FeedsJobs, reform key issues in Senate race
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Dan OstermanDan Osterman has an easy answer for the top three issues facing the state of Michigan: jobs, jobs, jobs.
“It’s what everyone is talking about,” said the Van Buren resident, one of four Republicans running for the senate seat being vacated by a term-limited Bruce Patterson (R-Canton). “The question is, how do we bring them to this state? How do we get ourselves out of this hole?”
Osterman, a 35-year veteran of the auto industry, said he thinks he knows the answer.
He has long been active in politics, but decided to run for this office through his work with the Campaign For Liberty, an organization that developed out of Ron Paul’s failed presidency bid. Since then, he’s worked on informing voters, teaching classes on the U.S. Constitution and on Roberts Rules of Order, along with other subjects.
He said the state needs to eliminate the Michigan Business Tax and let the free market take over.
“It’s pretty dysfunctional in Lansing,” he said. “The main reason is because nobody understands the free market. If you don’t understand the free market, you’ll never get anywhere. You’re not going to have a free market if you throw tax money at a company to get them to come here.”
Osterman said he also wants to eliminate the income tax and reform the way property tax is collected, perhaps making it a one-time sales tax when property is purchased rather than a continual levy. He would also like to see a broad consumption-based tax instead.
“I know these things take time. It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
He said reforms need to take place in the educational system to reduce costs there. Consolidating school districts is one option, privatizing services, another.
That government reform doesn’t take the form of a part-time legislature—not yet, anyway.
“It’s going to take a full-time legislature to get all of this stuff fixed,” he said. “We’re in a crisis.”
He also wants to see government documents, like the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) be put on line.
“I think if you did that, you’d get a lot of ideas out of the general public,” he said. “I think it’d be tremendous.”
Osterman spent 35 years in the auto industry as an engineer and was a small business owner, too. He said that analytical background would help find solutions for the state and the fact that he’s not a career politician weighs in his favor.
“We need good, smart people to do go their civic duty and then go home,” he said.
