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20100215-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 2/12/2010 6:11 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 26, No. 7 FEBRUARY 15 – 21, 2010 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2010 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Page 3 Health of VEBA in question Filings:UAW health plan’s assets may fall short Retirees could lose BY JAY GREENE Motors Co. and Chrysler Group L.L.C. future, retirees could be left without Goodwill creates CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS And because of uncertainty over paid health care services, and hos- services, and the plan’s assets, the UAW is ex- pitals and physicians in Michigan recycling subsidiary Without much fanfare on Jan. 1, pected to make benefit plan could be left with unpaid bills. providers could be left the United Auto Worker’s health plan changes and negotiate lower rates When the UAW’s plan, also for retirees — called the UAW Re- with contracted health plans and known as a Voluntary Employee Ben- with unpaid bills. tiree Medical Benefits Trust — insurers this year. eficiary Association Talk of sale heats up battle , received feder- funding schedule. opened its doors. The changes would be for con- al court approval in 2008, Detroit 3 However, the auto companies over border bridges How long it remains in opera- tracts starting in 2011 and 2012, ac- automakers were supposed to con- and the UAW have since agreed to tion is a question, however. cording to interviews with several tribute about $57 billion. replace some cash contributions Federal filings indicate the contracted health insurers and in- That contribution would have with common stock, lowering the Inside UAW may not have enough assets dustry sources. given the VEBA a life expectancy current assets and expected cash in the plan to cover the last living If the UAW’s retiree benefits plan of 80 years, according to UAW’s Challenges unite Crain’s retiree at Ford Motor Co., General becomes insolvent sometime in the original February 2008 VEBA See VEBA, Page 28 Newsmakers Bing, Bobb, Page 4 Second Stage Extra Granholm tax plan Growing companies need to draws fire from biz slice up the management pie, Deeper spending cuts called for Page 15 BY AMY LANE Business Tax surcharge and re- CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT ducing the gross receipts tax in the MBT’s base — incorporates provi- Crain’s List LANSING – Gov. Jennifer sions similar to those recently pro- DUSTIN WALSH/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Granholm says she’s hoping to posed by statewide CEO group Southfield-based psychotherapist and attorney Terry Shulman — shown here help business with her tax restruc- Business Leaders for Michigan. at The Print Gallery in Southfield — has self-published books on compulsive Leading small-business turing plan, but so far her proposal But last week, even backers of spending, shoplifting and employee theft. seems to satisfy no- that proposal lenders, Page 20 body in the busi- weren’t endors- ness community. Any tax ing Granholm’s Reaction to “ tax plan. Budding authors find This Just In Granholm’s plan to restructuring In a statement, extend Michigan’s Business Lead- MCC wins grant of nearly sales tax to con- proposal should be ers said “any tax sumer services and restructuring publishing a DIY project $5M for worker retraining pair it with Michi- revenue neutral, proposal should Macomb Community College gan Business Tax be revenue neu- received a grant of nearly relief ranged from and we don’t believe tral, and we ‘15% writing, 85% marketing’ $5 million from the U.S. De- opposition to the don’t believe the and Recovery partment of Labor on Friday services tax and the governor’s governor’s pro- BY ELIZABETH VOSS . His other two for program development what would be a posal goes far SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS books on employee theft and $554 million overall proposal goes far enough, fast compulsive spending have each and worker retraining at the His three self-published books tax increase in the enough to make sold 1,000 copies. Within nine college’s Center of Expertise help establish Terry Shulman, coming year, to enough. us competitive.” months of publishing his first in Defense. 