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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 [...]
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 4th, 2011. I suppose I should be talking about this since it’s on my beat, though Wizardkitten has an excellent diary about the Republican tax raises in Muskegon.
As it turns out, our Conservative representatives gleefully stripped downtown Muskegonites of the tax free Renaissance zone. The tax free Renaissance zone was set up to help a LITERALLY demolished city center lure people and businesses downtown to have a city center again. For some reason a tax free Renaissance zone was far too libertarian for our Tea Party congress so they…
…oh who am I kidding?
They stripped the tax free zone because there were mostly just poor poeple living there, and who gives a crap about them, right? Am I right?
Of course I’m right.
The Ren zone was mostly populated by low wage earners. If you’re making 25,000 in downtown Muskegon, guess what? The Michigan Republicans raised your taxes by $1000 per year!
For those with Muskegon’s average wage of $25,000 a year, that means paying nearly $1,000 in annual income tax to the state much earlier than was promised.
Classy.
You’d think our State Senator Goeff Hansen would have given a crap…but he still gleefully rubber stamped the bill.
GLEEFULLY.
As did our State representative Holly Hughs.
Gleefully.
They GLEEFULLY voted for that bill. With gusto.
The very same bill that stripped young families of the state Child Tax Credit.
Folks are asking me all the time now, like they’ve JUST heard about it, “Is it true that we’re losing the child tax credit this year?
I’m happy to tell them who punched their young family in the gut. Happy to tell them that Goeff Hansen and Holly Hughs JOYFULLY rubber stamped the bill that is raising their taxes by HUNDREDS and in some cases a THOUSAND dollars.
Middle class taxes: raised Child tax credits for young families: scrapped Food assistance: slashed Help for the poorest citizens: retroactively slashed Pensions: Taxed Schools, police, fire departments: slashed
All to splash MORE and MORE and MORE money on the folks who don’t seem to be hiring anybody right now. But I’m sure they’re paying out some mad [...]
Muskegon Critic posted this on August 17th, 2011.
Vid courtesy of Sean Mullally
My wee boy and I went downtown to join the protest of Bill Huizenga who is known for referring to Muskegon, Michigan as a “Low Class” city. Perhaps we’re Low Class because we’re the major Democratic stronghold in West Michigan. Or perhaps we’re Low Class because Muskegonites WORK with HANDS. The horror.
My camera is broken, I’m afraid, so I couldn’t take pics.
The boy and I got there early, so to kill some time the wee little boy and I parked at the new splash fountain by the old post office down town. The Alcoa splash fountain between the newly streetscaped Western Avenue downtown and the vast sandlot.
Little history: Back in the 1970′s amidst a troubled economy and declining manufacturing base — Sound familiar? — Muskegon, Michigan, attempted to reinvent itself — Sound familiar? — by turning what was once an open air, standard streetscape with old buildings and shops into a modern, enclosed year-round heated shopping center. A mall! The city literally built a glass roof over the old downtown Muskegon and enclosed it with walls. That worked out fine for a decade or two…but it never made Muskegon the major shopping mecca the planners had expected and by the late 1990s the mall….better known as “downtown Muskegon” was dead. Completely dead.
As it turns out, if you put doors and a lock on your downtown and give it a closing time of 9:00 PM, it has no nightlife. Who could have predicted?
This is running a bit longer than I had hoped…the point is that the mall/downtown completely died and in 2002 and 2003 the city actually bulldozed blocks and blocks of the downtown area…most of it, but for a few of the still functional buildings like the post office, or historic buildings like the old Century Club building.
For years, most of the downtown area has been a sand pit, with developers here and there building new buildings, like the new cullinary arts college.
Where was I?
Oh yeah. To kill time, I brought my youngest boy down to [...]
Patrick Diehl posted this on August 16th, 2011. I’ve been paying so much attention to the shenanigans in Washington that I missed the latest crap news about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood and others pointed out last month that Snyder is willing to fire state workers if he doesn’t get $145 million in concessions from state employee unions.
State employee union contracts are scheduled to expire September 30. The Governor’s Office has apparently instructed state agencies to sharpen their guillotines if the Nerd doesn’t get his way. First he slashes funding for schools, cuts taxes for businesses, raises them for poor people, sticks it to consumers by repealing Michigan’s item pricing law, and eliminates representative government by authorizing emergency financial managers to swoop into cities and nullify the will of the people.
He’s also decided to tax pensions; get involved in rewriting Detroit’s city charter; make major changes to our teacher tenure laws; and sign redistricting laws designed to give the GOP a political edge.
And now this.
It makes a lot of sense to send more people packing at a time when our state’s overall unemployment rate stands at 10.5 percent.
Most state employees I know – not all, but most – are dedicated, talented, hard-working professionals who have been making concessions for at least the past decade. Contrary to studies released by right-wing think tanks, many don’t earn what they could make in the private sector. They’re paying more for health insurance. Morale and job satisfaction are low.
Nothing like dangling an axe over public employees’ heads to increase productivity and make sure taxpayers get what they’re paying for, Mr. Snyder.
Too bad the effort to recall the guy fizzled. Organizers – and I use that term loosely – raised just $25,000 of the estimated $1 million a recall election costs and collected fewer than half of the 807,000 signatures they needed by their August 5 deadline; now they’re hoping to keep collecting and place the issue on the ballot next February.
Snyder’s latest move shouldn’t come as a surprise. His business pals are now paying $1 billion less in taxes thanks to him. That missing revenue has [...]
WeAreThePeopleMichigan posted this on July 26th, 2011.
Here are today's top stories –
Here are today's top news stories…
WILX (with video): State Workers Rally Outside Governor's Office in Detroit - About one thousand state workers from five different unions took to the sidewalk outside Governor Snyder's Detroit office Monday afternoon, hoping to get their point across. "Instead of taking more from the people who are providing services, they can look at the contractors," Ed Mitchell, UAW 6000 president, said. A few months ago, a coalition of state employees released several ideas for streamlining government and saving money, and it didn't include layoffs or benefit reductions.
WLNS (with video): Michigan State Workers Rally in Detroit - Monday, State employees picketed outside Cadillac Place, Governor Snyder's Detroit office. State employees are not happy over some of the concessions he's asking for. Union representatives for State workers say they have a better solution. State workers want to know where the shared sacrifice is. They're out here protesting Governor Snyder's proposed cuts, and they're raising their voices loud and clear.
WXYZ: UAW says negotiations with State of Michigan will fight “anti-worker agenda" - In April, thousands of union members rallied in front of the State Capital to protest the state budget and tax plans that called for layoffs and cuts in benefits. On Monday several hundred gathered again to voice their concerns on the eve of the start of contract negotiations. Governor Rick Snyder has said in the past that many state workers are simply paid more than the state can afford, and that cuts need to be made. The union disagrees. "It's no secret that Governor Snyder wants to dramatically reduce the compensation of our hard-working members, but we know there are more effective ways to save the state money," said Cindy Estrada of Local 6000.
AP: State Employees Protest - Some state of Michigan employee unions rallied at a state office building in Detroit. The midday event at the Cadillac Place on Monday comes as Gov. Rick Snyder's administration seeks $145 million in concessions from state employees to help balance the state budget for the fiscal year that starts in October. Those discussions [...]
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