Changing Gears: States Impact Lives - Michigan

Here in Michigan, people are riveted by some of Snyder's big ticket changes. Like giving emergency managers the power to strip control from elected officials in failing cities and school districts. But this story is different. It's about one Mid Michigan town and all the small, drowned-out changes that deeply affect people's lives.
JODWAY: Well, this is Laingsburg and I am a hillbilly. Before you got here I had to take my pink bib overalls off.
Janae Jodway is a hillbilly-masseuse. She's got training. She owns Bodyworks Medical Massage. The place is guarded by a Dutch shepherd whose sole focus in life is his made-in-the-USA chew toy.(sfx: door chimes) Every client here has a story about the economy. Taundra Mitchell-Faynor runs a daycare center that serves a lot of low income kids.
MITCHELL-FAYNOR: I've had a lot of tearful interviews in my office to tell parents that they have to pay more because the state is cutting back.
Cutting back on subsidies to help those parents pay for child care while they're out working, often at low wage jobs. Mitchell-Faynor says she tries to cut them breaks, even though her own bottom line has sunk.
MITCHELL-FAYNOR: We raise a lot of these children from two weeks to twelve years so I've watched these kids grow up. And it's a heart business, it's not a money making business.
And neither is the business we're sitting in. Janae Jodway's rates are rock bottom because most of her clients pay cash, but nobody has much.
JODWAY: I have older customers, the 60 and older, they bring their own sheets in, because they can't tip us and they feel bad, and they bring their own water. So I see how tight everyone around here lives. I figure someday we're going to be licensed, and then we can make some money.
You see, Michigan passed a law in 2009 requiring massage therapists to be licensed, like chiropractors or physical therapists. That regulation would allow Jodway to bill health insurance plans. But three years later: still no rules, no standards, no application to get licensed.
JODWAY: If we were to be licensed so that I knew what our finances were going to be every month, I would take on two more masseuses and a receptionist right now. Right now yesterday. But I don't, so I won't.
SFX: Beep. Returning or you wanna check it out? Returning…
Up the road a bit is Laingsburg's library. It's actually the perfect illustration of how retirement is changing in Michigan. On one side of the room, a circle of white-haired elders discuss Zane Grey.
WOMAN: This is the Laingsburg book club. We meet once a month.
These folks fall under the old rules … they won't pay taxes on their pensions. But part-time librarian Vicki Veith lives by the government's new rules. She doesn't get a pension but her husband's will now be taxed as income.
VEITH: I would have thought of retiring myself, but I won't now. I won't because of this.
Governor Snyder's critics accuse him of funding a huge business tax cut at the expense of retirees and the poor. Businesses are expected to save more than a billion dollars this year. But in small-town Laingsburg, I actually had to look pretty hard to find a business that will benefit from the tax overhaul. Luckily, there's Subway.
MEDER: My favorite sandwich is the turkey ham. What is yours?
Valerie Meder owns this franchise. She says because of changes to the business tax …
MEDER: We will see about 500 extra dollars in our pocket this year. It seems like a small amount, but that's still money that I can put towards upgrading my equipment.
Like the thermostat and those plastic bins that hold the vegetables. She says business is actually good enough to open a second Subway down the road.
MEDER: A few years ago I might not have considered that. Now it's actually a reality.
Meder says she just feels like Michigan is getting back on track. Tonight we'll hear how the governor hopes to build on that. For Changing Gears, I'm Kate Davidson, in Laingsburg.