The governor finally caved on his demand for an across the
board tax on all pensions and by rying uncle, he has demonstrated he is
willing to compromise and on that front he should take a bow.
When he proposed a tax on public and private pensions last
February, he bravely put up a good front and argued it was the "right
thing to do." Only problem was, from the opening salvo, this thing was
DOA as senate Republicans quickly and decisively dumped all over the
tax.
The governor took his time tossing in the towel but in the
end,
he proved he could count and he could not get to 20 votes in the
Senate, so instead, he agreed to revise his program and now the
modified pension tax has a better chance of seeing the light of day.
He also proved that he was willing to compromise which is not
a
dirty word. He, of course, said nothing about caving in, choosing
instead to to say his original plan was a "starting point for
discussion" implying that he knew he would have to alter the plan all
along.
Give some credit to the Senate GOP leader Randy Richardville
who leveled with the governor when he needed to be leveled with.
Richardville is an old hand at writing a compromise and Mr. Snyder saw
the handwriting on the wall that he was getting no where fast.
In this case, he discovered that just because he thought he
was
right, that did not mean that everyone would agree with him and that's
a good lesson to learn as he seeks to mold other "deals" on other
issues down the road.
Being right is one thing, but knowing when to chuck that
attitude is a more important trait to own and the new governor has
shown, he gets it.