Michigan Civil War Blog

Has it really come to this?

Here's a story from one of the Lansing political trade publications (MIRS) that is a real head-shaker.

Despite Deficit, Capitol Not For Sale

Desperate times call for desperate measures, which is why at least four states are trying to sell state buildings to balance their budgets.

But while Arizona is trying to unload two of its Capitol buildings to bridge a multi-billion dollar budget gap, don't look for that to happen in Michigan.

"Never say never in government," said Steve Benkovsky, executive director of Michigan's Capitol Committee, "but of all the buildings the state owns, this would be the hardest to put up for sale."

No one from state government -- including Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) -- seem interested in getting rid of the Capitol or other state buildings, even though Michigan is facing a $2.7 billion deficit for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010.

Arizona's hole is $3.4 billion and it's looking to sell and then lease back buildings for its state House and Senate. Connecticut, Pennsylvania and California also are all weighing building sales, according to ABC News.

"Maybe they haven't been addressing their budgets as long as Michigan has," said Bishop spokesman Matt Marsden. "We've taken a more realistic approach to addressing our budget deficit."

Benkovsky said it would be difficult to assess Michigan's Capitol, which was designed by Elijah Myers and dedicated in 1879, noting its ornate, historic features. For instance, the sandstone and marble quarries used for the floors and façade have long since closed. And the nine acres of decorative painting would probably have to be done by artists from out East. All told, he said the building might be worth $2 billion. The Capitol also underwent a $156 million renovation 20 years ago, Benkovsky added.

Although selling and leasing the building back could provide a cash infusion for up to five years, Benkovsky said, paying rent would mean it would cost the state more in the long run.

"We'd really have to do some studies to see if it was worth it," he said.

The Capitol Committee is composed of four members from the executive branch, four from the House and four from the Senate. The Capitol is under the Legislative Service Bureau's budget.

Granholm spokeswoman Megan Brown said selling the Capitol "hasn't been considered." That was echoed by Marsden.

"The cuts proposed by the Senate and passed earlier this session represent a realistic approach to bringing government spending under control," he said. "Far be it for us to even consider selling buildings the government works in before looking at numerous programs costing the state far too much money in a time of a downturn in revenue."

There are 36 state buildings under the budget of the Department of Management and Budget, said spokeswoman Kassie Kretzschmar.

"We are not considering selling or leasing any buildings," she said. "What we are doing is utilizing space more efficiently and increasing occupancy at all buildings owned and leased."

Selling the House Office Building isn't an option since there are years left on the lease, Benkovsky said. Marsden said the Farnum Building, which is under the Senate's budget, is not being considered for sale either.

Oh my, Ohio!

From our next door neighbors comes a story about severe cuts in Ohio's history program, including impact on the Sesquicentennial. From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, and the opening sentence couldn't have been written more pointedly:

A limping economy already clouds Ohio's future. Now the state's budget crisis is threatening its past.

The Ohio Historical Society, the official repository of the state's recorded history, faces a 42 percent drop in state funding -- from $13.5 million last year to $7.9 million in 2010 -- in the budget signed by Gov. Ted Strickland last week.

The society reported this week that it will trim hours and scale back plans for Civil War sesquicentennial observances. It also will cut pay and reduce to less than half the staff of 400 it had in 2001.

"While we foresaw tough times ahead, we were stunned to receive this magnitude of a cut in state funding," executive director Bill Laidlaw said. "But with challenges come opportunities."

Laidlaw said the organization will make better use of holdings by placing more of its currently warehoused collections on display and creating more small-scale exhibits for local historical societies and libraries.

The society also will accelerate the transfer to local management of most of its 58 state historic sites, which include historic homes and museums, roadside parks and monuments and archaeological sites.

The society's flagship museum in Columbus will open only on Saturdays starting Jan. 1, though schools and other groups can arrange visits by appointment. The archives and library will be open only on Thursdays.

