speaker-0 (00:00.526)
Hi, welcome to the Facts Matter Podcast. This is Facts from the front porch of Mackinon and Eric Luffer, president of the Citizens Research Council, joining me along with Lauren Gibbons, who covers state policy and state government for Bridge Michigan. Bridgemi.com. I mean, you’re you’re at the top of my favorites. Okay. I’m going totally fanboy eye.
speaker-1 (00:20.886)
Well thank you. We appreciate it and we we work really hard to bring non profit, nonpartisan journalism to Michigan and appreciate the support from you all as well. very such such good information, we use a lot of it in our reporting, so Yes exactly.
speaker-0 (00:40.46)
It’s a mutual admiration system. We’re always thankful to be able to, you know, help you guys put the stories together and have an opportunity for our own outlet, but at the same time help you guys do your work and that’s really important. We want people to know that, to support both of our organizations and everything that they do and a dollar goes a long way on both both our parts. Have you enjoyed the conference?
speaker-1 (00:56.693)
Absolutely.
speaker-1 (01:10.666)
So far so far so good. I am news at all. I’m primarily here for the U.S. Senate debate that’s coming up a little bit later this afternoon and both of my myself and my colleagues Simon Schuster and Jordan Hermony are also on the island. We’ve we’ve been having pretty long days here, so
speaker-0 (01:13.152)
I mean,
speaker-0 (01:32.79)
Are you gonna be fact checking the debate?
speaker-1 (01:34.74)
I will be I will be part of it. so we will have w Simon will be watching the full thing and we will definitely be
speaker-0 (01:43.598)
Because you did a great job on on fact checking the El CIA wealth and some of the other things that that have rolled out.
speaker-1 (01:47.924)
yes.
speaker-1 (01:52.598)
We typically try to bring an element of fact checking to all of our reporting. So with with the US Senate debate we’ll have we’ll have a video component, we’ll have Simon will be watching and then I will be asking one of the questions to kick off one of the five issues they’re hoping to t cover during the forum. So
speaker-0 (02:15.064)
Part of what the discussion up here is like a common good, right? So how do we go through these debates and and this whole process and try to pull Michigan back from the fray and say we need everybody working together and and the idea that you’re an R or a D. most of first you’re a Michigander and we need working for the good of Michigan.
speaker-1 (02:41.026)
You know, I think that is always part of the rub of this conference, right? You have this interest and I think a desire from a lot of these people to bring bring people together.
come to bipartisan solutions, but especially during an election year, there is a lot of friction there. you’ve seen it with some of the candidates as they’ve interacted with each other on the island. And it’s is so so there is certainly a little bit of a disconnect between bringing people together for bipartisan solutions and getting through the election first. But I do think we have seen a lot of really interesting conversations happening, bringing to light some of the issues that are facing the state.
Whether that translates into you know, into a calmer election process, I’m not sure about that, but hopefully hopefully
speaker-0 (03:32.354)
The tone here, at least to me, is so profoundly different than past conferences. And I was telling Eric, I mean, there was, you know, we had green light years, everybody was very optimistic, we were bringing new jobs here, we announced the SOAR fund.
The last couple of years there’s flashing yellow lights that, you know, things there’s some things we need really need to address. This is a flashing red light we’re getting at this conference. Michigan is a failing state and we’re failing faster than anybody else. And there’s a the fact that we’re acknowledging that, do you think this is a an inflection point?
speaker-1 (04:08.214)
Yeah.
You know, I think for for a lot of people who have been following this like yourselves for a long, long time and watching it go from yellow to red, I I think I think it is an opportunity for sure for for both you know candidates running for office and also a lot of the other leaders that are gathered on the island to really think about what it looks like in terms of solutions. You know, is is it adding more investment to some of these issues? Is it coming up with new reform
or learning from what other states have done in some of these arenas. There’s a lot of possible answers, but I do think there is a there is a point in time where people have to start coalescing around some something. And so, you know, maybe maybe that comes after the election, maybe it’s maybe these conversations are building to something even this year. But I I do think there is a lot of interest and desire to get to that.
speaker-0 (05:06.414)
Data centers have been a big issue. are are you hearing any solutions to the things you’re seeing out on the field? any any some of those reforms that we need to take back to
speaker-1 (05:25.038)
I mean I think there’s there’s still a lot of discussion. data centers are so new, especially in Michigan as a concept. a lot of the concerns have arisen just from them cropping up in local areas and not having a ton of oversight in some of these cases.
speaker-0 (05:40.674)
merging AI, the angst over AI and its job disruption with data centers.
speaker-1 (05:46.048)
Absolutely, because one comes with the other in a lot of ways. And so so we’re hearing a lot about the AI regulation, but also about what data centers and what having something that uses that much energy, both from both from electricity and water standpoint. There’s there’s a lot of concern there, but then there’s also on the other side of the coin, people see opportunity for Michigan in terms of investment and economic development. So I don’t know that there’s
necessarily been a coalescing around a particular set of reforms, but that is going to continue to be a hot topic in Michigan for years to come most likely.
speaker-0 (06:27.222)
Anything else on the radar that we we we have talked of course about what happened at your alma mater. Not not a good day yesterday for us this
speaker-1 (06:34.86)
No that that was a little bit surprising to me to see that news come out and I think surprising to a lot of people on this
speaker-0 (06:41.678)
I’m you about that. Why was it surprising? This has been kind of a I mean this has been a monkey throwing stuff, you know, for for a while now.
speaker-1 (06:43.928)
Well I don’t
speaker-1 (06:51.5)
And MSU has had a lot of turnover in recent years and I d you know, I’m not the expert on this subject necessarily, but I do, you know, as a as an alum, I I hope that we start to see some stability in upcoming years.
speaker-0 (07:07.426)
Do you think it’s a need for structural reform how we select those the board?
speaker-1 (07:13.046)
That’s really interesting concept. I I looked at that several years ago back when I was still at Live and and really explored that concept. Michigan is pretty unique in the way that we elect
we elect the Board of Trustees for Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State and and a lot of other states do a more regional approach, you know, where the people who are in the community select them or appointed by governors which we do for the other universities. So there’s options out there. The only thing is if if that is a change that people are serious about making, it’s it’s a pretty significant lift.
speaker-0 (07:49.898)
We happen to have the question of convening a constitutional convention on the ballot this year. So the options are not that far out of reach if that’s something that we want to have.
speaker-1 (07:54.35)
That is true.
speaker-1 (08:01.326)
That is true. I mean I think I usually think in the lens of take it to the voters, but if the voters decide they want to open it up, that is one of the things that could be opened.
speaker-0 (08:11.854)
Lauren Gibbons, thanks so much for being with us on Faxman.
speaker-1 (08:14.574)
Thanks so much, great great being with you and thanks for having me. All right.
speaker-0 (08:18.87)
Much more from the front porch at Mackina here on Facts Matter. Check out all of our podcasts at CRCMish.org or Spotify, Apple, wherever you find your favorite podcast, YouTube. Until next time, for Eric Loufer, I’m Guy Gordon. Take care.
speaker-2 (08:35.69)
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