Michigan Political considerations.
Current Michigan State Representative challenges the likely outcome of a current supreme court case.
Gary Glenn talks about the case before the United States Supreme Court at the 2015 MiCPAC Saturday.
(22)Nuh Uh.
(3)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.
(9)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)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?
(12)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)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.
(15)Nuh Uh.(2)Dear Congressmen, you have not done everything in your power yet. The End.
Lying liars.
Frankly that is the first description I have for the Republican Congress critters who have assumed their positions of power in the last few years. Especially given that there have been several ways to stop Obamacare in its tracks; up to, and including impeachment for executive authority run amuck.
Heritage makes a point that there is STILL a way to effectively repeal the ACA, aka: Obamacare. It is called reconciliation, and it merely requires a majority vote in the Senate.
Dan Benishek – Put Up Or STFU. I name you specifically, because you are my congress critter. You are also arguably the most ignorant in Michigan of the power that congress wields. Get this message across to the senate Republicans or get lost. If you leave office and have not even tried to own up to the multiple promises you have made with regard to appeal of the ACA, then you are as much of a worthless liar and cheat as the president.
H/T Abigail
(13)Nuh Uh.(1)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)
