First off, I’d just like to thank those who have sent in suggestions so far for “The Right Michigan Solution for Fixing Michigan Roads” (and yes, I have gotten a few already). I’ve got an update that I like to pass along after the fold.
And for the record, the title of this post isn’t referring to these “poor” schemps.
{More below the fold}
(4)Nuh Uh.
(0)You people in Lansing are supposed to be Conservatives. Why not try acting like a Conservative for a change?
There is an axiom that everyone has probably heard numerous times already that goes something like this: “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.”
A friend of mine would add in a second line to that to make it a little bit more interesting…”Those who fail to learn the lesson of history correctly, well they are just plain doomed.”
It strongly looks like were seeing that second line play out here in Michigan after the defeat of Proposal 1.
This time around, though, it doesn’t have to end that way.
{More after the fold}
(7)Nuh Uh.(1)A Useful Political Intelligence Tool for Political Junkies
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has created a free, interactive smartphone app which tracks state and federal bills pending floor action and your legislators’ votes.on those bills. This useful app is called VoteSpotter and has has been debugged to the point where it works well. There are only about 1,000 Android users of this app presently, but it is growing in popularity. It is available from both the Google PlayStore and the Apple IOS App Store.
You enter your voting address and the program determines your state and federal representatives from its database. Then you receive regular notifications of impending legislation soon to be voted upon by those legislators, described in plain English. You can then contact your legislator on any legislation for which you receive a notification, indicate your preference before the vote, and then concur or disagree with your legislator after the vote. Legislators have access to the ‘polls’, but not your individual information unless you elect to send them an email through the program.
Mackinac Center is now in the process of extending this application beyond the State of Michigan.
(7)Nuh Uh.(1)Join Conservatives from across the state at the Michigan Conservative Action Conference in Troy. <- Get your tickets today.
(8)Nuh Uh.(2)Spending Money Is Not Leadership
Kwame’s and Bobbie’s ‘Bridge of Bucks’ over Telegraph Road
Now that Michigan voters have mercilessly dispatched Proposal 1 to the garbage can of history, lets talk a bit about the philosophy of a truly effective plan to get Michigan’s roads and bridges up to par. This will provide a proper foundation for developing a ‘Plan B’ which will actually improve Michigan’s roads and bridges, and be acceptable to the population as well.
The underlying premise of Proposal 1 was that the only action required to fix up Michigan’s roads and bridges was injecting big money into the Michigan Transportation Fund. The depraved philosophy of modern American government. Not true and the voters knew it. But Michigan’s power elite believed that opposition could be neutralized by icing a pile of feces with chocolate frosting. Didn’t work despite a lavish $ 10 million effort.
The condition of Michigan’s roads and bridges has only a casual relationship with the funds available in the MTF. In 2014, 11% of MTF funds were siphoned off by various State of Michigan Departments in the form of charge backs for ‘services’ rendered to the MTF, as well as priority grants that have little to do with roads and bridges. Debt service is also a component of this 11%, but that is effectively a payment for previous time preferences of bureaucrats and politicians. Then 9.5% of the remainder was diverted to the Comprehensive Transportation Fund for mass transit. Finally, the MTF was partitioned amongst the State Trunkline Fund (36%), county road agencies (34.6%), and cities (19.8%). In each partition, further funds are siphoned off by charge backs, pension payments, and OPEBs. What’s left for the roads is more a function of politicians and bureaucrats preferences at every level than the amount of money front loaded into the MTF.
So how do we proceed? First develop a philosophy to frame and inform the ‘Plan B’ debate. After the fold.
(10)Nuh Uh.(0)While still remaining cautiously optimistic on the results of today’s vote, I would still like to take the high road here and avoid doing “a victory lap”, even one that is well deserved.
That been said, one of the pat responses that I can practically guarantee will come from Lansing in the coming days is the worn out lament that “there is nowhere to cut”.
You know that this is bunk.
I know that this is bunk.
The answers are there.
The clip below is just one example of where substantial savings can be found from Lansing.
