Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

It Only Gets Worse

Taxes that increase every year to keep up with inflation.

STOP-167Say What?

We have used the 16.7% tax increase in the stop sign logo, (at the right) and will continue to do so.  However, it is hardly a complete look at the tax implications if proposal 15-1 were to pass. We are attempting to find all the ways in which our prior legislative session gave us the shaft, including train to nowhere projects, redistribution of wealth, and the fuel tax replacement components.

Folks might actually be aware of the replacement fuel tax and that it will be more than what the was tax was before. Presumably, it simply replaces the sales tax that has been collected on fuel, that does not go toward roads.  However, when one looks at the analysis done by the House Fiscal Agency, there is a paragraph that explains the mechanism accurately; and in particular, a line at the end of that paragraph points out an easily missed point.

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Michigan Political Math: $ 1.2 Billion = $ 1.08 Billion

Mass Transit Skims $ 120 Million from Proposal 2015-01 Road Work Funds

Train Wreck ImageEver hear of the Michigan Comprehensive Transportation Fund? Ten cents of every Michigan fuel tax dollar gets diverted to this mass transportation slush fund.  It is only just behind the sales tax as a diversion of your current fuel tax dollars from Michigan’s roads.

All motor vehicle fuel taxes collected in the State of Michigan are first deposited into the Michigan Transportation Fund. Then MCL 247.660 (1)(f) (Public Act 51 of 1951) dictates that 10% of the funds deposited in the Michigan Transportation Fund be immediately transferred to the Comprehensive Transportation Fund. The amended version of MCL 247.660 you are being offered in Proposal 2015-01 has the very same section (1)(f), making the same 10% immediate diversion.

So the $ 1.2 billion that Proposal 2015-01 supporters are promising you for road work is actually only $ 1.08 billion.  Kirk T. Steudle, P.E. gets a whole new stash to maintain and expand his stable of rotting train cars, $ 120 million that cannot be spent on the roads by law.  $ 120 million that gets skimmed from the $ 1.2 billion you are being promised for the roads.  And no, it is not skimmed from the $ 800 million that Proposal 2015-01 dedicates to the Democratic base.

Now you now know how Michigan political math works in the age of Common Core.  Pay $ 2 billion for roads, get $ 1 billion in road work.

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And this year’s award for most original tax hike goes to…

And our nominees are:

Gov. Rick Snyder’s 16.7% sales tax hike raising $1.945-billion in order to spend $1.2-billion on roads.

– Sen. Rick Jones/Rep. Tom Barret’s school tax (extrapolating the same supporting arguments from the above can be easily made here).

Rep Joel Johnson’s horse-drawn vehicle tax (no, I’m serious…this guy really wants a tax horse drawn carriages).

Rep. Robert Kosowski “sinking fund” school bus tax.

Oh, and there’s one more.

{After the fold, of course}

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We’re 31st!

FFI 2015 Overall Rankings Screen-Shot

The twenty-five year old John Locke Foundation has just released its First in Freedom Index for 2015. The Freedom Index ranks states for the level of freedom allowed their citizens in four weighted areas of policy:

Fiscal: 50%
Education: 20%
Regulation: 20%
Health Care: 10%

Michigan ranks 31st overall among the states in the Freedom Index. Dismal per capita levels of state taxes, spending, and regulation weighed down Michigan’s rankings. Michigan’s ranking in the individual policy categories are:

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Happy Deer in Michigan

Michigan Hunters Not So Happy

Happy Deer

DNR just slyly reported that Michigan hunting license sales dropped to 729,000 in 2014, a 4.2% drop from 2013 sales and the all time low in data extending way back to 1958. This drop is even worse than the numbers suggest, since the new HB 4668 hunting license rules require base licenses for hunting activities which did not require licenses in previous years. And if you believe President Obama and his statistical mathmagicians, the U.S. economy surged at a 5% GDP growth rate in 2014Q3 just before Michigan’s traditional firearms deer season. Michigan’s population increased by 11,684 people in 2014, the third consecutive annual increase. So the number of hunters should have increased in 2014? But the number of hunters in Michigan dropped, and hunter numbers declined because license fees skyrocketed under HB 4668 of 2013.

