Read: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2015-HB-4672
Thank you, Sam, come again.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever pay a $500 fine to those in government for smoking a legal product in a personal vehicle.
But, hey, you know what? All those liberal Republicans and their barking moonbat Progressive Left Democrat counterparts just love children to death.
(16)Nuh Uh.
(0)Your Least Loss is Your First Loss
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans told the assembled self very important persons at the Mackinac Policy Conference last Friday that he now believes that his county government can avoid bankruptcy. “He is now comfortable with the options” was the report. Little did he know that, on the very same day, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Lita Popke gave the County 48 hours to pay its retirees $ 49 million dollars to restore their 2010 ’13th check’ retirement benefit. Wayne County told the court flat out that it doesn’t have the money.
The Wayne County Commission voted yesterday to tap most of the last remaining funds in the County’s much abused Delinquent Tax Revolving Fund, however Warren Evan’s subsequent veto threat all but assures that this summer’s county property taxes will increase 1.23 mils to pay this judgement. This property tax increase will not even require a vote of affirmation under the Headlee Amendments to the Michigan Constitution, because it is pursuant to a court order.
’13th checks’ are a devious method of looting pension funds which began in the 1980’s, in Michigan. When some Michigan public pension funds earned more than their targeted rate of return in a year, say 8%, the ‘surplus’ earnings got doled out to retirees in the form of a 13th check. These 13th checks could amount to far more than the pension fund’s actually surplus. Retirees never had to give back their prior 13th check payments when the pension funds dialed up a big loss, so the 13th check was an opportunistic form of looting – not an equitable form of risk & gain sharing. This practice has occurred in state pension plans, county pension plans, and city pension plans across Michigan. The particular problem in Wayne County is that Robert Ficano stripped his pension funds of the 13th check payment funds in 2010 to make his books look better. Worst of all, Wayne County’s pension funds are only about 44% funded and their OPEB’s (retiree medical care, etc.) are essentially unfunded.
Wayne County’s accounting is nebulous, to be charitable. A read of their 2014 CAFR (22 MB document, it took a lot of lipstick to make this dead pig look good!) shows that the County is carrying forward an unassigned deficit of $ 82.8 million, and only got it down to this awful level by diverting $ 91.7 million from their dwindling Delinquent Tax Revolving Fund to their General Fund in 2014. Then, depending upon whom in Wayne County government you are talking to, Wayne County is still losing another $ 4 – $ 5 million each month.
This amounts to something over $ 50 million per year.
(19)Nuh Uh.(1)Or, the “Right Michigan Solution for Fixing Michigan Roads”.
A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Soon enough, you’ve got the makings of a pretty good framework to work within.
If you’re really a Conservative, that is.
If not…well click below for more.
{Continued below the fold}
(12)Nuh Uh.(0)Well, Boobus Michiganderus in CD-12 who elected her, go ahead, explain to the rest of us what the barking moonbat is trying to convey.
Debbie Dingle on roads "You've got to tell your state legislators to get some balls"
— Christopher Klaver (@cklaver) May 29, 2015
Because both the Senate, and House Transportation Committees sure as hell are not doing their jobs when it comes to roads and boondoggle trains? For that matter, this guy, closely aligned with Steudle, and his *special department* sure makes a habit of stumbling around with his thumb up his ass on trains, roads, and other MI-GOP payola, too.
Bottom line. From how a rational mind reads Debbie’s brassy statement is not much different than what our state legislators are doing now: throwing more money at a problem without cutting the wasteful ineptness and blatant corruption within MDOT.
You see otherwise? Drop a comment below.
(22)Nuh Uh.(2)Detroit Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference 2015 Starts Today - You Won't Like The Outcome
Is that a donkey in front of the Grand Hotel?
Later today Michigan’s Self Very Important Persons start checking in at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2015 Mackinac Policy Conference held on Mackinac Island. At $ 2,150 per person for Chamber members and $ 2,925 for Chamber wannabees, average Michiganders will not be much in evidence. The attendees list reads like the last itemized contribution report for SafeRoadsYes!, along with the clueless Michigan politicians who endorsed Proposal 1.
