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Hector Solon posted this on February 8th, 2012. 
On the eve of Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s second year 2012 Michigan State Budget announcements, this ANALYSIS, in simple pictures, looks back at what historical data says. Facts found in this fountain of tables, graphs and charts reveals much, and in many cases, might surprise many Michiganders. It gives a unique view not only into where we are, and where Snyder Policy is trying to take us, but also where we have been and how we got there.
Facing Wisconsin style protests across the state through most of his first year 2011, some of the largest marches in Michigan’s history continuing into early 2012, Snyder’s consultants published several reports and benchmarking metrics early in 2011 that include over 200 measurements of Michigan Government performance metrics and trends.
Missing in this pile of PowerPoints is any trace of the Republican Holy Grail, proof that massive business tax break ($1.6 billion) and education budget cuts (nearly $1 billion from public education) and policies focused on plans prefabricated in 2009 and released in 2010 and updated in January of 2012 by business leaders in Michigan that will, as their stacks of slides state, create “500,000” new Michigan jobs.
The Nerd and his small army of outside consultants did us all a great favor in the early months of his tenure by publishing Michigan’s data, learn to embrace it.
But, before going into what Snyder’s Data tells us about 2011, his turbulent first year as “CEO”, let’s take a look back and see what historical truths are included in those facts and figures going back to 1998-2008.
This first installment will focus on data from the terms of former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) and Republican Governor John Engler (R).
Much more after the jump.
[...]
Hector Solon posted this on January 26th, 2012. In one of the boldest, brashest moves seen in Michigan in quite some time, Ken Braun the recently ‘former’ Managing Director of CapCon at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, has threaten Republican Governor Rick Snyder to either join the “Right to Work” (for a lot less) forces, or be circumvented by ‘citizen’ introduced legislation that will completely bypass the Nerd using the Tea Party Republican majorities in the Michigan State House and Senate and a loop-hole in the Michigan Constitution.
Just out from Ken Braun of the Mackinac Center:
Michigan’s tea party activists are suffering right to work envy while watching the Indiana governor march his Legislature relentlessly to the finish line on that issue. Our Republican governor recently said right to work is too divisive and he doesn’t want the Legislature to send a bill to his desk.
(Break)
Article 2, section 9 (of the Michigan Constitution), provides citizens (like the Tea Party) with the power to initiate laws and send them to the Legislature for approval. If both chambers vote by simple majority to approve the bill within 40 days, then it becomes law.
The governor has no role in the process and can neither sign nor veto the measure.
What? Read Braun’s FULL POSTING HERE.
Within the posting(s) are links to articles on Rick Snyder’s statements on his reluctance address any “Right to Work” (for Less) legislation, saying he doesn’t want it ‘on his desk’ and that the issue is ‘too divisive‘.
Also mentioned in the piece are references to the efforts of the Michigan “Tea Party” to recall Michigan Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville for his statements on the controversial legislation also being pushed through in Indiana by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels.
Richardville is characterized by Braun as being too ‘skeptical’ and ‘outright hostile’ on the issue, which if brought up this year would certainly put just about everything on anyone’s agenda but the already troublesome, dictatorial “Emergency Manager” Law out of sight and mind completely.
The ties between the Mackinac Center, American for Prosperity (AFP), both with shared funders, supporters and participants, and their ties to [...]
Patrick Diehl posted this on December 28th, 2011.
My friend Chris Savage at Eclectablog has been making a compelling case against Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) law, Public Act 4 of 2011, which allows Snyder to install dictators in Michigan cities to nullify contracts, fire elected officials, reverse agreements with unions, sell off or privatize community assets and otherwise kill representative democracy.
In his latest post, Chris makes the case that “emergency managers do not solve the systemic problems that bring cities and school districts to the crisis point. They are simply a band-aid on a gaping wound, temporarily staunching the flow while private businesses reap profits and anti-union forces play out a long-awaited plan to rid the state of public employee unions.”
The Detroit Public Schools and the cities of Flint, Pontiac and Benton Harbor already have state-appointed EFMs. Snyder administration officials have threatened to appoint one to run Detroit – which faces an accumulated deficit of more than $200 million and a $45 million cash shortfall by April – and the city’s mayor, multimillionaire Dave Bing, has stated publicly that he wouldn’t mind if Snyder appointed him to the post.
