MI business group announces turnaround plan

By Scott Pohl, WKAR News

LANSING, MI – A new organization calling itself Business Leaders for Michigan has announced a plan to fix Michigan's economy.

The group is made up of the Chief Operating Officers of big employers across the state. Organizers say the southeast Michigan group Detroit Renaissance is integrating with business leaders from other parts of the state.

Among the many proposals in their plan is a call for a reduction of the state work force by 5-10%, and cutting their pay to the average of state workers in other states.

At a Lansing press conference Thursday, Detroit Renaissance President Doug Rothwell says Michigan doesn't have the resources it used to have.

"For many, many years, we were a top ten state in terms of wealth, and we were afforded the luxury of being able to do, really, everything pretty well," he says. "We had great a university system, we had great K-12 funding, we had everything you could imagine. Today, we aren't in a position that we have the money to do all those things anymore."

The plan also reduces the Michigan Business tax and eliminates the personal property tax. No new state programs could be adopted unless others were eliminated, or revenues grow.