“And then, I told them corporate tax cuts create jobs!”
One of the nation’s largest homebuilders, PulteGroup Inc., yesterday announced that they’d be moving their headquarters and over 300 workers from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to Atlanta, Georgia.
Reports indicated that Snyder and other state officials were “surprised” by the decision that came as they attended a weeklong party dedicated to celebrating the state’s supposed economic success under Republican leadership, but their responses amounted to a shrug.
In 2011, Rick Snyder bragged his first year proved he was “getting it right and getting it done,” promising that his tax changes would mean businesses would “invest, create jobs and grow.” After ramming through a divisive, partisan agenda in last year’s lame duck session, he said attacking unions by enacting RTW would help us “remain competitive,” again promising that this would create “more and better jobs in Michigan.”
Yesterday Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel sounded a different tone, whimpering that “we understand business needs change.”
This may as well have been written by PulteGroup PR, whose statement proclaimed that moving over 300 jobs out of Michigan was “a strategy that better fits with the long-term growth trends for our company and industry.”
Really, this whole fiasco is unsurprising. Rick Snyder has never been the fighter that Michigan families need to have on their side in tough economic times. Immediately after taking office, as Michigan’s economy was just starting to turn around, he hammered families, homeowners and seniors with over a billion dollars in new taxes. His “comeback state” slogan was never based in reality for the thousands of families struggling under the weight of stagnant wages and benefits and increasing bills. This was proven again yesterday, when a new report found that nearly 40 percent of certain recent graduates from Michigan’s public universities have moved outside Michigan, saying they sought career opportunities, renewed urban areas and investments in infrastructure.
Where did they go? Over a third left for Illinois, California, and New York. None of those are “right-to-work” states, and oddly enough none of them have ever been touted by Rick Snyder as a model for Michigan. When he talks about competing with other states by attacking workers, making it harder for women to get quality health care and defunding community public schools, he’s really talking about a race to the bottom with states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and his personal favorite Indiana.
Michigan’s middle-class families deserve better than more empty rhetoric from politicians. We’ll be watching Rick Snyder for the remaining days left in his term, and we’ll be working hard to save Michigan.
If I were a large homebuilder and knowing that Michigan has been losing population and southern states gaining population, I would say it is a no brainer to relocate to where population growth is gaining. It is one thing attack the governor, but being realistic is another. Many more changes will be needed to get Michigan moving for real growth to occur.
The way we save Michigan is to get rich people out of Government altogether, their ideas just do not work for working class families or poor families. For they have proven over and over that they only care about Big, Big business and people who look like them. Michigan is not just a White, or Black, or other race, State, Michigan is a people state, all people and our leadership needs to re-flex just that. We need Elected persons who will fight hard for what’s RIGHT and what’s TRUE and most of all fight for every day regular citizens. When is enough, enough?. Peace And Love, With Power To The People. The MellowOne-Jeff. Jeff Lewis {Detroit}.
ricktator has done everything he’s set out to do so far. remember in November to hand him his walking papers.
You idiots haven’t done squat to bring Michigan up out of the dumpster! You should be just as concerned about a company leaving Michigan whether they have 30 employees…300 employees or 3000! Wake up!! Look at where all the college graduates are going! Come out of your big fancy houses and offices and look around you! It’s happening right in front of your eyes!
Please, we need to vote this anti-middle class clown out of office!!