Some years ago Ron Dzwonkowski visited Niles.
Jan Griffey and I had lunch with him at Pete’s Patio.
I heard him speak in college when he reported for The Associated Press, but by the time we actually met he was at the Detroit Free Press, where he is an associate editor.
So it was with great interest I read his Jan. 17 column about the “do-over” benefit rewriting our state constitution could give Michigan as it painfully plods its put-off, post-auto path.
It’s hard to believe there’s $1.7 billion left to cut, but that’s the estimated budget crater.
While Michigan needs broad reform, it can easier expect “patchwork and posturing”  in an election year, Ron knows.
This should be a watershed election when term limits replace the governor – Republicans in particular seem to possess several strong candidates – Senate majority leader, House speaker, attorney general, Secretary of State, 38 senators and more than 70 percent of the state House of Representatives.
“All the more reason for citizens to get their state started down that revolutionary road by passing a proposal that will be on the November ballot to convene a convention to write a new Michigan Constitution. Come 2011, I can see parallel tracks – a new governor and legislators dealing with the crisis du jour in Lansing while a convention of elected representatives develops a framework for that ‘next Michigan’ promised us years ago. It’s never going to get here with a ‘this Michigan’ structure,” Dzwonkowski writes.
Michigan’s constitution was adopted in 1963 for a state “ruled by big businesses, big unions, big government.”
It’s a big document.
It covers some 60 pages in the Michigan Manual and has been amended some 30 times.
It’s much longer – 39 sections alone bogged down in finance and taxation details – and more specific than our U.S. Constitution, the gold standard for an enduring, nimble document by which democracy can flourish even as times change.
Ron asks us to imagine ourselves as an entrepreneur with a hot new product and a solid business plan, looking for a place to set up shop.
“I wonder whether said entrepreneur could grasp the Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment. I wonder, for that matter, how many of the 1.45 million people who voted for it in 1978 can, if they’re still around, explain it, much less say if it still belongs,” Dzwonkowski writes.
A new constitution, of course, could limit that new Legislature to part-time mischief-making and require it to not only balance the state budget before the 12th hour, but in a time frame when it wouldn’t play havoc with local governments or schools waiting with bated breath to see what dust settles, burying them.
“As this election year heats up,” he writes, “you will surely hear much from entrenched special interests about the expense and danger of writing a new state constitution. Just remember that they are entrenched in things as they are. How’s that working for you?”
There’s a built-in safeguard to this process: Whatever the ConCon does voters must approve.
Here’s the part that really strikes a promising chord with those of us who are past tired of hearing our home state trashed as a national punchline and would like a new image for Michigan that doesn’t involve promoting it as the “North Coast.”
“This process doesn’t have to cost much. The Internet can eliminate the need for a long-term mass gathering of delegates. I can see a largely Web-based process, including public hearings, right up until the document has to be voted on.
“And since no state has done this in more than 20 years, I also see Michigan getting a lot of attention for taking it on, especially if it’s done high-tech.
“If I was that entrepreneur, I’d take notice of a place that does seem to be serious about both laying out its core values and changing with the times. I’d say that’s a place that’s not afraid to face the future,” Ron concludes.
Speaking of taxation, Dowagiac Rotary Club’s Jan. 7 Fair Tax program by John Gisler of Scotts is being widely circulated across Alabama, thanks to Dowagiac native Helen Hunter Mosley.