Established in 1885, the society was designated 50 years ago as the state archive by the General Assembly. It preserves the working papers of all three branches of state government and is a magnet for genealogical research. With 2 million objects in a wide-ranging collection, the society is known as "Ohio's Attic."

"We have to protect the collections first. That's why we were founded," Laidlaw said. "We would never sell anything to cover basic operating costs. Never have, never will. If you lose it, it's gone forever."

The society gets the rest of its revenue from government grants and contracts, private contributions and admissions and parking.

Harold Holzer Michigan appearance

It's a ways off, but here's a flyer with info about an interesting lecture he'll do in September hereabouts: View this photo

Rats!

(A favorite expression.) Amazing what you can learn just by having the car radio on during the ride to work. Heard Mr. Smith on WJR this morning do a commercial for a pest extermination company and this caught my ear: they started out by helping the Union Army during the Civil War. Huh?! Requires looking this up, and, sure enough: Rose

Can't recall any other similar pitch during an ad -- even Heinz didn't get started til '69... 

Women of the 2d Michigan Infantry

That's the title of an excellent article in the always-top drawer Michigan History magazine that just came out. Available on newstands everywhere. Go to www.michiganhistory.com and click on "Alias Franklin Thompson" for more info on a certain Sarah Edmonds.

Executive Order on Dep't of History, Arts, Libraries

Following up the State of the State speech in February and the executive budget proposed later that month to deal with Michigan government's budgetary difficulties, the Governor today issued an Executive Order abolishing the Michigan Department of History, Arts & Libraries. It can be found here: EO 2009-36

Press release associated with the announcement is here: MCIR

One-state depression?

Warning: this post is rather long and vituperative.

It originates from hearing one of our more bloviating local public figures on a morning radio show say we're not just in a recession here -- he used the "d" word. Too bad the counsellor didn't use data to back up his opinion. The data are there to show how severely Michigan has taken it on the chin this decade.

As of six months ago, Michigan had lost 737,400 jobs since the June 2000 peak (15.7% drop). Payroll employment had declined in 80 of the last 104 months and for eight consecutive years (the longest on record). Payroll employment was forecasted to drop 4.6% this year, 2% next. Employment was down for eight consecutive months; the loss of 229,400 jobs in that period accounted for 31% of all jobs lost over the last eight years. The loss of more than 168,600 jobs in the previous four months equaled 22.9% of jobs lost since June 2000. So, by 4Q 2010, employment would fall 17% since June 2008, a loss of 779,000 jobs, 197,000 more since 4Q 2008.

That was then. Here's the latest: Michigan could lose 310,700 jobs during 2009 alone, the latest forecast from the University of Michigan-based Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics says, the worst year for job losses in the State since the 1950's. For the 10-year span since mid-2000, UM estimates a total loss of 950,000 jobs, exceeding the number created during the 1990's. The State could hit a jobless rate of 15.8% in 2010 (current rate is 14.1%), a new modern record breaking the 15.6% rate in 1982. That was during the last great recession, and people thought it'd never be as bad. BTW, last year's unemployment rate was 8.4%.

It's estimated that at the last peak some 3 million jobs were tied to the Big Three nationally, the bulk in Michigan. Our Governor says Michigan had seven times as many auto jobs as Ohio and 12 times as many as the rest of the states. Once.

The Governor says Louisiana lost 235,000 jobs after Hurricane Katrina, so Michigan has lost more than three times that much since 2000.

Michigan personal income was forecasted to drop 1.3% this year, the first drop since 1958, the third worst reduction since World War II.

Michigan housing starts were down 88% last year from 2004 in Metro Detroit, 81% statewide.

About 109,000 more people left Michigan last year than moved in, one of the worst rates in the Nation. The State loses a family every 12 minutes. Those leaving are more likely to be young, well-educated, high-income earners, the demographic Michigan desperately needs to rebuild, according to reports.

