Opinion

Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans, Taxes

Lets Throw More Money Away!

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Commission to taxpayers - "Gird your loins."

About that blue ribbon report on education?

Governor RINO-Burger’s newly formed ’21st Century Education Commission’ has performed as expected. One theme seems to stand out.  In the end, all will be well if we follow some not-so-surprising advice from the best socialist minds around. – Free college. Preschool for every child. No more grade levels.

A report released last week from Gov. Rick Snyder’s office offered lofty goals designed to overhaul Michigan’s public education system. The state needs to offer free community college, expand preschool access, and restructure K-12 public schools, the report suggested. District leaders in northwest Michigan agreed, but they’ll need more clarity on the details.

Sure.  why not?

Government employees shilling for expansion of government?  But wait!  More clarity?

“My first question would be if it’s free, who’s paying for it?” asked Sander Scott, superintendent at Glen Lake Community Schools. “That’s what any taxpayer would say. There’ll be a cost to be able to offer these things. … The state is really struggling to fund its public schools so adding more is interesting.”

Yes, “interesting.”
The state is struggling to accurately provide (yes, “accurately.” ‘Adequately’ is a word I would use if it was called for) funding that provides for the best education for our declining youth.  As opined previously, dumping nearly an additional $billion bones into the Detroit school system last year was a seriously flawed legislative act.

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Cronyism, Detroit, Michigan, Opinion

Dan Gilbert Begging For Taxpayer Money Capture – Detroit News Says Please Give.

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Imagine if all industries were subsidized with capture process.

Set the example, right?

Cronyism is still alive and well, and Detroit interests still have their hands out. And maybe it’s not JUST the developers? Detroit’s high taxes, and expensive operating environment has created impediments to natural growth.

Years after Dan Gilbert took money from taxpayers to move his employees into Detroit where they would pay a new income tax, and endure travel challenges, he want to see more of the bottom of the taxpayer purse through capture strategies. And he has cheerleaders.

The Detroit News has opined in favor of taking money from Michigan families and giving it to big developers to subsidize otherwise unprofitable real estate projects. The News wrote:

“In Detroit and other older Michigan cities, rents are still not high enough to fully offset construction costs without incentive packages.”

If the News extended the same logic to its own situation, we might see something like this in a future editorial:

“In Detroit and other old two-newspaper towns, subscription and ad rates are still not high enough to fully offset continuing operations without incentive packages.  If we were to get subsidies captured from the taxes paid from our employees, our success would be guaranteed, and [those] taxes would increase!”

Just think of the page rent decreases it could offset!

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Government Incompetence, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans, Taxes

Just in case anyone is wondering why Michigan Taxpayers are getting screwed over (again)…

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And what ever happened to that whole “I-BELIEVE-government-must-practice-fiscal-responsibility-and-allow-individuals-to-keep-more-of-the-money-they-earn.” mantra?

All I’ve got to say here is: “Beware of bipartisanship”.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Fees, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Pensions & Retirement Benefits, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Who Rules Michigan?

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The Administrative State or the People?

The titanic political struggle unfolding in Washington is sucking the oxygen out of Michigan politics, but is analogous to the central political struggle which has been playing out here in Michigan for 48 years. Political media breathlessly report on a struggle between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. This struggle is not between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, nor RINOs and true believers. The Democrats, liberals, and RINOs are completely discredited in Michigan, as they are across most of the United States. All that remains of them is jammed into the Hillary archipelago.

The present political struggle is between the people and the administrative state. Call it bureaucracy, deep state, or administrative state: they are unelected government employees, their agents in the media, and the select beneficiaries of government largess. Their opponents in this struggle are the majority of Americans and Michiganders who pay the price for the administrative state; a now seething mass whose ascendancy was a rude surprise to the administrative state.

The outcome of the struggle in Washington is yet to be determined, but in Michigan the administrative state is clearly winning despite its total responsibility for the Flint water fiasco. The administrative state owns Governor Snyder body and soul. The administrative state will stop at nothing to manipulate the Michigan Legislature when the chips are down. Refractory (but innocent) legislators are expelled before legal process while cooperative (but guilty) legislators sit unfettered until legal process is completed.