(9)Nuh Uh.(0)Just dusting off one of a few old projects that I’ve had one hell of a time trying to finish up over the past few weeks.
Composing a post on a tablet is relatively easy compared to trying to edit something on video. Even moreso when the truck is moving
Watching the local news this afternoon gave me the final push to finish things up before tomorrow.
(5)Nuh Uh.(0)Awkwardness in the House: @CindyGamrat is withdrawing each of her amendments, one-by-one. There are 23 on a list I saw. Twenty-three.
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) April 28, 2015
This better have something to do with Plan “B”.
‘Nuff said!
(5)Nuh Uh.(1)Has MITA's Spending Now Slammed Into Its Members' Financial Limits?
MITA (Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association) just added $ 205,000 to the SafeRoadsYes! war chest yesterday. Not much when you consider that they have already lavished $ 5.19 million on SRY. The Detroit Regional Chamber‘s ‘Powering the Economy’ PAC political committee, on the other hand, went one better and added $ 250,000 to the SafeRoadsYes! war chest yesterday. Dwarfs their $ 125,000 in contributions during the regular reporting period. The Detroit Regional Chamber contribution far exceeds the $ 17,105 DRC reportedly had on hand only a few days ago. Someone has given Powering the Economy a lot of money this week, but we won’t be privileged to know whom for three months. Both of these contributions were made to SRY on April 27th, three days after the closing date for the SafeRoadsYes! pre-special general report.
SafeRoadsYes! has evidently burned through the $ 8 million plus they received in contributions during the regular reporting period and is now heading towards a $ 9 million cash burn. Hard to tell how much SRY have spent with any exactitude, the latest figures from April 24th show expenditures of $ 7.212 million. But they had a balance of $ 843,482 on that date which is presumably gone or going quickly. Expect more thrilling stunts and stimulating advertising in any event. Their war chest just got reloaded.
The paltry late contribution from MITA, taken together with the outsized contribution from the Detroit Regional Chamber, suggests that MITA is scraping the bottom of their member’s bank accounts. Or that they are employing a new form of campaign contribution concealment, feeding contributions through DRC’s Powering the Economy so contributors’ identities won’t be reported until after the election. Their servants in Michigan’s media reported the outsized involvement of road constructors in pushing Proposal 1 this week and it hasn’t played well with the voting public.
Will the Proposal 1 fight decapitalize Michigan’s road constructors? Will they raise their bids to recoup their political expenditures, further draining Michigan’s road funding? Are MITA and DRC gaming Michigan’s campaign finance laws to avoid any further embarrassing disclosures? Or have we just found out what $ 1.2 billion in additional annual contracts are really worth in profits to Michigan’s road constructors?
(11)Nuh Uh.(0)
Not willing to be out lied by their frenemies in Michigan’s business community, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) created an entirely bogus propaganda by crushing an old school bus with a piece of bridge, complete with guard rail. It will be a featured propaganda for their ‘Getting Schooled in Infrastructure’ tour which commenced in Flint today. You are allowed to speculate on their altruistic motives.
Note the ‘white shirt’ law enforcement officer congratulating these union pranksters. Saginaw County Sheriff William L. Federspiel with a new dye job? The same Sheriff who bailed on this year’s Ann Arbor Hash Bash at the last minute? His ‘honor students’ in Saginaw took a breather so the good Sheriff could visit the only county in Michigan with a higher murder rate? Oh, I forgot, he doesn’t want any of his sensitive deputies exposed to the horrors of Saginaw, the city. Unless they can ride around in an MRAP. How much damage does an MRAP do to our roads, might you ask?
You can bet dollars to donuts he won’t sic a motor carrier officer on this illegal, unsecured load. Under any other circumstances, a trucker hauling this load around Michigan would get an impressive collection of ‘green stamps’ and an overnight stay in the crowbar hotel. An opportunity to try on Federspiel’s natty new black and white jail attire. Who said political convenience doesn’t tip the scales of justice in Michigan?
Favoritism never crosses the mind of our Michigan leaders. Too busy engaging in media opportunism.
(21)Nuh Uh.(0)
