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PRINT PUBLICATION: Saturday, February 26, 2005

LEROY IN WINTER BETTER THAN BORING MEETINGS

Outta the Zone…

*I don’t understand the hoopla. On February 10, the Detroit Free Press ran an expose about the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association, a 75-member trade group "that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year showering legislators with generous campaign contributions, picking up large food and bar tabs," and taking their friends on expensive vacations. The goal of the association is to monitor price setting for Michigan’s alcoholic beverage distributors. Mentioned in the article was former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson of LeRoy, who accepted a trip from the group to the Cayman Islands last February (staying in a $370 dollar per night room and with a total trip cost of $11,213). Johnson was clear in the article that everything was perfectly legal and that he was a guest speaker, noting that he continually met with groups in his Lansing office and that he’d rather be "in LeRoy in the cab of a tractor." I’m with Mr. Johnson on this one. I, too, hate meetings. Who wouldn’t rather be doing farm chores in LeRoy in February rather than attending boring meetings on a tropical island? I’m just happy to know that when I uncork a cold one at the end of a work day, even though it costs a few cents more than in other states, that the money went to good use.

*As long as we’re talking about our leaders in Lansing, you might be interested to note that in 2003 House representatives had the $2,578 annual allotment they received to purchase health care benefits reduced to $188.50, essentially forcing each representative to pay for their benefits out of pocket from their annual $79,650 salary. Well, that cut has since been restored and when the legislature passed a 7.1% increase for itself in 2004. Leaders said that most of that would go toward health care and pension costs. Don’t you wish they’d show that much urgency in solving the health care crisis for the rest of us?

*Speaking of health care, you may not be able to leave home without it if you’re planning to attend college. A number of public universities are now requiring that their students have health insurance before they are admitted. It’s a move meant to protect college hospitals and clinics from being overburdened by caring for uninsured students. Already, colleges like Ohio State, Connecticut, and all ten California universities have started to mandate the coverage. It’s just one more obstacle for those of moderate means who want a better life for their children.

*Meanwhile, back at the legislative ranch, according to State Policy Reports from the Federal Funds Information for States, Michigan is dead last among the 50 states in personal income growth, last in nationwide employment growth, last in the index of economic momentum, and number one when it comes to having the nation’s highest unemployment rate. It appears that we have half of the trickle down theory mastered – the "down" part. The architect of much of this performance, former governor John Engler, is now lives in Washington and is head of the National Association of Manufacturers, so I’ll bet he’s poised to turn on Michigan’s trickle spigot, just as soon as the outsourced spigot parts arrive here from China.

*At least there’s some good news on the national level. You might like to know, Social Security is in better shape today than at any time since it was enacted in 1935. Thanks to a commission set up by Ronald Reagan in 1983, and headed up by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the trust fund has gone from nearly zero to $1.6 trillion. A Congressional Budget Office report says that the system will be able to pay full benefits until 2052 and 80% after that. I guess we owe the patron saint of conservatives, President Reagan, a Hollywood-style round of applause.

*Like most winter sports enthusiasts I pay close attention to the Weather Channel. For the past month the "Weather on the 8’s" local forecast has had half the data and the local radar "temporarily unavailable." At other times the local forecast tells us about the climate in places like Dallas, interesting but not very useful in determining how to dress for a ski day. Apparently, "temporarily" is open to interpretation. I wonder what the interpretation would be if a customer’s monthly cable payment was "temporarily unavailable."

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@yahoo.com . Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews .