Rent Seeking

They say Complete Streets is a goal?

OK, I’m first to admit that I have totally overlooked the therapeutic benefits of our fuel tax dollars going towards creating bike lanes on congested potholed roadways, and other resourse expenditures such as, Rick Snyder’s “Showcase” $1,000,000.00 per mile bicycle path.

How silly of me to discourage Progressive folks such as Rick Snyder in his pursuit of Jennifer Granholm’s utopian but costly agenda. To borrow one commenter’s expression with regard to BAMN in other topic, “suck it” John Lindenmayer.

Video H/t to Irish’s salute to Earth Day

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“Take a Vote, Not a Vacation”

Remember the last time you heard those infamous words blasted in the Mitten? I do. We all ended up with Snydercaid Expansion. How did that work out? Well, now we have a Speaker of the House walking back on his $25 fee per insured vehicle he brazenly sneaked in to fund Snydercaid Expansion that he and SML Richardville, knew damned well was unfunded within a House proposal of allegedly lowering vehicle insurance rates, which coincidentally, the insurance industry is lobbying for just as they did with “no-fault” decades prior because… it would keep rates low.

OK, so? Where is this post going, CS?

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Yep, it’s an Election Year

The tax hiking surrender monkey majority in Lansing, led by none other than a duplicitous twit from Livonia, lets the retaliation cat out of the bag.

Unionized police and firefighters could again receive retroactive pay raises through new contracts under legislation being considered in the state House that would exempt them from a 2011 law.

The Legislature three years ago outlawed retroactive pay raises for unionized local government workers for time periods when they were working under an expired contract.

But state Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, said the law was meant to be aimed only at public school employees and was not intended to cover police and firefighters, whose unions are governed by a different collective bargaining law.

Because those within the union of First Responders are Heroes™ propaganda, oh, say like this example here, have way more enforcement value to a politician than those within the MEA?

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The Rural Michigan Squeeze

chainedIt took a little time for it to sink in, but Michigan’s legislature may have made the same mistake with ATT, that was made with BCBS.

Consider the decades of [government enforced] monopoly protections and the ability to hang their lines exclusively prior to deregulation. A compact that allowed ATT to profit heavily through its stand alone status, was then modified to ATT’s desires during the breakup of the bell system in 1974. Also consider the effects on small rural operators that rely on ATT for service access.

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The Arlen Specter Model for Hiking our Fuel Tax and Registration Fees

Folks, let’s begin by refreshing our memories with example of what a Pennsylvania Republican did for Obamacare by clicking HERE. Got it? Good. Now, let’s refresh our memories with looking at a career of being fed from the taxpayer’s wallet produces with this Lefty fear-mongering creep Bill Rustem, by clicking HERE. Got it? Good.

Now, BOHICA.

Snyder’s strategy director, Bill Rustem, said the state may try to follow a road funding game plan that was recently executed in Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled state government.

In November, lawmakers in the Keystone State boosted annual road funding by $2.3 billion through a gas-tax hike and gradual increase in vehicle license fees, said Bradley Mallory, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“The price of doing nothing is higher than the price of not addressing the problem, including delay, detours, safety and including death,” Mallory said. “Doing nothing is not free. It is, in fact, enormously expensive.”

Pennsylvania’s success “gives us hope,” Rustem said, and “gives us a game plan for seeing this achieved sometime this year.”

Ah, the smell of Hopium™ and fear fills the atmosphere in Lansing, as the Obama and Milliken-esque is strong in this one guiding Dear Leader, the Progressive Nerd. Finding $200M of “shared sacrifice” with repealing Prevailing Wage from the union brotherhood to fix our roads?

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Shirkey: New Report Shows Electricity Competition Works

Illinois Study Clarifies Free Markets Provide Better Value

energyMike Shirkey says a new report shows electric monopolies cost families and job providers billions, and cripples local economies.

We knew that.

Apparently an Illinois study offers overwhelming Support for reforms Similar to Michigan House Bill 5184. State Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) highlighted the report today showing a dramatic $37 billion in consumer savings in nearby Illinois since that state replaced its monopoly-style electric system with competition and customer choice.  The report cites an $18 billion in savings for residential customers and $19 billion for companies and job providers.  Chicken feed. Yes?

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