Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

Click It Or Ticket Force Zones Ramp Up

Never happy enough with mere taxation and over burdening regulatory efforts, state officials want to remind you who is boss.

Michigan State Police are stepping up efforts to imprint their thumbs on Michigan motorists this coming holiday weekend.

Ever since the seat belt legislation was foisted upon a gullible electorate, millions of dollars have been used to cajole, threaten, and punish drivers who have threatened no one’s safety but their own. Since the inception of the law that was NEVER meant to be a primary offense, TENS OF THOUSANDS of citizens of our great lake state have been harassed by authoritative desires of some in law enforcement, and have had their 4th amendment rights violated under the guise of suspicion that they were not properly buckled in.

From the state department of propaganda today (with commentary inserted):

May 18, 2015

Seat_Belt_Law_Graphic_-_Web_489461_7For the first time, federally funded seat belt enforcement efforts will take place in all 83 Michigan counties to help jump start an increase in seat belt use and reduce traffic deaths and injuries. Starting today through May 31, police departments, sheriff’s offices and the Michigan State Police will conduct stepped up seat belt enforcement as part of the annual Click It Or Ticket campaign.

According to Joshua, a personal injury lawyer in Peoria Az, the enhanced effort coincides with the 15th year since Michigan adopted a law allowing law enforcement officers to stop motorists for not being buckled up. According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, 2,659 lives have been saved since the law began in 2000 as a result of substantially higher belt use. States with primary enforcement laws have higher rates of seat belt use.

15 years of jackboot tyranny, now enhanced courtesy of an overreaching federal bureaucracy.

You Betcha! (29)Nuh Uh.(2)

Senate Passes Prevailing Wage Repeal

The state senate passed a repeal of the prevailing wage law, which forces the government to overpay for construction projects.  The bill passed 22-15, with five Republicans voting no.

Five Republicans – Sens. Mike Kowall of White Lake, Tom Casperson of Escanaba, Mike Nofs of Battle Creek, Tory Rocca of Sterling Heights and Dale Zorn of Ida – joined all the Democrats in opposing the three bills.

Many of them previously opposed Right to Work.

Kowall – supported Right to Work – term-limited in 2018
Casperson – opposed Right to Work – term-limited in 2018
Nofs – opposed Right to Work – term-limited in 2018
Rocca – opposed Right to Work – term-limited in 2018
Zorn – opposed Right to Work (in the state house) – up for re-election in 2018

Notably, Mike Green and Ken Horn, who voted against Right to Work, voted for this bill.

You Betcha! (9)Nuh Uh.(0)

Did Proposal 1 Decamp to Washington?

Spectacular Death in Michigan No Bar to Success in Washington

Government Spending Image 3While 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?

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From each according to their ability…to each according to their need – Part, oh, whatever

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}

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Really?

There is enough evidence to demonstrate pay increases have not been earned.

Perhaps we take a different look at how we compensate our legislators (and maybe most of the top level bureaucrats)

Perhaps we do away with all of the term limit nonsense, and decrease the salaries of those who remain in government (YES including those who are high dollar appointees) by 10% each year to encourage them to return to the private sector.

Maybe THAT would be the direction pay should go in the future?

Check this out.

You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(0)

Weasel Words? Really? We can do much better than that!

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}

You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(1)

Mackinac Center’s ‘VoteSpotter’ Application for Smartphones

A Useful Political Intelligence Tool for Political Junkies

VoteSpotter JPG Image
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.

You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(1)

Protecting The Brand

We have an opportunity to clean up the way in which Republican candidates are selected.

This weekend the Michigan Republican State Committee will likely vote on a motion submitted by Tom McMillin to rescind the Open Primary rules that were passed last year.

Generally, many of us who are still in the GOP have decried the corrupting influence of those who could give a rats ass about the platform; a platform which is perfectly reasonable if it was honored.   A couple days ago, Tom wrote to state committee members

Dear fellow State Committee members
Attached is an FAQ regarding rescinding the Open Primary rules passed by the prior state committee.

This year’s state committee, not last year’s, will administer next year’s primary.  We should not shrink back from that responsibility.  It’s clear that Republican activists are tired of people outside our party influencing the primary process, especially when casting votes.

I think it would be wise and healthy for us to reset the table, discuss and debate the options and have the current state committee come to a conclusion.

Sincerely,
Tom McMillin
8th District Chair

I don’t have a copy of the FAQ at this time, but have learned to trust McMillin’s instinct on items like this.

And frankly, we’ve seen the damaging effects of the corrupting influence.

You Betcha! (15)Nuh Uh.(2)