactively) and *minor* changes in their health coverage (which, trust me, is incredibly good) that *may* cost them as much as an additional $50 per month. These are people with PhDs. Some of my friends among them are more rational, but they've given up. All it really takes is about 15-20% loudmouths like Golich to move the union to the 'idiot stance'.

The governor is just unbelievably chicken shit, as we used to say in the AF. Even Mayor Kilpatrick in Detroit has finally taken on the unions. Even the Detroit Public School system board is beginning to see the light. But old time pols and union members are incredibly recalcitrant.

It's enough to make a grown man weep.

Dave Ivers
MPA Program
Eastern Michigan University