How else can you explain the PA 177 of 2015 road tax package, indistinguishable from the soundly trounced Proposal 2015-01? Or the bogus Detroit bankruptcy which somehow neglected a $ 491 million financial hole which will haunt the city with a vengeance in 2024? Half the city’s annual budget. Or the refusal of Michigan government units at all levels to even consider tax reductions due to the simmering public employee pension catastrophe? Those pensions enjoyed by members of the administrative state are but a distant memory to the Michiganders who pay them.  Indeed, all of Michigan’s units of government are jacking up fees to get around Headlee Amendment taxation limits.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

Moderation

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Post, Comment, Whine. this isn't Facebook.

Sometimes you gotta make the call.

Usually I prefer to let things lay.  If someone posts a comment that is especially rude, it may come down, but there is a high threshold.  Sometimes an article is a little too ‘titillating’ to be allowed, at least on RightMi.com.  Again, it takes a pretty bad piece for me to kick in website survival mode.

Some contributors have no such survival instincts however.  They could care less about the their own reputation, much less that of this site.  And for a conservative web log, the liberal practice of allowing random postings for self (or specialized) promotion has been allowed to continue.

But if your only post is to slander another member of the community here, or to whine about how badly you were treated, it goes into the private (members only section)

I’ll let you figure out how to get there.

 

 

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Conservative News, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Opinion, Republicans

A history lesson is obviously in order.

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Just in case you’ve missed this, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning immigrants from certain nations with ties to islamic terrorism from entering the United States.

As usual, the pundits are working feverishly to spin this, with Team “d” demonstration again why they got their backsides handed to them last November.

Sadly, some Michigan Representative, like Rep. Justin Amash, either have no problems with seeing dead Americans or they require a remedial lesson in recent US History.

In Rep. Amash’s case, I’m hoping that it is the latter.

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Opinion, Philosophy

Required Reading

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The Law - By Bastiat is a key to reaching those who misunderstand the role of government.

If.

If we could persuade our brothers (sisters) to engage in a thought process that exists outside the politically expedient norms.  If we could UN-indoctrinate the children of selfishness; those who feel it is their right to plunder through government for their personal comfort.

If, with what little comprehension remains for the respect of our nation’s founding, we could encourage enough of our current generational weak-link to read The Law By Frederic Bastiat, it might be easier to bring our nation back to the glory once given it by our creator.

It begins

The Law

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose!
The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.

Life Is a Gift from God

We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life—physical, intellectual, and moral life.
But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.

Life, faculties, production—in other words, individuality, liberty, property—this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

The entire book in PDF form is available from Foundation for Economic Education.
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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Taxes

Nolan Finley really should come out of the closet.

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Supporter of Detroit bailouts and special Detroit tax hikes, a non-libertarian “Libertarian” for president, noted contributor to the democratic party and now this.

This latest rant might have been credible if it weren’t for this.

I’d post that clown pic of him right about now…if I didn’t find that demeaning to actual clowns whose job it is to get people to laugh on purpose.

‘Nuff said.

 

 

 

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Conservative News, Opinion, Philosophy

Quote Of The Day.

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Thomas Sowell is retiring his pen (or keyboard, IBM selectric, whatever).

In one post today, he reflects on how nice it was to be away from the noise of politics, news etc., during a recent outing with friends.  He implies in another, that it is the lessons unlearned which plague our youth with unrealistic expectations and social fantasy.

“The old are not really smarter than the young, in terms of sheer brainpower. It is just that we have already made the kinds of mistakes that the young are about to make, and we have already suffered the consequences that the young are going to suffer, if they disregard the record of the past.”

It’s well worth reading both.

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Fees, Fees, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Taxes

More Trouble With TIF

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Traverse City enables more cronyism in its latest money grab.

Does a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) scheme really work?

It seems that each year, special TIF districts are set up throughout our state in order to promote growth or development of a particular economy or industry.  The revenues raised through a TIF scheme are theoretically targeted, specifically for the district raising the value of that district over a specified period of time.

But does it work well enough and is it worth the effort, and goodwill lost, as it continues to be abused by those who hold the authority?  As voters look at the millage requests on the ballot, they now see the language that reminds them that not-all-of their voted in millage will go where it is intended.

A TIF scheme is done by

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