Tag: Triangle Project

Casualties of executive order budget cuts from the Granholm-Cherry administration, the troopers this week begin hunting for new jobs and new ways to provide for their families.  

Though it would take a cynic's cynic to argue that the Democratic Governor and Lieutenant Governor explicitly enjoyed firing law enforcement officers it would also take the most stalwart Lefty loyalist to brush aside the majority Party's woefully misplaced spending priorities as anything less than highly questionable.  Especially in light of the fact that major tax dollars are being funneled away from law enforcement and into the pockets of Democrat donor and real estate developer Joel Ferguson.  

At issue now as it was two years ago is the so-called Triangle Project, a new $117 million Michigan State Police Headquarters being constructed in downtown Lansing.  MSP doesn't want the new HQ, a building that is prohibitively smaller than their current base of operations a few miles away (and currently being leased for the paltry sum of $1 a year).  

If anything, it is being argued, the speed and quality of service will actually decrease at the new development thanks in large part to the fact that various operations currently being handled under one roof in East Lansing will have to be split amongst multiple buildings after moving to downtown Lansing.  Then there's the rather large matter of those 100 suddenly unemployed police officers.  The $117 million being wasted on an unwanted, inefficient development represents enough taxpayer appropriations to keep 100 troopers on the street for years.  Or enough taxpayer appropriations to make Ferguson a significantly wealthier man.

Last week the Republican led Senate held a vote to cancel the Triangle Project and protect the law enforcement officers who lost their jobs this week. Senate Democrats objected, voted against the troopers and tried to save Ferguson's money pit.  Plaster and mortar over moms and dads?  The anti-cop move makes very little sense on it's face.  Until you take a bit of time tested advice and "follow the money."

Joel Ferguson has a long and distinguished history of big dollar giving to Democrats and Lefty organizations.  From judicial candidates to the Michigan House Democrat Fund and others, Democrats can often count on thousands of dollars from the developer.  Tens of thousands, even.  

Serious questions created by a serious bit of... pure, unadulterated lunacy... coming out of the Granholm-Cherry administration.  Yesterday 100 state police troopers lost their jobs on orders from the Governor and her 2010 Gubernatorial candidate.  Last week Lansing Democrats fought to keep alive the administration's dream for a new, inefficient, hundred million dollar state police headquarters that the state police don't want.  Meanwhile, this year alone, 3,500 dangerous convicted felons are being released EARLY from prison and set loose in Michigan neighborhoods.

So what's a state to do with fewer cops walking the beat, more law enforcement dollars swallowed up paying to provide pet projects (and big paydays) to Democratic donors / developers and a sudden spike in the number of dangerous career criminals prowling the streets?

Import more criminals.  From California.  

Import.  Criminals.  From California.

Who came up with this idea, Lex Luthor?  Norman Osborn?  The Joker?  No, no and, well...

According to Booth Newspapers, this one is the brainchild of the Granholm-Cherry team.  

California has too many prisoners and Michigan soon will have too many empty prison cells.

Therein lies the possibility of a "mutually beneficial partnership," Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a letter Monday...

In her letter, Granholm referenced earlier conversations with Schwarzenegger in which she said Michigan "could be of help."

Granholm said she was "certain that Michigan can provide a safe and secure environment for prisoners and help prepare them for a return to California and a crime-free lifestyle."

What's worse, this can't even be chocked up as an outside-the-box scheme to generate extra revenue for the state.  According to Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan, "we're not looking to make any money off this."  

Marlan said in regards to the California offer, Michigan would be seeking mainly to recover labor, food and health care costs.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised.  The administration has already crippled our economy, swelled the ranks of the unemployed to record levels, put a nearly unbearable strain on the state's social services and grown the size of the Lansing bureaucracy to astronomical proportions (the budget has grown by nearly $6 billion since Granholm and Cherry took their oaths of office in January 2003).  Suppose it was only a matter of time before they tried turning Michigan into a penal colony.

Plus, look at it this way... importing hardened criminals is ONE way of countering the dramatic outbound population flight we've seen the last six years.  Better yet, unlike hardworking Michigan families who've just plain had enough, Californian prisoners couldn't leave, even if they wanted to.

I think the same principle translates pretty well to the legislature where our elected officials spend tax dollars on the items, people and programs they believe are important while holding back from items they view as less important.  

Too often these days, though, doing a little case study of Michigan electeds will leave a guy scratching his head, confused and disappointed.

Exhibit A: Democratic Attorney General candidate Gretchen Whitmer and her state Senate colleagues.

Several weeks ago Whitmer and the Senate Dems voted to approve the Granholm-Cherry executive order firing 100 state troopers, taking freshly trained and hired law enforcement officers off the streets and away from our neighborhoods.  The move, they told us, was the only way the state could possibly save $1.7 million.

Turns out that wasn't quite the whole truth.  This Tuesday Whitmer and team voted AGAINST cutting the legislature's budget by $2.5 million, a move that would have saved more taxpayer cash annually than the trooper cuts, further cutting into that nasty deficit.  Better to spend the cash themselves... on themselves... than on keeping cops on the street.

And as ugly and selfish a move as that was they topped themselves in session on Thursday.

We've been covering the Michigan State Police boondoggle literally for years. From Representative Arlan Meekhof's update earlier this week to our examination of the original appropriation back in June of 2007, we've been on top of the story.

By way of reminder, the Michigan State Police currently lease their headquarters in East Lansing for the grand total of $1 a year.  One dollar.  

The Michigan State Police do NOT want to move.  They've said so.  Explicitly.

So, obviously, the only thing for the Granholm-Cherry administration to do was to approve a $117 million plan to build a new MSP headquarters in downtown Lansing.  And just to sweeten the pot, they made sure that A) the new building wouldn't be large enough to house all of the MSP operations, necessitating additional facilities, B) made sure there was a massive yearly lease to replace that all-together-too-reasonable $1 rate and C) made sure Democrat sugar daddy Joel Ferguson, a long-time ultra high dollar donor to Democratic candidates and causes and a personal friend of Governor Granholm got the contract to do the development and rake in the taxpayer cash.

Attorney General Mike Cox this week informed the legislature that legally they could get out of the entire brain dead scheme if they simply pulled back the funding.  Yesterday the Senate voted to do just that.  

The GOP Majority amended the State Police budget, SB 253, to strip funding for the "triangle project."  Gretchen Whitmer and her Senate Dem colleagues then voted to protect their donor's payday by attempting to strip the amendment that killed the funding.  They opted to waste $117 million on a new building MSP doesn't want after firing 100 of the men and women for whom it was supposedly being built.

Thankfully their attempts failed and the GOP amendment stuck.

Meanwhile, Troopers across the state are expected in the next few days to vote to dramatically cut their own pay to save their fellow troopers' jobs. Their hearts are unquestionably in the right place.  In an amazing place.  

Only wish the same could be said of Gretchen Whitmer.