I’ve opposed Snyder’s power grab from the beginning. Snyder administration officials love to point out that they’ve only strengthened something that was originally signed into law by Governor Jim Blanchard back in 1988. And they claim that contrary to media and Internet claims, Snyder doesn’t have the authority to remove local elected officials at will – an EFM fact sheet put out by the state insists that “local officials can only be removed from office if they refuse to provide information or assistance.”
I’d laugh if this weren’t so serious.
Earlier this month, Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the law’s constitutionality in an attempt to block the governor from installing a manager in the D. And Conyers – who thinks the law is “being applied in a discriminatory fashion” in Michigan municipalities with large African-American populations – appeared at a press conference with celebrity activist Jesse Jackson to promise civil disobedience and protests against Public Act 4.
My friend [...]
Hector Solon posted this on December 25th, 2011. The State of Michigan goes through a long year into a Holiday Season in which Governor Rick Snyder and Michigan Republicans do their very best attempting steal away as much joy for themselves and their cronies, Grinch style. But hope here is still strong, and most (True Michigan) liberal hearts are certainly not “two sizes too small”, not even close, no way, not at all.
—–
Twas the night before Christmas and all through Nerd’s house, Not a snifter was empty, dry champagne they all soused. “What a year it has been” the Nerd smiled and proclaimed, “Seeing how Michigan by the Republicans is reclaimed.”
The Nerd said he was different, no group would he slander, “We have the same name, it’s Michigander”. Standing with his Republican friends, filled with confident glee, “We’ll reinvent your state, just wait, you’ll see.”
With a dash and a dart began the Nerd’s relentless pursuit, Serving favors to a few, those in slick business suits. To dusty piles of pre-written bills they all flew, The libertarians and profiteers, well, they knew just what to do.
Michigan leaders in business got their favors first, “Cut our taxes now” they said, “They can’t get much worse”. From Mackinac and ALEC the legislation cranked out, And the billions now flow into their private account.
Bipartisanship promises were received when spoken, A Democrat appointed here and there, if just a mere token. But the Tea Party had plans of their own they had made, So some sort of reason and civility would soon fade.
But bailing out business (thru tax cuts) was an expensive affair, So they shredded more public services without even a care. Still not enough, they raided for Education Fund bullion, Stabbing and slashing to steal nearly a Billion.
They taxed pensions, cut benefits and twice unemployment, Even closed tiny playgrounds kids used for enjoyment. From the poor they took more taxes, and even added fees to get money, Soon the Catholics agreed “Hey wait, that’s not funny.”
The Nerd’s few promises once made, were forgotten, And as his policies grew, people found they were rotten. “I’m just a Nerd” [...]
Muskegon Critic posted this on November 9th, 2011. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
“WAIT…they’re paying you minimum wage?”
“I’m up for a raise soon.” The young attendant at the Meijer self checkout took my embarrassing, late night grocery store rant in apparent stride.
“But…WAIT…wait…they’re paying you MINIMUM WAGE?”
“A-yup.”
I had just spent the past 15 minutes at the massive supermarket, trying to find a cat flea medicine that was actually priced as labeled on the shelf: “But….but….who on earth is benefiting from this new No Price Tag law thing, then?”
“I hear it saves the store money.”
“Are they at least hiring more people?”
“No, I think they cut back the hours of the stock guys.”
AAAARRGH!
“So….I just spent 15 minutes hunting down cat flea stuff that matched the marked price because of a law that saves the store money and the store isn’t hiring more people, you’re paid minimum wage to hear some guy rant at the checkout at 10 PM, and I’m STILL seeing my grocery bill go up….”
“Sorry.” The young woman shrugged.
“No…no….it’s not your fault. I’m sorry. I’m…I’m just ranting. Just being an ass. You know…I’d be a little better with it if I knew the folks here were at least paid more than minimum wage.”
“I’m up for a raise soon!” The young woman smiled again.
“I hope it’s huge. Okay…well, have a good night. Thanks for helping me get this cat stuff thing figured out.”
