Local support for WKAR’s By the People: Hard Times, Hard Choices project is provided by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
By the People: Hard Times, Hard Choices 9p Monday January 18 WKAR-HD and WKAR-23 8p Wednesday January 20 on WKAR World A special MacNeil/Lehrer Productions report on a unique gathering of citizens from across Michigan who gathered in Lansing to deliberate about the state's economic crisis. The citizens came to listen and they came to be heard.
By the People: Hard Times, Hard Choices
Every state in the Union is going through economic belt tightening and budget cutbacks as the nation’s Great Recession stretches into 2010. One state hurting the most is Michigan, home to declining auto industry with its devastated manufacturing base. While Michigan’s problems are not unique, they are different in degree.
By the People’sHard Times, Hard Choices is a 56 minute documentary report that gives voice to the citizens of Michigan who all too often have been overshadowed by a public discussion dominated by politicians, policymakers and pundits. This By the People documentary gives public broadcasting the opportunity to share with their viewers a civic dialogue that crosses all racial, economic and demographic lines.
More than 300 people, 317 to be exact, traveled to Lansing for a weekend last November to discuss and debate the state’s problems and what to do about them. The participants were a statistical microcosm of the state in age, education, employment (and unemployment) and political persuasion. Participating in a Deliberative Poll, upon arrival, the participants filled out a questionnaire to determine what preconceived notions and opinions each held on a wide variety of issues directly related to Michigan’s problems and possible solutions.
Over three days and two nights, the participants debated the issues in small groups and in large conferences in which panels of experts, with often opposing viewpoints, fielded their questions and provided their insights. The topics included tax policy, funding for education (particularly middle school, in which the state lags behind), reviewing prison sentencing and incarceration rates to reduce the fiscal burden, reforming the health care system for state employees, transportation, the “brain drain,” the consequences of term limits on the legislature, public assistance, and the best ways to redesign the state’s economy away from its reliance on automotive and manufacturing and a toward high-tech, ecologically friendly economy.
On the final day, the participants were polled again, and the results showed a dramatic swing in attitudes and opinions in several major areas:
Respondents were much more willing to support increases in the state income tax and sales tax to eliminate cuts in education and some other social services.
Respondents were persuaded that cutting both the Michigan Business Tax and reducing small business taxes were among the best ways to attract and keep businesses, thereby creating jobs.
Support for increased investment in a “green economy”, agriculture, and tourism also went up significantly during the weekend, as did support for a high-tech, knowledge-based economy.
National issues such as aid to education, immigration and transforming the economy to meet the 21st Century challenges were also featured in the documentary.
The topic is Michigan, the civic dialogue rings familiar to citizens in any state working through the Great Recession.
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A special MacNeil/Lehrer Productions report on a unique gathering of citizens from across Michigan who gathered in Lansing to deliberate about the state's economic crisis. The citizens came to listen and they came to be heard.
