Cincinnati-based Kroger said it's hiring 3,000 workers in Michigan for the soon-to-be-acquired stores as well as existing stores. Interviews started Wednesday and will continue for one week at a suburban Detroit distribution facility.

Kroger spokesman Dale Hollandsworth said he doesn't know what will happen to the other Farmer Jack stores but Kroger is anticipating a surge in business across the area.

In fact, to hear them tell it, they're expecting to draw all sorts of Farmer Jack customers from other areas into their updated Kroger stores too.  Of course it's worth remembering that Farmer Jack employees were unionized.  4,800 of them.  So the new employees are likely to make less than they did in the past (those who are rehired) and of course none of them will be in Detroit.

And that didn't make some observers happy.  The FREEP reports:

"Kroger picked up the cherries," Wisconsin-based supermarket analyst David Livingston said. "How many stores were left in the city of Detroit anyhow? Farmer Jack abandoned the city of Detroit a while ago, along with everyone else."

Rosalind Hardemann, a manager at the Dots store in the same strip mall as the Jefferson Avenue Farmer Jack, said Kroger's decision is a letdown.

"I like Kroger a lot better than Farmer Jack, and it's very disappointing that they chose not to help keep the city of Detroit alive," Hardemann said.

I find it interesting, too, the sort of language that's seeped into the common discussion on issues like this.  Words like "abandoned" and phrases like "chose not to help keep the city of Detroit alive" are more loaded than they might appear at first blush.  Both imply an abdication of responsibility and thus, responsibility in the first place, on the part of private business to look after a city when in reality private business exists to turn a profit and nothing more.  That nasty "p" word is the reason the economy works the way it does.

But in a state and a nation whose public discourse has turned decidedly more populist over the last two decades we think a business making business decisions is guilty of inflicting harm or not doing the "right" thing.  

Thankfully, despite the wishes of some of our friends on the left, there are still some in public office (in the Senate anyways) who understand that it is the state's job to create an environment where business can grow and not vice versa.  The Detroit Free Press tells us this morning that development on a swath of land next to the old state fair grounds in Detroit has been green-lit by Michigan's senior legislative body with a series of tax breaks and incentives.

Completion of the project would end years of misfortune and stalled development of the site, formerly owned by the state. Previous plans have included an auto racing track and a new Detroit high school.

Opposition from neighbors and city officials killed the racetrack concept. Other plans foundered amid financing and legal problems.

They're expecting to actually build a higher-end strip mall of sorts on the land complete with restaurants and even a JC Penny.  Unquestionably this is good news for Detroit.  These neighborhoods desperately need the retail... something other than another liquor store.  The idea of retail in that part of the city, and on that property, well... best wishes to the developers.  

And apologies to the tax-and-spenders in the state but doesn't this tell you something?  You attract business and you attract jobs with lower taxes.  Raising taxes will have the opposite effect.  When push comes to shove even elected officials understand this.  The tax breaks passed through the Senate 38-0.  Now what would it take to get them to apply that same logic and common sense to negotiations on the FY08 budget.  

Or even on the final tweaks of the SBT replacement!  The more business leaders look at it the more problems they're finding.  Nothing that can't be ironed out.  No deal breakers, necessarily, but plenty that could have a real negative impact on economic development in Michigan.  Especially with projects like the one we just discussed.  

Completion of that project will require a heck of a lot of building and contracting but according to the Detroit News the new MBT might just run all of the contractors out of the state.

"It's a nightmare," says John Rakolta Jr., chief executive of Walbridge Aldinger Co., the state's second largest general contractor. "If it stays the way it is, all of our current jobs are at risk."

That's because the proposal would levy the 0.8 percent gross receipts tax at every stage of the construction process, instead of on the project as a whole. On most projects, a general contractor subcontracts work out to numerous other companies. Each time work is subcontracted, the 0.8 percent tax would be applied.

Rakolta estimates that for a typical $100 million project his company builds, the total tax would be $1.8 million, instead of $800,000 if it were levied once on the total value. Most other states levy the tax on the entire project instead of on its various pieces.

Others have testified in recent days they could see a 300% tax hike under the new plan and analysts seem to be in agreement that drafters of the legislation didn't necessarily mean to impose such an enormous burden on such an important growth industry.  That's a good thing because they've just plain got to fix it.

Then they can get back to work on the FY08 budget.  And what do you know, the Grand Rapids Press yesterday evening encouraged the governor to distance herself from her friends in organized labor to make some changes we just happened to be encouraging on Right Michigan ourselves.  

The governor has endorsed requiring school districts to pool and competitively bid health insurance, and to haul into line the out-of-whack pension and retiree health care plans for teachers. Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, has introduced legislation to do just that. His bills deserve Ms. Granholm's active support.

In addition, Ms. Granholm says she's ready to reform laws that are barriers to municipal cooperation. One in particular requires cities and townships to pay the highest wage between the two if they want to merge functions. A second costly law mandates binding arbitration with police and firefighter unions.

If a tax hike is enacted absent these changes, the state will temporarily be taken off life support only to face a future crisis.

A MESSA kill, elimination of prevailing wage and a repeal of PA312.  Glad someone else is raising these issues too!