—–> Michigan was sort of spoiled for the longest time. We had an excellent law that required stores to price each item individually, so that people could quickly and easily compare prices against the scan price at the checkout. The whole point was to give consumers as much information about their purchase as possible.
I never realized how much I USED those price tags until they were gone. Recently our Governor and conservative congress scrapped the consumer protection law, under the guise of “saving stores money” so those savings would get “passed on to the consumer” or “used to hire new workers.”
But…so far none of that has happened. All it’s done is make people wander around the store trying to find out [...]
Muskegon Critic posted this on October 29th, 2011. Michigan urgently needs infrastructure investment. At least a billion dollars worth. That’s where Governor Snyder and I agree. And if we don’t do it now, it’s going to cost us WAY more than that to play catch-up.
And now comes the task of paying for it. Snyder’s idea is to dramatically increase vehicle registration fees by $120 per year.
$120 more per year to drive my car. That’s a spicy meatball.
But hell…
As annoyed as I am that they’d give 1.6 billion in tax cuts to midsized and large businesses in Michigan at a time when Michigan is in desperate need for infrastructure investment, I would cheer our leaders for doing the responsible thing. I may be annoyed that the dude driving the Hummer and the dude driving the 1994 Honda Civic beater are paying the same vehicle registration fee….but whatever. We need these roads. I’d cheer our reps for actually RAISING the revenue needed to do the right thing and maintain our foundational infrastructure.
But I strongly suspect they won’t. They’re already fleeing from the notion of raising revenue. I’ve come to believe Michigan’s congressional Republicans are politically and morally incapable of doing what needs to be done to maintain even the most basic foundations of our civilization: our roads. Our bridges…
Even the matter of bridges, the matter of building stronger more expedient trade routes with our largest international trade partner, is a contested one. The Maroun family owns the one bridge between Detroit and Canada and they’re not giving up their effective monopoly without a fight. They’ve got most Michigan congressional republicans in their pockets….forget about the 10,000 jobs constructing a second bridge would create, forget about a new bridge connecting to an actual highway, forget about the fact that CANADA is going to pay for it, forget that business leaders, our governor, most citizens, pundits, editorial boards, cities, and three year olds and their stuffed walruses are in favor of the bridge…
Michigan congressmen like Senator Goeff Hansen are bought and in the pocket of the family who owns the Ambassador Bridge. They will sell out Michigan’s future and [...]
Patrick Diehl posted this on October 10th, 2011. Matty Moroun photo courtesy The Windsor Star
Seems like I can’t turn on the TV these days without being exposed to Matty Moroun’s disgusting, misleading, offensive commercials.
I wrote back in June, in “Matty Moroun’s Miserable Machinations,” about the Grosse Pointe billionaire and his family spending more than $1.5 million to lobby lawmakers and ensure that the Ambassador Bridge, which they own, remains the only connection between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
In fact he’s spent close to $5 million on the television ads, which exaggerate, spin, attack, lie and pander to the lowest common denominator. On October 4, the Detroit Free Press pointed out, “Like the worst political attack ads, the anti-bridge commercials offer a smidgen of fact overlaid with a deep pile of exaggeration and distortion. In the latest one, the only true statement is about the roads being in bad shape. The ad even misspells the name of Gov. Rick Snyder, Moroun’s nemesis who backs the government-owned New International Trade Crossing project.”
The second span – which would be publicly owned but privately financed, built and managed – is also supported by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and other business and labor groups. And get this: Canada has even offered to front $550 million to pay Michigan’s share of the project costs.
So the unscrupulous guy who wants to maintain his monopoly on the Detroit-Windsor border crossing – more than a quarter of all trade between the U.S. and Canada crosses his bridge – has polluted the airwaves with his specious claim that a second bridge is a boondoggle that would cost taxpayers $100 million a year for something that’s not needed.
Gee, I wonder if the fact that Moroun rakes in $60 million a year in toll revenues and millions more from the sale of duty free gas and goods at his bridge has anything to do with his opposition to this “boondoggle.”
According to Michigan Radio, the Senate’s Economic Development Committee might vote this week on legislation relating to a second bridge. It’s unclear whether the legislation will even make it out of committee, though; the committee’s dominated by Republicans [...]
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