Schauer, once Democratic leader in Michigan Senate, lost re-election 2010
By David Eggert
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrat Mark Schauer is not officially a candidate for Michigan governor yet, but he sure sounds like one.
The former congressman from Battle Creek told The Associated Press on Monday that he loves his job helping construction trade unions find more work, but that being governor would be an opportunity to “fight for an economy that works for everyone.”
Schauer said his frustration with Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s decisions to cut taxes for businesses and raise them for individuals, combined with recent support from fellow Democrats, have him taking a hard look at running in 2014.
A recent memorandum prepared for the Democratic Governors Association cited Schauer as a strong candidate to take on Snyder in 2014. Other potential Democratic candidates, including former U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak and state Board of Education president John Austin, began endorsing Schauer last week, making his gubernatorial bid all the more likely.
In what is sure to be a major issue in the gubernatorial race, Schauer said Snyder’s tax policies took money out of a consumer-driven state economy where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average.
“What has become abundantly clear to me and many in this state is that Rick Snyder has chosen a path,” he said in his first interview since he began seriously considering a run. “It’s a path that believes you build a strong economy by giving big tax cuts to corporations and wealthy special interests while cutting funding for schools and universities while raising taxes on the middle class and retirees, on the working poor. It’s a flawed economy policy that is not working for everyone.”
Snyder signed sweeping tax changes in 2011. To offset a $1.6 billion business tax cut, he and GOP lawmakers approved a $1.4 billion increase on individuals — including making fewer homeowners eligible for a tax credit, ending a deduction for children, requiring more people to pay taxes on their pension income and reducing a refundable credit for low-income workers.
Snyder has defended his tax overhaul, saying a “right-sizing” of business and personal taxes was overdue when he took office and the tax system is simpler, fairer, more efficient and structurally better for the state budget.
“The Snyder philosophy is sort of this classic conservative supply-side trickle-down economy that has never worked,” Schauer said. “At the federal level, under Reagan and the first Bush, it drove up budget deficits. We know in Michigan we have to balance the budget, so to pay for it they took a billion dollars out of funding for our schools and cut funding for higher education.”
A message seeking comment about Schauer’s comments was left Monday with a spokeswoman for Snyder, who has not yet launched a re-election campaign but is expected to do so.
Before winning a seat in Congress in 2008, Schauer was Democratic leader in the Michigan Senate. He lost re-election in 2010 and now works as a business development representative for the Michigan Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust.
