Tag: Canada (page 2)

In an attempt to lure lawmakers into thinking popular opinion is on the side of committing Michigan to a boondoggle project that is the NITC, the administration is now pushing polls that seem to show consensus. At least once "they know the facts." A couple of weeks ago from the Ivory Tower:

"Two-thirds of Michigan voters support Gov. Rick Snyder's plan for a new bridge to Windsor once they understand Canada's role in helping to pay for the span, new poll results showed Monday.

Conducted for the corporate leadership group Business Leaders for Michigan, the poll of 600 likely voters showed that 62% favored building the public bridge and 33% opposed it. "

Folks, I present to you the greatest collection of crony capitalists this side of Wall Street. And they are all in our back yard. In this writer's view, these folks wouldn't understand a free market business model if it hit them on the head with a hard bound copy of Atlas Shrugged. The few Republicans you may find in the overall group are names added to give credibility to the rest and still does not guarantee their business models are not reliant on government handouts, intervention or "collaboration." (Read: taking from us to make their model work)

And these lefty supporting, steal from the taxpayer types want the bridge and are pushing heavily for it.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is meeting with business representatives in Shanghai today on the third day of his trade mission to China.

Snyder and a delegation of government, university and business officials, who are on an eight-day Asian trade trip with stops in Japan, China and South Korea, flew to Shanghai from Beijing, Snyder spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher said Wednesday in a telephone interview from China.

What?  No Jinhua City?!?!

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce has ended months of neutrality and come out in favor of a new public bridge to Canada backed by Gov. Rick Snyder, chamber President and CEO Rich Studley said Wednesday.

Yessiree.  From the same fine folks at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce that brought you the endorsement of SEIU payola Jason Allen and Randy Richardville, and the same folks that endorsed the five entrenched incumbents on the Wall of Shame that just gave Obama another trillion dollars to campaign with on the left side of the page.

Michigan Democrats said Monday they want to continue specifically targeted tax incentives for advanced battery manufacturers, putting them at odds with Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and GOP lawmakers who control the Legislature.

The industry-specific tax credits are among those scheduled to be phased out under tax policy changes Snyder has signed into law. It's part of a strategy to lower overall business taxes and leave more flexibility for economic development incentives beginning with the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Democrats say that's a mistake when it comes to the advanced vehicle battery business, which has begun growing in Michigan with the help of federal grants and state incentives. The Democratic plan also would include tax credits for buying electric vehicles and charging stations.

This is at odds with Governor Snyder?  I doubt it with him sitting at 10.9% unemployment and a dwindling labor force that his bassackward 'reinvention' scheme of 'too divisive' Willy Milquetoast leadership has yielded.  Besides, Snyder and his cronies from Ann Arbor SPARK are going on a junket to commie China for a reason.

Never let the list of questions WHY the governor wants this bridge project to go on become shortened prematurely.  The Canadians are considering this a "done deal" and are building a road to the presumed location of a new bridge.  The one that has no investors, no Michigan money tied up, and is not going to cost us a dime, if one were to believe promoters of it. Even though $41 million has already been spent by Michigan taxpayers the Canadian government is sure they are not building a road to nowhere:

"What if Michigan doesn't approve it?" some nervous Nellies wailed on The Star's comment threads of the new bridge. "Then it really will be a road to nowhere!"

Relax, people. That Road to Nowhere meme is just a catchy advertising slogan dreamt up by the Ambassador Bridge and its allies. It's a last-ditch attempt to preserve the lucrative private monopoly they hold on commercial traffic and sales of duty free fuel and goods.

The control they exert over two national economies is simply unheard of anywhere else in the world, and it's high time it came to an end.

Oh yeah.  Thats right its about power and taxes.  

I guess no private entity should EVER hold that kind of power, that would be bad.

Why is that?  Why is it important to destroy a Michigan business for the sake of another country's desires? Why is it so important to this governor that he would put our tax dollars at risk by continuing to promote in a different way what could be done in the same location already?

This type of activity by two governments is exactly the reason the original owners of the bridge sought the treaty that grants that authority to the owners of the bridge in perpetuity. Is it the end of that treaty that a private entity controls that these two governments seek?

Gov. Rick Snyder is forming a political action committee called "One Tough Nerd," stirring speculation he needs more financial muscle to win approval of his controversial bridge plan.

Paperwork to form the "One Tough Nerd" committee was recently filed with the Michigan Secretary of State. Snyder's press secretary, Sara Wurfel, confirmed Thursday the PAC is Snyder's.

...

Both of Snyder's predecessors, Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Republican Gov. John Engler, had similar committees they used for political fund-raising and expenditures not directly related to their election campaigns. Such entities are commonly known as "leadership PACs," and governors typically use them to give financial support to the campaigns of state lawmakers and other government officials or candidates.

But unlike Granholm or Engler, Snyder refused to accept PAC donations during his campaign for governor in 2010. Corporations and lobbying groups often form PACs, and Snyder said during the campaign he refused to accept PAC money to show that he would not be beholden to special interests.

Read the rest here

Gov. Rick Snyder pledged Tuesday that a new government-sponsored bridge to Canada would include multiple benefits for the residents of the hard-hit Delray district in southwest Detroit.

Marked by poverty, dumped trash, numerous vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, Delray is the district where the Snyder-backed New International Trade Crossing bridge would land on the Detroit side. Community leaders led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who represents the district in Lansing, accompanied Snyder Tuesday afternoon on a bus tour of Delray and lobbied him for a community-benefits agreement as part of the NITC project.

Snyder promised that there would be such a benefits package, although there were no specifics about what it might include.