The entire Michigan Future staff is going to start sharing this blog with me. The plan is to have a new blog Tuesday through Friday. Joining me in blogging will be our policy associates: Patrick Cooney, Sarah Szurpicki and Kim Trent.
We will be writing about our new state policy agenda project: Raising Michiganders Living Standards. The four of us are staff to the Michigan Future Board in developing the first ever Michigan Future policy agenda.
The agenda is designed to recommend what state actions matters most in improving living standards for all Michiganders. Something we have been struggling with since the turn of the century.
Michigan’s per capita income has fallen from two percent below the national average in 2000 to eleven percent below in 2015. That despite a booming domestic auto industry. This recovery is the first time ever that Michigan has been a low-prosperity state while the domestic auto industry has been doing well.
A rising tide no longer is raising all––or even most–-boats. The Michigan Association of United Ways has found that 40 percent of Michigan household are unable to afford the basic necessities: housing, child care, food, health care, and transportation.
This blog will lay out our ideas on (1) what the goal of state economic policy should be; (2) the new realities that state policy cannot change and that we need to align with rather than resist; (3) which levers available to state policy makers are the most powerful in improving economic outcomes for all Michiganders; and (4) with each lever what are the specific actions we recommend.
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