The most popular hunting license prices increased 50 – 100 % under the new 2014 fee schedule, although a direct comparison is not possible because the licenses were restructured under HB 4668 to ‘simplify’ the license schedule. Even though the DNR has not released license sales dollar amounts yet, we can still sketch out the doleful effect of the DNR hunting license fee increases on Michigan’s staggering economy.

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A Good Start

Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform designed to restore 5th amendment protections.

presser-walber-randThe constitution laid out the responsibilities and roles of the different parts of the federal government.

However to clarify its scope and the limits, it was necessary to enact the bill of rights.  And over the years, as different administrations championed their own versions of judicial conduct, even THAT became corrupted in application. Business owners and citizens have had to fight the leviathan of big government simply to retrieve confiscated property that was either improperly taken, or destroyed by overly zealous authority, even without criminal charges being filed.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Reps Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) are hoping to correct this, and once again clarify the meaning of due process, and restore the value of the 5th amendment. The Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act is apparently designed to do that.

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Video Of The Day – Special Interest Deals

"Oh Yeah .. You Did.."

Classic “vote No” television ad as the first salvo in the epic failure that will be Proposal 15-1

The original ‘grubering’ in Washington merely required the power hungry congress critters to stick the fork in the voters.  In this new catastrophic mess, it requires full participation in the self flagellation.

Indeed, effective ads need to mock the stupidity that are presented in the proposals appropriately.

This one does the job well enough.

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Because It Works So Well

Lansing politicos promoting more racial divisiveness, and now?

Due to a groundswell of race related denial of service, access restrictions and increasing public pressure, lawmakers are going to act!

Recognizing the tongue planted firmly in cheek above, we can only speculate the reasons that State Senator Rick Jones (R) Might be the primary sponsor for such an effort as Senate Bill 90, “A bill to create an African-American affairs commission, an office of African-American affairs,” etc.. Maybe there is a trade off for something he wants, a job for a dear friend, or simple ‘white guilt?’  Perhaps he is lost in a time warp?

I mean really, doesn’t he know that ‘ghey’ is the new ‘black?’

The reality is that the last thing Michigan needs is another way to blow taxpayer resources by promoting the divisive cataloging of its citizens by race.  At some point full equality means equal blindness by lawmakers and bureaucrats with regard to how public resources are used and allocated.  It also demands an equal responsibility for each individual to stand on his own merit for an equal treatment under the law.

And we cannot understand why Jones and several other GOP sponsors would AGAIN want to grow government. We get the view of the Democrat sponsors, as race baiting and divisive pandering is an established platform of their party, but from the party which believes “that the best government is that which governs least?” It makes no sense to add a new department that requires new office space, full time administrative staff, and all for the express purpose of continuing to validate the absurd idea that any one racial population still needs special dispensation from the government.

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Where Did Lorence Wenke’s Votes Come From?

The closest state legislative race in Michigan in 2014 was in state senate district 20, which is coterminous with Kalamazoo County. The district was vacated by Republican senator Tonya Schuitmaker, who ran for reelection in a neighboring district due to redistricting.

The Republican candidate was 61st district state rep Margaret O’Brien of Portage. The democrat candidate was 60th district state rep Sean McCann of Kalamazoo. Both are fairly typical representatives of their parties.

Aside from the closeness of the race, there was another complicating factor. Former state rep Lorence Wenke ran as a Libertarian after having originally filed to run in the Republican primary. Wenke was a moderate Republican state rep 2002-2008. He had an eclectic platform emphasizing support for gay rights and support for cutting government employee benefits. In the course of the campaign, he announced support for several tax increases and other un-libertarian policies.

The election results, after a recount, were

O’Brien 36645 (45.6%)
McCann 36584 (45.5%)
Wenke 7171 (8.9%)

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