Why all the fuss about item pricing?

        The new governor has reopened a can of worms that has been on the shelf, if you'll pardon the pun, since 1970.  The grocery folks never liked it it in the first place when then Attorney General Frank Kelley pushed the law.  It forced them to put a price on each and every item in the store.

        Labor unions were overjoyed because somebody had to do the work.

        And just as winter turns to spring, the A.G. would show up each year with the results of his market basket survey where he told the media that so and so stores were cheating consumers because they refused to follow the law.

       Ole Frank loved it.  Let's just say the local supermarket folks did not when they were caught red handed.

       So for years, the Chamber of Commerce and friends tried to undo what Mr. Kelley had done to no avail.

       Until now.

        Gov. Rick Snyder tossed some red meat to his friends in the business company when he pledged to repeal the item pricing law at a savings, he claims, of some $2 billion.

         One local newspaper reported the story and got thousands of hits on the Internet in opposition to the move.

         David Holtz, whose Progress Michigan liberal leaning group is fighting Mr. Snyder, points to a Consumer's Report suggesting 6% of all sales are rung up with the incorrect price.  In other words, consumers who are scrapping to put bread on the table may have to shell out extra bread to get it.

        But this battle is all but lost.  With 63 GOP votes in the House and 26 in the senate, if the governor can't push this through, he should pack it up and head back to Ann Arbor permanently.

        Holtz concedes, "the math is definitely in favor of passage."

        And to add insult to injury, even Mr. Kelley, turned lobbyist, has flip-flopped and Mr. Consumer advocate is now with his former enemies. He argues technology protects the buyers from mistakes.