44, a Southfield psychotherapist criticism that tax ” Business book, he was The three-year, $4.97 mil- and part-time attorney, as an ex- relief and cost-cut- Business Leaders for Michigan Leaders and on “The Oprah lion grant is part of a pack- pert on theft and spending addic- ting budget reforms some others also Winfrey age of $226 million in Recov- tions, he says. don’t go far enough, to skepticism said that spending reforms pro- Show.” ery Act grants awarded In a profession where most of whether promised tax cuts would posed by Granholm are a positive Meanwhile, nationwide for job training his clients aren’t local, having a materialize once enacted. step but not aggressive enough. Sylvia Hub- in high growth industries. national reputation is impera- Granholm’s tax proposal — low- In presenting her budget last bard, a 38-year- MCC President Jim Jacobs tive. ering Michigan’s 6 percent sales week, Granholm said it is respon- old Detroiter, said he believes the grant is Seven years ago, when Shul- tax to 5.5 percent and extending sive to what she has heard from has self-pub- man looked for a traditional pub- the tax to consumer services, phas- members of the business commu- lished 14 ro- See This Just In, Page 2 lisher for his manuscript about ing out the 21.99 percent Michigan nity in terms of the need for busi- mance novels, shoplifting addiction, he failed. ness-tax relief, tax restructuring Hubbard all as e-books So he turned to the print-on-de- and structural government re- and six as paperbacks. Three pa- mand company Infinity Publishing form. perbacks have sold more than in West Conshohocken, Pa. She cited the need to “modernize 10,000 copies. Selling about one-half of the an outdated tax structure” and In February, Tanner’s Devil, a books himself and the others provide a stable source of funding book she self-published in 2006 through a wholesaler or online for K-12 education, putting the ad- with Lulu.com, will be reissued as booksellers such as Amazon.com ditional revenue raised from the a paperback and e-book by Red and BarnesandNoble.com, he has sales tax on consumer services Rose Publishing of Forestport, NEWSPAPER sold 4,000 copies of Something for See Tax plan, Page 29 Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction See Publishing, Page 28 20100215-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 2/12/2010 5:59 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS February 15, 2010 Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone Alliance, a green-energy and econo- Detroit, introduced the plan, THIS JUST IN The way it was: 1990 P.L.C. my-focused project funded by the which would allow the state su- Wang will practice at Miller Tides Center, a nonprofit, released perintendent of public instruc- ■ From Page 1 Throughout our 25th-anniversary Canfield’s Troy office and focus a recent report that says Michi- tion to declare an academic emer- year, Crain’s will use this space on China business counseling, gan’s workforce development in- gency in any district in which 50 the largest award the college has to look at interesting items from global corporate transactions and frastructure is not prepared to percent of schools fail to make ad- ever received that is not tied to past issues. taxation. train middle-skill workers for a equate yearly progress (the feder- building construction. — Chad Halcom clean energy economy. al performance standard) for “One of the most significant If a person Instead of focusing on middle- three or more consecutive years. things we can do with (the grant) “ Hyatt Regency Dearborn for sale skill workers, or workers with A commission would have three is take a litany of what I call bou- chooses to be more than a high school diploma voting members appointed for tique programs that we offer in The Hyatt Regency Dearborn ho- but less than a bachelor’s degree, two-year terms, according to the various schools and departments pregnant, a tel is for sale after the hotel’s Michigan’s retraining efforts to press release: two members ap- and (merge) them into one center owner defaulted on its loans. date have primarily targeted pointed by the governor and one for defense,” Jacobs said. company should not have to Chicago-based HREC Investment high-skill training. by the president of the local school The grant builds on a $550,000 Advisors is selling the hotel on be- — Ryan Beene board. award to MCC the labor depart- bear responsibility for half of CW Capital, the special ser- A commission would adopt a ment announced late last year, vicer for the loan on the 772-room 24-month academic recovery and a grant of $35,110 by the non- that. hotel. Crain’s reported in August Lawmaker proposes commissions plan, could be reinstated twice profit New Economy Initiative earlier ” that the Dallas-based real estate for troubled school districts more if goals aren’t met in the ini- this week, to assist in MCC train- Billie Wanink, investment trust Ashford Hospitali- tial two years. ing curriculum development. ty Trust Inc. had been issued a no- Legislation introduced last week A commission would be dis- MCC expects to enroll at least Interior Systems Contract Group tice of default after failing to in the state House would create solved when the district has ac- 1,600 participants in the program.

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