It is unfair to expect Flint’s current residents to bear the full brunt of the city’s legacy costs, which were incurred when the city’s population was twice its current level, Mayor Dayne Walling said. When Patty Tokar’s husband, Steve, retired from Flint’s sewer department in 1996, the couple figured they wouldn’t collect a large pension, […]
Pat Shellenbarger
Pat Shellenbarger is a freelance writer based in West Michigan. He previously was a reporter and editor at the Detroit News, the St. Petersburg Times and the Grand Rapids Press.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Retirees sweat as courts weigh cuts to pension and health care
It’s a battle cry that began in Detroit and is spreading to other Michigan cities: “Don’t touch my pension.” To that, many of the state’s retired municipal employees are adding another caveat: “And leave my medical insurance alone, too.” With Detroit in bankruptcy court, employees and retirees of other Michigan local governments are watching warily, […]
Posted inMichigan Government
The Tea Party’s tepid relations with Michigan business groups
As the Tea Party has gained political profile and headlines, it has crossed swords with business groups that would seem to be natural allies in the push for conservative policies. “Long before the Tea Party, the business community was the voice of fiscal responsibility and limited, rational government, and the business community will still be […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Tea Party teamwork: money and foot soldiers
Scott Hagerstrom, executive director of the Americans for Prosperity Michigan chapter, addresses a group of Tea Party members at a recent meeting in the state capitol. The room was reserved by State Senator Patrick Colbeck, a Tea Party favorite. (Bridge photo by Pat Shellenbarger) A Tea Party member had a question for the moderator of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan’s Tea Party battles for GOP's soul
It’s the second Saturday of August, as a group of political newcomers gathers in a classroom of a Baptist school near Lansing. They are plotting a political coup. Among their many goals, they want to dump Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Calley and replace him with one of their own. They’d like to repeal or at […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Kitchen table politics: Tea Party leverages social media to advance causes
Joan Fabiano, founder of Grassroots in Michigan, at her home computer. “I wanted to show that an ordinary person doesn’t need to have an organization in order to change public policy,” she said. (Bridge photo by Pat Shellenbarger) From a corner of her dining room, Joan Fabiano directs a Tea Party group she founded called […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Shifting middle-class fortunes transform Michigan’s ‘cottage on the lake’ lifestyle
NEW POINTS OF CALL: Michigan’s manufacturing shift has helped spawn a change in the vacation business in the state, too. (Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) Richard and Patricia Dolland spent countless warm summer days and cold winter nights in their rustic cottage in Northern Michigan. Every few weeks, they’d drive three hours north from their Macomb County […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
As Michigan families redefine vacations, tourism industry turns to out-of-staters
FILLING UP: Michigan’s swimming pool industry says business is picking up in the wake of the Great Recession, as families choose more backyard vacations over journeys Up North and elsewhere. (Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) Earlier this year, John and Katy Wustman talked about buying a little place Up North to spend their vacations. “It was a […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Moving from ‘we had money’ to ‘they want money I don’t have’
GREENVILLE – The line began forming an hour before the food truck arrived, starting in the parking lot next to the barren acreage where once stood the nation’s largest refrigerator factory and winding around the front of the former UAW hall. Men and women, some with children, held empty boxes and laundry baskets they soon […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
So you think you are a member of the middle class?
Charles Ballard, a Michigan State University economist, says everyone likes to think they are middle class in America to avoid the negative connotations of the extremes of wealth (greed) and poverty (sloth). (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) Marketers aim for its money, politicians insist they are looking out for its best interests, and the […]
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