The Granholm Legacy: Michigan only state to lose green jobs

January 25 of this year was the 5-year anniversary of failed Gov Granholm's most famous proclamation. On that day in 2006 she handpicked the green energy sector as the winner and Michigan taxpayers as the loser and promised that "in 5 years, you'll be blown away:"

Well we have been. From Michigan Capital Confidential via The Michigan View: State of the State: Blown Away

Since she took office, Michigan has experienced:

• A precipitous decline in the relative wealth of its residents. Since January 2003, Michigan's per-capita personal income rank among the states has dropped from 23rd to 37th. Our personal income is now $5,259 (13.1 percent) below the national average.

• A large decline in economic output as measured by state Gross Domestic Product, dropping from 26th at the start of the Granholm administration to 41st through 2008.

• A dramatic increase in unemployment. Michigan's unemployment rate leapt from 6.7 percent in January 2003 to 14.6 percent through December 2009. The state has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation for 46 consecutive months.

• Record setting out-migration. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Michigan has lost population for the last four years in a row and was only one of two states to lose population last year. More than 87,000 people migrated from the state between July 2008 and July 2009 alone. United Van Lines — a household moving company — reports that 68 percent of all its Michigan-related traffic is outbound.

Remarkably, Michigan suffered economic decline even during the last national expansion, from 2002 through 2007.

This is what that looked like:

And with all the money shew spent on so-called green jobs, this is the result: Report: Michigan only state to lose green jobs

Michigan is the only state to lose "clean economy" jobs in the past seven years, according to a report released today by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

...it lost 1,596 green jobs and had a negative 0.3 percent annual growth rate of such jobs from 2003 to 2010, according to the "Sizing the Clean Economy" study.

The creation of green jobs was a priority during that seven-year period for then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It also coincided with Michigan's long-running recession and the deep nationwide downturn that began in 2008.

Shocker, no? Exit question: how is it that Sarah Palin is branded as incompetent and stupid even though her state is #1 on the list, but Granholm is labelled intelligent even though she has been the worst governor in the nation over the past decade? Granholm October 2009: "By next year, Michigan will have lost 1 million jobs, we need a change." Well Michigan got its change last November by giving Democrats a bloodbath not seen before in Michigan. An overwhelming Democrat House majority became an overwhelming GOP one, something unthinkable only a year ago. The Senate GOP majority is so large that the Democrat minority can literally meet in a Burger King booth. The Supreme Court got flipped to GOP control. And of course the governorship went to Rick Snyder and was an utter blowout of epic proportions. GOP control is the only positive legacy of Granholm, the failed governor.