Idea of the Week

2/5/10: Bring Back Trade Education to Our State - Whatever happened to all those skilled trade programs in the state sponsored through the local high schools? There are some remaining, but we need many more...Everyone in this state should be capable of a college degree or a good, well-paying trade. Let's bring back trade education and make all parents and this state proud.

1/29/10: Support Migration to Rural Areas -  The "new economy" visionaries say people will no longer follow jobs to where they want to live, instead they will determine where they want to live and then find a way to make a living there. This will create more pressures for people to commute via technology and to access convenient and affordable air service. In other words, people will choose to live in choice areas like Petoskey, Charlevoix, and Traverse City, but may work for companies in New Jersey, LA, or St. Louis. The great idea I submit is to find a way to get rural commercial air service to be competitively priced and more convenient. The second part of this idea is to make sure we invest in the technology and communications infrastructures of rural areas. If we are to attract young people to the most attractive areas of the state, these areas need to have the necessary broadband and wireless infrastructures to meet their technology needs.

1/22/10: Spend Less on Government "Consumables" - The state needs to be more competitive and buy better - more along the lines of what companies spend. Why does a government pencil cost more than a manufacturer's pencil, or a retailer's pencil? Why does the government pay more for common expenses all organizations have? Bringing in outside experts to review these items and only get paid if they could actually deliver savings is a "no brainer. I'm certain utilizing these services would save the state millions in expenses, increase efficiencies, and actually decrease the administrative workload simultaneously.

1/15/10: Promote New Business Start-Ups - Give a five-year tax break to ANYONE starting or moving a business to Michigan and hiring Michigan workers. 

1/08/10: Four Day School Week - Encourage Michigan school districts to move to a four-day school week for students, with longer hours each day. This would be more economical for school districts, and allow staff to use the 5th day for professional development once each month. There are districts in the state that have already moved to this schedule and support this savings idea.

12/11/09: Olympic Winter Sports Training Complex - Michigan offers a unique climate that thrills winter sports lovers for up to nine months out of the year. While we don't have the mountainous geography preferred for skiing or boarding, why don't we capitalize on the long winter by creating an Olympic Winter Sports Training Complex? This complex could include courses for bobsled, luge, and skeleton, cross-country skiing, Olympic-sized ski jumps, speed skating and figure skating rinks, and curling lots. Lake Placid, NY, is a popular destination for Olympic skiers, why not make Upper Michigan a popular destination for other trainers and trainees? A state-of-the-art complex would boost the economy and increase tourism, especially if it also included a low-key resort for visitors and living quarters for Olympic families.

12/04/09: Use Michigan's Local Economic Clubs to Assist the State - We have many local economic clubs in the state. Each club is locally organized, funded and managed. There are many thousands of members that meet weekly or monthly to discuss economic issues that effect our state. If we could "informally connect" these clubs, they could share resources and make each club more efficient...Club members represent a good cross-section of the state's economic base and by combining these resources, it would increase their effectiveness in presenting Michigan's vision of the future.

11/27/09: Make Our Growing Prisons Self-Sustaining - Our prisons are full and we need more room. They operate at a loss and are a tax burden on the state. With the large population of able-bodied prisoners, why can't they operate at break-even or at a profit? It's time to move beyond license plates and combing teaching these prisoners a real useable skill or skills they can enjoy and use when they are released. While incarcerated, they can use them to earn their way and make the prison system self-sustaining. This won't happen overnight, but if a committee of business-oriented individuals was put in charge and given that mission, I believe it is achievable.

11/20/09: Factory Built Roads - What if roads could be made stronger and cheaper, and best of all, the ground underneath never froze? That could eliminate seasonal restrictions on roads that would last for years...Honeycomb-core composite panels are used everywhere. The current method to make them would not work for road-building, but that could be changed with a simple, but dramatic change in methodology.

11/13/09: Sell Products with the Pure Michigan Logo at Michigan Welcome Centers - I work at a Michigan welcome center in the Upper Peninsula. 182,000  tourists were recorded going through the center last year. Hardly a day goes by that a tourist doesn't ask, "Where can I get one of those Pure Michigan T-shirts you're wearing?" Amazingly, you can't buy them anywhere.  Why not sell products with the logo and use a portion of the profits to boost tourism?

11/6/09: Cap the Lottery Winnings Per Person at $1 Million and Let 300 People or More Win - Imagine a $365 million Michigan lottery prize split up among 300 winners, $1 million a piece. With a program that caps the lottery at $1 million a winner but spreads the winnings to as many winners as their are millions, the lottery will grow exponentially. With so many lottery winners willing to help their families and friends or invest their winnings in Michigan business, our entire state will benefit on many levels.

10/30/09: Reduce Government - We know we have been losing population in Michigan every year at least since the mid-1970s. Like any business that has been losing clients on a sustained basis, cuts should be required to reflect these losses. One nagging question is why do we have so many township governments? These added governmental layers appear completely redundant. Jacksonville, FL, the largest county in the country, manages very well without these township governments. They have to go.

10/23/09: Make Michigan the Entrepreneurial Capital of America - we need to train the young minds and older minds alike to think and act more creatively. The best way to do that is through entrepreneurship education. We need to train young minds to create a job, not just take a job. Where can we get that education that will create the necessary mindset? The Generation E Institute, a nonprofit headquartered in Battle Creek is the best organization in the state and better than similar organizations at the national level. The GenEI is in multiple counties in Michigan and other states and has trained over 100 educators with the best curricula for middle and high schools in the nation. You can see this valuable asset to Michigan at www.genei.org. It has a proven track record, it works and it can change Michigan.

10/16/09: Why not an Indoor Theme Park? - Michigan has the most clean lake water in the world - we just need to put it to use in new ways, one way I can think to do that is an indoor theme park. With our cold weather that we have -sometimes about 9 months of the year- I believe our state would definitely get a boost from investing in a indoor theme park.

10/9/09: Turn a Section of Detroit into a Military Training Base - The military personnel brought in to train there would give a shot in the arm to the Detroit economy. The city could be geographically right-sized for its current population. Troops would get a excellent, realistic base to simulate combat training in an urban environment. It would be a win-win.

10/2/09: Lease Highway Rest Stops to Fast Food Restaurants - Currently, the State maintains rest stops on our highways at the expense of the tax payer. As a frequent traveler, I appreciate this greatly. However, I believe we should lease these areas, for a fee, to fast food restaurants that cater to travelers. Not only would the State no longer have to fund the rest stops and their maintenance, but would in fact earn money from the restaurants and, at the same time, begin to offer a better service to travelers than the current vending machines.

Ideas of the Week are chosen based on innovation and not necessarily included in the final report.