Mark Schauer at the office of The Arab American News during an interview on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. PHOTO: IMAD MOHAMAD

DEARBORN — Mark Schauer said he decided to enter the gubernatorial race because he believes Michigan is going in the wrong direction and the state’s economy is working for the few rich only, “leaving too many people behind.

“I was raised with my father as teacher and my mother as a nurse,” the democratic candidate for governor told The Arab American News. “I follow their path to public service by running an anti-poverty agency and I’ve always tried to provide an opportunity for people to access the middle class and the American Dream. I’ve seen this governor who campaigned as a moderate, as a tough nerd, be anything but that.”

Schauer served as a U.S. representative for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District from 2009- 2011. He is also a former state legislator, having served in the State Senate and House of Representatives for a combined tenure of 12 years. 

He said education will be his top policy and budget priority and blasted Gov. Snyder for cuts he has made to schools.

“Governor Snyder cut a billion dollars from our public schools and raised taxes on retirees’ pensions, raised taxes on families raising our children and raised taxes on low wage earners in our state, all to give a $1.8 billion corporate tax break to companies whether they create jobs or not, and even when they outsourced jobs,” he said. 

On June 11, the state legislature passed a $15.7-billion education omnibus bill that covers K-12 schools, community colleges and higher education institutes. Snyder said the bill increases funding to K-12 districts by $1 billion compared to fiscal 2011.

Schauer said the governor is using “fuzzy math” when he is trying to argue that schools have more money now.

“The school aid budget that was past last week in Lansing provided $50 per pupil increase,” Schauer said. “That’s 20 cents per day per pupil, so superintendents around the state have been saying that this amounts to a cut, that they have to lay off more teachers and cut more educational programs. Kids will be learning in more crowded classrooms without the technology they need.” 

He added that the budget covers a legally-required increase for teachers’ retirement funds.

“Schools are still substantially behind compared to where they were in terms of dollars to the classroom, when [Snyder] took office,” Schauer said. “It’s hurting our kids and, ultimately, it weakens our economy, because in order for Michigan to be competitive in the global economy, we need to have the best trained workforce and the best educated people.”

Schauer played down the notion that Snyder created a surplus in the state budget after it had been suffering from a deficit under Gov. Granholm. 

“The governor and the legislature are required under the state constitution to balance the budget,” he said. “CNN Money [on June 12] reported that Michigan has one of the five worst economies in the country.”

He added that the governor’s economic policies are ideologically driven. 

“He just has a different ideology, the trickle down economics,” Schauer said. “You give tax breaks to the wealthy and the big corporations and somehow jobs are created. That’s never worked. What’s happened instead is that he’s taken money out of the pockets of seniors and working families and people living economically on the margin, money that they would be otherwise putting into local businesses that hire Michigan workers.”

Schauer said Gov. Snyder’s tax breaks for businesses have cost Michigan both jobs and economic growth.

“He dug a hole deeper by providing a $1.8 billion corporate tax break,” Schauer said. “To pay for that, to balance the budget, he cut a billion dollars from public schools, cut higher education by 15 percent, further cut the revenue sharing to our cities, and then, for the first time, subjected retirees to the state income tax. He raised property tax on seniors by reducing the property tax homestead credit, raised property taxes on families by eliminating the child tax credit and then slashed the earned income tax credit, resulting in higher tax on low wage earners.”

Governor Snyder is engaged in efforts to bring new immigrants to Detroit and has said repeatedly that he wants to make Michigan a welcoming place for all people. However, Schauer said the governor’s actions do not back up his rhetoric. He added that cuts to education and taxes on retirees and middle class families hurt everybody, including immigrants and minorities.

The democratic candidate talked up his own pro-immigration track record. He said he supported comprehensive immigration reform and The DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act when he was in Congress; and while serving in the State Legislature, he voted for a bill to allow illegal workers to obtain drivers licenses from the secretary of state. 