The Detroit Regional Chamber’s “Vision and Pillars” for the 2015 Conference is innocuous enough, but the Conference’s agenda is far less oblique. A host of left luminaries and crony capitalists orbiting Michigan government will be plotting higher taxes, bigger spending, and more vexatious regulations. When they are not drinking.
The official agenda is all about Detroit, Michigan schools, alternative business subsidies, and the roads, but there is also the transformation of Detroit Water & Sewerage Department into the Great Lakes Water Authority lurking in the background. Roads are the most interesting part of the official 2015 Conference agenda, given the near universal support for Proposal 1 amongst the attendees. Despite touting ‘vision’, expect the Conference to endorse new taxes over improved efficiencies and better engineering.
(13)Nuh Uh.(0)Because Teh #ComebackCity and “Reserve your judgment.”
UPDATE: @SenBertJohnson working to quash bench warrant in financial dispute with political fundraising firm http://t.co/WW6HQeDuES #miLEG
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) May 21, 2015
Imagine that…
Johnson has a list of past financial issues including a foreclosure, unpaid child support, evictions, bad debts, unpaid income taxes and he even bounced a check to himself.
Yep. Aren’t y’all glad that RINO Ron and Slick Rick flushed our money down the drain bailing out that cesspool? Me? I’m ecstatic about it, and the next bailout in the wind.
(11)Nuh Uh.(0)Spectacular Death in Michigan No Bar to Success in Washington
While Michiganders were being entertained and infuriated by the lies of Proposal 1 proponents, few of us noticed that the very same roads funding strife is reaching a crescendo in Washington. The Federal Highway Trust Fund spends about $ 50 billion dollars on ‘transportation’ across the U.S.A. each year. Michigan received $ 1.39 billion from the HTF in Fiscal Year 2014 for new construction of roads and bridges, along with mass transit activities. As a point of reference, Michigan spent an additional $ 2 billion of funds raised within the state for the same ‘transportation’ purposes. The Federal HTF paid for 40.9% of Michigan ‘transportation’ spending in FY 2014.
Funded in the past by an $ 0.184 per gallon Federal gasoline tax ($ 0.244 per gallon on diesel fuel), the Highway Trust Fund’s traditional fuel tax revenues have fallen to about $ 34 billion. The Federal government has been supplementing the Highway Trust Fund from general deficit spending revenues since 2008. In Fiscal Year 2014, the Federal government supplemented the Highway Trust Fund with $ 11 billion in general revenues.
How did this happen?
(13)Nuh Uh.(0)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)Slick Rick’s clown-car of gimme, gimme, gimme actors in Detroit, are completely delusional.
Mayor Mike Duggan says he doesn’t expect his proposal for low-cost auto insurance in Detroit to be derailed by the legal troubles of the bill’s planned sponsor, state Sen. Virgil Smith.
According to an article I read while going through Safeco insurance reviews, Duggan told City Council members on Tuesday he is pressing forward with his January timetable for the plan, which would allow auto insurance companies to sell Detroiters lower-cost policies with a maximum of $275,000 in medical coverage for auto-related injuries.
Smith, D-Detroit, who last month announced he would sponsor the proposed legislation, was arrested in connection with an assault and shooting involving his ex-wife.
The mayor stressed Tuesday that Smith’s challenges will not jeopardize the proposal. The next stop, he added, will be to seek a Senate hearing.
“We’re going to do what we’ve got to do and line up our votes,” Duggan told reporters, adding he’s confident that he’ll ultimately gain the support of the Michigan Legislature.
Ya, right. Below is a glaring representative example why insurance rates are higher in the City of Detroit.
Prosecutor charges Sen. Virgil Smith with charged with Felonious Assault, MDOP $20,000 or more, Domestic Violence A&B and Felony Firearm.
— Gongwer News Service (@GongwerMichigan) May 12, 2015
So, which legislator would like to sign his name to Duggan and Snyder’s special carve out? Better yet, which legislator would like to put his name next to a vote for that?
Good luck.
(14)Nuh Uh.(1)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)
