(Originally published July 28, 2011) Whatever you think of Detroit, it is hard to imagine Michigan thriving if our largest city isn’t on some kind of road to prosperity. And plenty of folks, both business-oriented (think DTE Energy, Business Leaders for Michigan) and philanthropic (think the Kresge, Skillman and Hudson-Webber Foundations) are committed to and […]
Phil Power
Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and former chairman of the Center for Michigan which publishes Bridge Michigan and BridgeDetroit.
Posted inPhil's Column
Parties play to extremes; voters left stranded
(Originally published July 20, 2011) The coverage of Betty Ford’s funeral last week pushed my thoughts back to the mid-1960s, when I ran the Capitol Hill congressional office of Rep. Paul Todd, Jr., D-Kalamazoo. Those were days when Rep. Gerry Ford, R-Grand Rapids, was on his way up in a career that would ultimately take […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Get cracking on Metro Detroit freight hub
(Originally published July 13, 2011) This may sound too good to be true, but it is true: Michigan could easily transform itself into a global freight gateway that could create more than 200,000 jobs and add billions in economic activity. And this could all happen within the next decade. If we play our cards […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Taxing pensions is an explosive move aimed at fairness
(Originally published February 24, 2011) There’s no doubt that the biggest and most controversial idea in Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed state budget is the one calling for the state to tax income from both public and private pensions. As thing now stand, pensions for retired Michigan public employees – teachers, police and other government employees […]
Posted inSuccess
A new effort to 'Bridge' Michigan's gaps
An informed public is the iron core of our democratic system. But these days the iron is getting a bit rusty. The old media that served the country well for decades – national network TV news shows like Walter Cronkite’s and daily and weekly newspapers – are sadly in decline. When I started in the […]