Schauer said Snyder’s environmental policies, including the state’s approval of a permit allowing a Dearborn factory to increase the level of toxins it emits into the air, are a “direct attack on the Dearborn community and the Arab American and Muslim community.”

Some of the region’s largest polluters are located in the South End of Dearborn. 

“I can’t think of a better example of [Snyder] looking out for his corporate special interests friends and having his Michigan Economic Development corporations setting environmental policy to double, triple and quadruple the toxins that can be emitted in their air quality permit,” Schauer said. “It is an assault on our children’s health. People are our most precious asset. Our natural resources and our Great Lakes are our second.”

Schauer also slammed the governor for not speaking out against Michigan-based National Republican Committee member Dave Agema, who has made anti-Muslim remarks.

He said Snyder’s implied criticism of Agema in the State of the State Address in January did not go far enough.

“His silence has been deafening at times and sometimes what’s not said is as important as what is said,” Schauer stated. “Rick Snyder is the head of the Republican Party in Michigan. Dave Agema is the national committeeman. What he said about the Muslim community in Michigan was an amazing insult and should have received a stern rebuke from Gov. Rick Snyder, and he didn’t do it.”

Asked if he would speak about issues Arab Americans face with the federal government, such as bank accounts closure and finding themselves on the No-Fly list, Schauer said, “I will stand up for the people of Michigan against profiling of all types.”

Schauer said he will hire Arab Americans in his administration to reflect the diversity of the state, if he is elected.

“I’m going to make sure that my administration looks like the people of our state,” he said. “I will have members of the Arab American and Muslim community that comprise the leadership within my administration. I will stack my record up against anyone to make sure that we leverage our diversity and the talent and skills of the Arab American and Muslim community as a part of strengthening our great state.”

The Michigan Legislature failed to pass a road-funding bill before going on a two-month vacation on June 12. Two bills, one proposing raising registration fees on heavy vehicles and another proposing raising wholesale fuel tax for road-funding, did not make it through the republican-controlled state House and Senate.

Snyder said fixing the roads has been a priority for him since he took office and that he is working with the legislature to pass measures to finance repairs.

“Rick Snyder is a failed leader when it comes to fixing our roads,” Schauer said. “He wants credit for effort or at least for rhetoric.” 

“He has a super majority in the State Senate and a sizable majority in the State House. It didn’t take them any time to pass Right to Work. It didn’t take them any time to make it harder for women to have access to healthcare.”

Schauer added that fixing the roads is “the best job program there is.”

He said that as governor he would turn to the federal government for road funding. 

“Michigan continues to be a donor state,” Schauer said. “For every dollar we send to Washington, we get less than a dollar back, so we need to get our fair share from Washington.”

He added that he would also “audit every single program in the state government” to find out if there is any waste that could be reprogrammed to fix the roads.

“If we still need money, we’ve got to go to these businesses that got the $1.8 billion tax break, without being required to create jobs,” Schauer said. “They need to pay their fair share. That’s the approach that I will take when I am governor; and I believe we can get a bipartisan solution to this issue.”

He said he has experience working with republicans, particularly on road issues. 

“My first term in the state house 1997-1998, I worked across the aisle with Governor Engler and we fixed our roads,” he said. ”That’s the last time we came together in a bipartisan way to fix our roads. I know how to do it. I’m a democrat who always won in republican districts, so I know what it means to represent all of the people of diverse interests and work across the aisle.”

The former congressman said he will work to overturn the state ban on gay marriage and amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

“I will support Michigan becoming a marriage equality state,” he said. “It is about fairness. It is about talent. It is about sending the right messages to the rest of the world and the rest of the country that everyone is welcomed and invited to be here.”

Schauer said he is not ready to lead on the decriminalization of recreational marijuana. He added that we should watch and learn from the experiences of Colorado and Washington State, which have recently legalized pot. However, he asserted his support for allowing people to use marijuana for medical purposes. 

“I, without hesitation, in full conviction, support our medical marijuana law” he said. “It is helping people who are sick and are not finding relief in any other way.”