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Tag: Grand Rapids (page 3)

Suddenly that population decline makes a little more sense

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 07:35:12 AM EST
Tags: Property Taxes, Proposal A, Senate Democrats, Andy Dillon, population, Wayne County, Grand Rapids (all tags)

Two days ago Republicans in the Michigan Senate attempted to pass a bill that would give voters a chance to prevent property taxes from going up when their home values drop. While a majority of the chamber voted to send the resolution to the House, Democrats were able to muster the votes needed to prevent an elusive 2/3 majority, effectively killing $253 million a year in property tax relief for cash strapped working families.

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday the Senate gave it another try and managed to approve the measure 29 to 8.

Seems like common sense to give voters in the state the option of preventing their own taxes from going up while their home values go down but 8 Michigan Democrats have, apparently, never met a bit of financial sanity they couldn't refuse. Especially when lobbyists are in their ears arguing how much more desperately than homeowners they need $253 million.

Thank goodness someone in this state finally stood up for taxpayers, though, and told the lobbyists to shove it. The Detroit News caught up with the resolution's sponsor, John Pappageorge:

"Homeowners shouldn't be strapped with rising property taxes while watching their home values drop," he said.

Common, meet sense.

Because that whole status quo thing? Not working out so well and sending folks scrambling out of the state. The Ivory Tower reports this morning that metro Detroit has seen the steepest population drop of any region in the entire nation over the last two years.

Read on...

(1 comment, 545 words in story) Full Story

SHOCK Audio: GRPS Union Boss hurls insults, laughs over scheme to force kids out of school, more!

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 12:03:39 PM EST
Tags: MEA, Paul Helder, Grand Rapids, Bernard Taylor, School Board elections, illegal strike, Big Labor (all tags)

Shocking audio this morning over on MEA Exposed. On February 5-7, 2009 the MEA held a Bargaining, Political Action and PR Conference at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

One of the special sessions they offered their members was titled "Grand Rapids EA (Education Association) Story," featuring a presentation from the president of the Grand Rapids teachers union, Paul Helder and Earl Graeber, a MEA Uniserv director effectivel on-loan to the GR group.

Looks like someone attending the meeting happened to have a digital audio recorder in his or her possession and now Helder and Graeber's behavior is available for all of the world to witness, thanks to that wile old double-u, double-u, double-u (apologies to David Letterman).

And believe me... this is stuff they'd rather not have floating around the ether.

How long do you figure, for instance, before the Grand Rapids Public School Board and Superintendent Bernard Taylor get wind of the way Helder hurls pet names and personal insults like a second grader throwing a tantrum on the playground?

Not only does Helder refer to Taylor as the "stuperintendent," admitting that it's a term of derision, but he claims that the nine-member school board only has "two or three" members "capable of some kind of independent thought." Click the links to hear it for yourself.

And it gets much, much worse. Read on...

(3 comments, 782 words in story) Full Story

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