The DPS Bail Out Can Be Spiked By Defeating Just One State House RINO
The six bills (PA 192 – 197 of 2016) of the Detroit Public School bail out package passed in the Michigan House of Representatives by margins of 55 – 53 to 60 – 48. The same six bills passed in the Michigan Senate by margins of 19 – 18 to 21 – 16. Close votes; over 50% + 1 but nowhere near two-thirds. And these close votes were only obtained after an entirely false narrative of doom and gloom was presented to the Legislature. This is becoming a major issue in the August 2nd primaries which Michigan’s nitwit media are conveniently ignoring.
Attorney Thomas H. Bleakley (P23892) filed a lawsuit (Helen Moore et al v. Rick Snyder, 16-000153-MM) in the Michigan Court of Claims on the 5th of July which alleges that the entire DPS bail out package’s passage was unconstitutional; the claim being it was in fact a collection of local acts according to the Michigan Constitution of 1963. Local acts require two-thirds legislative vote margins and voter approvals to become law. The six bills of the DPS bail out package were all passed, in both houses of the Michigan Legislature, under the more liberal 50% + 1 voting rule allowed only for general acts.
The Michigan Constitution of 1963, Article IV, Section 29 states “No local or special act shall take effect until approved two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house and by a majority of the electors voting thereon in the district affected….”. Article IV, Section 30 further states that “….two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house of the legislature shall be required for the appropriation of public money or property for local or private purposes.”.
The applicability of Article IV to the DPS bail out votes in the context of Helen Moore et al v. Rick Snyder was discussed Friday in The Ballenger Report. Bill Ballenger, the dean of Michigan political analysts, opposes Attorney Bleakely’s lawsuit but goes into considerable detail on the genuine legal merits of the suit. Rather than reiterate Mr. Ballenger’s fine analysis here, it is well worth reading the original.
The Michigan Court of Claims was established by PA 164 in 2013 to rationalize the handling of claims against the state and, truthfully, to frustrate the less viable claims. Chief Judge Michael J. Talbot will hear Helen Moore et al v. Rick Snyder. It is possible that some or all of Attorney Bleakley’s claims will be thrown out, but it is even more likely that some of Attorney Bleakley’s key claims will be found valid by the Court of Claims. This will spike the incompetently drafted DPS bail out, requiring immediate emergency action by the Michigan Legislature when the decision is handed down.
The Court of Claims will not rule on Helen Moore et al v. Rick Snyder until after the November 8th General Election, and it is likely that both the plaintiffs and the defendant will appeal the eventual Court of Claims rulings to the Michigan Supreme Court. But when the dust settles some time in 2017, there will be a mad scramble in the Michigan Legislature to replace PA 192 – 197 of 2016 with laws that pass constitutional muster. Given the close votes on the original bail out bills, it is unlikely that the Legislature will attempt to affirm these bills with two-thirds votes. It is far more likely that the ‘Detroit First’ RINOs in the Legislature will attempt to redraft the DPS bail out package as ostensible general laws and pass a new DPS bail out with 50% plus 1 votes.
This legal situation underscores the vital importance of this year’s State House primaries coming up on August 2nd. If just one RINO who voted for HB 5384 (PA 192 of 2016) is defeated and replaced with a ‘No’ vote, the 2017 DPS bail out reenactment will fail. This would kill the corrupt, incompetent Detroit Public School system once and for all; forcing it into a genuine bankruptcy action. Voters in Allegan County (the 80th District) and Grand Traverse County (the 104th District) could defeat Representatives Whiteford and Inman who voted for the entire original DPS bail out. Each are opposed in their primaries by genuinely conservative candidates who fully oppose the DPS bail out.
Just how happy are Allegan and Grand Traverse County voters about sending their tax dollars to the corrupt, incompetent Detroit Public Schools? DPS already receives 45% – 75% more per pupil funding from the Michigan General Fund than schoolkids in those western counties, even before the DPS bail out. Will those western county voters demand educational funding equity by throwing out the RINOs who sold their own schoolkids down the Detroit River?
We will know in 9 days.
(18)Nuh Uh.
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10x25MM thank you. I attended a candidate forum for the 104th District put on by the LWV. Present was Inman, Jason Gillman and Dem. Coffey (although she is unopposed in the primary). A question was asked how to restore the disenfranchising of voters with regard to overriding the 80/20% NO vote regarding the gas tax. Inman went on about his 22 years public service and the promise to repair our roads, yadda, yadda, yadda. While both Gillman and Coffey said the 80% NO vote is just that No. This was the only moment where this otherwise stoic crowd reacted.
The lesson here is our legislators are wearing nose rings and being lead out to pasture by party politics. Each and every member of the State House needs to be replaced. And really, this session's antics makes a really good argument for part-time legislature if ever there was one.
Great article.
If the lawsuit prevails:
1. Would the DPS fiasco become the largest attempted theft of taxpayer funds in the history of recorded Michigan law..and..
2. Would anybody even care? (given 10X25's correct assertion that another simple majority law would replace it all the way through the lame duck).
The point being 10x25's that we are but a few districts away (despite our obvious apathy) from gymming up the works again to (unbelievably) have a chance at saving our own bacon despite little or zero to showcase of the effort.
Are we truly down to Allegan and Grand Traverse (without the expectation that each race be handicapped) as the very 'last' holdouts from a dying grassroots movement in this particular election? Only 2 candidates in the entire state willing to debate bankruptcy as a solution..period?
If so, it (failure) will be an ironic and fitting end come January for those who believed that cozying up within the MiGOP country club walls was a LOT more comfortable than leading the charge to break them down/take the party back just outside.
Great strategy...and it worked.
It's pretty hard to remain legitimate as a movement when you are denying convention credentials on one hand, completely shutting out the less economically advantaged on the other or refusing to publish an action plan even so much as 'naming' the most notorious RINOs in each district during an election cycle.
We never fought collectively as we could never figure out who we were fighting (bankruptcy 'blasphemy' does that to 'older folk' especially).