And then, this. A trade press article (Gongwer), based on a Senate Fiscal Agency report, says the federal government spends $1,200 more per capita nationally than it does in the state, $13.7 billion less in Michigan than it would if it spent the same per person here that it does nationally. The state ranked 45th in federal spending in 2007.

The federal government spent 2.8% of expenditures in Michigan during that year, though the state had 3.3% of the total U.S. population. On a per capita basis, the federal government spent $7,114 per resident in Michigan during 2007 compared to a national per capita average of $8,339. If the feds spent more defense money in Michigan on manufacturing, a lot of this pain would be alleviated, experts say.

Not sure how the ARRA stimulus dollars would affect all this, but an item in the paper over the weekend said if Congress had apportioned transportation dollars based on economic need, rather than the usual formulae, then Michigan would have received billions more.

The "d-word". Some think it means "depression". Apparently it means, despite the economy, "donor".

Civil War Days

It's that time of year again when men dressed in blue (and gray) and women dressed in period attire will invade Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit to reenact the Civil War experience for interested visitors. Great article in today's daily on it: Freep. Hats off to writer Christina Hall for another great piece.

Going there this weekend is well worth the time, and the cost is only $5 for parking (unless you want a tour, which is $3). 

What a day...

When business necessitates a trip to downtown Detroit, the location where this laptop sits is typically a small conference room on the 40th floor of our office near the foot of Woodward. Today, the space available was a large conference room, still perched high above the city on the 40th floor, but with a viewscape much larger than usual. It was amazing.

The wide view was southwest, overlooking the Detroit River as it flows underneath the Ambassador Bridge and makes a turn to the left (south) toward the downriver communities, Grosse Ile, and eventually Lake Erie. The water was a spectacular blue, with small craft plying up and down the waterway leaving a temporary footprint in what was just an amazing azure pathway. The sky was sky blue (surprise) with wisps of bright clouds. In the near ground stood the Riverfront Apartments, followed by the green space where the Detroit Free Press printing plant once hulked, then the few remaining train tracks that not long ago were used as an embarkation point for travel across the river on barges, and then the bridge. Beyond it, around the bend, stood the stacks and other accoutrement of the downriver industrial spaces. A freighter with its rouge red hull was tied up at one of these sites, near to the Rouge River entry to Ford's complex. Another was parked across on the Windsor side. Mid-morning a flotilla of five small craft lined up in formation made their way east, leaving behind five v-shaped wakes. The mail boat joined up with an southbound freighter just west of the bridge and made its delivery before heading back to shore. Traffic climbed the bridge and then descended toward land in each direction.

In the foreground out these windows waved the American flag on the top of the Guardian Building, standing out strong toward the southeast in a regular breeze.

To the north, Comerica Park in its ballfield beauty, marked by the brilliant checkerboard green grass of the infield and outfield and foul ground, attracted attention. Next door, Ford Field's rooftop logo stood out in the sunshine. The view all the way up Woodward toward the Mackinac Bridge and all the way out Grand River Avenue toward Lake Michigan was amazing. Actually, the horizon cut off the eventual ending of these thoroughfares, but it was fun to imagine.

What a great day from 400 feet up.

Civil War stories published

Used to think that every other place talked more about their connections to the Civil War than Michigan. Been disabused of that notion a bit lately, what with several publications having stories about the era in their current issues:

Surviving that "Dismal Hole" in Georgia is an excellent article by historian and writer Roger L. Rosentreter (Andersonville) in the current May/June issue of Michigan History Magazine.

The Chronicle, a quarterly publication of the Historical Society of Michigan, features an article on Zachariah Chandler's role in the 1864 election.

Perhaps the most challenging of these articles is in the Spring 2009 edition of The Michigan Historical Review, Vol. 35, No. 1, under the title Civil War Recruiting and Recruits from Ever-Changing Labor Pools: Midland County, Michigan as a Case Study, by Robert E. Mitchell.

Great to see the triumvirate of Michigan historical publications treating CW subjects.