Tag: Kennedy

The new Mayor and council however have a nearly impossible mission of making Detroit acceptable and inviting enough to attract new business and workers.  Aside from the problem of the obvious social decay allowed for decades, there is a problem of theft by government.  As the Mackinac Center rightly points out:

".. Michigan has been bailing out Detroit for years and it's only delayed the problems. In fact, Detroit gets favors from the state of Michigan that no other city receives, and the state has made these rules to try to get the city more revenue to deal with its problems.

Detroit is the only city in Michigan that can assess a utility tax. It is added on top of monthly bills charged to residents and businesses. The tax expired in 1988 but was resurrected in 1990.  .."

Perhaps they should pay attention:

He's not having a good 2012.

After getting pounded by the court in the health care litigation arguments (see here and here), he had to turn around less than a month later and argue that Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, had been preempted by federal immigraton law.  The case, Arizona v U.S., featured another legal beat-down and, unlike the health care cases, the liberal wing of the court didn't exactly leap to his defense.  To top it off, his Arizona opponent was the same person he had faced in the health care cases - the great Paul Clement.

It's the oldest trick in the book.  You campaign as a populist, you tell the people its all about them and then as soon as they aren't looking you start funneling as many perks, favors and giant paydays as possible to your cronies, no matter how many Michigan jobs it'll kill.

This time last cycle it was House Bill 4044 among others, this year it's a package of bills, HB 4316-4318.  The numbers have changed but the legislation is the same.  

Democrat Representatives Dian Slavens, Deb Kennedy and Lisa Brown have each sponsored a portion and re-introduced the Michigan Trial Lawyer Enhancement Act.

By way of background...