We expected the gas tax increase to bring about a $0.07 gas, and $0.11 diesel bump, but ..
We are getting reports from around the state show increases are a little higher. In Traverse City, Gasoline that was at $2.33 per gallon jumped to $2.47, and stations with $2.35 gas jumped to $2.59. It seems there is some confusion caused by the GOP led legislature’s ‘Christmas’ present of 2015.
What is happening where you are at?
(8)Nuh Uh.
(0)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
(14)Nuh Uh.(0)With Michigan's upcoming confiscatory registration hikes, its time! - Save 20% by renewing early.
Michigan vehicle owners can renew their registrations up to 6 months ahead of time.
If your tabs are going to be due from now till June, its time to act to save a few bucks. Using Express SOS, you can avoid the 20% markup this year that our tax hungry legislature and governor have in store as-of Jan 1, 2017.
You’re welcome.
(10)Nuh Uh.(0)Asked often enough about government: "Is this even legal? "
One might question the way in which money can be transferred to ‘cover’ other expenses.
We know that pensions are untouchable, but in times of financial distress, some governmental entities are finding out that health care is NOT off the table. However, others are developing more abusive ways to maintain the ‘status-quo.’ From Bloomfield TWP:
Bloomfield Township taxpayers have been receiving higher and higher bills for water and sewer each year. Yet in a controversial 5-2 vote in late 2015, Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees transferred $2.76 million of the fees collected from the citizens water/sewer bills and deposited those millions into a Retired Employees Health Care Trust.
Can you say “turning a fee into a tax?”
Is there any wonder why some might say that creativity in government can be a bad thing?
(15)Nuh Uh.(0)Snyder's Email Dump Is Most Notable for What It Doesn't Show: Management
Governor Snyder went way out on a political limb supporting Proposal 2015-01. By the time this limb broke off at the polls on May 5th, his only remaining allies were MDoT, MITA, and Michigan’s nitwit media.
MDoT’s Director, Kirk T. Steudle, P.E. received lavish, flattering coverage in our nitwit media throughout the road funding proposal campaign. The Transportation Asset Management Council, an MDoT tool, packaged an avalanche of lies in glossy pamphlets for public consumption. An entirely fictitious Washington think tank, TRIP, used inside MDoT information to issue even more incredulous lies. Governor Snyder parroted these titillating lies thoughout his Proposal 1 media campaign. He was entirely comfortable promoting the agenda of his ‘technical experts’.
Pre SB 571 campaign finance law allowed us to watch MITA spend $ 5.4 million supporting this turkey, more than half the total spent by Safe Roads Yes! The Michigan Infrastructure and Transporatation Association is ostensibly a bunch of independent, competitive contractors. Somehow a fractious bunch of competitors planned and executed a well coordinated – if entirely devious – political campaign.
How did they coordinate?
How did this presage the Flint water fiasco?
(15)Nuh Uh.(0)Water Has A Very Special Attribute In Southeast Michigan
You probably think the water which comes out of the taps in your house is for drinking and washing. You would be wrong. Michigan drinking water is first and foremost a mechanism for Michigan politicians to evade limits imposed upon them by the Headlee Amendment. You probably think Michigan water systems have quality as their top concern. You would be wrong. Michigan water departments are directed to maximize revenue by their political masters. These unfortunate facts are the genesis of Flint’s sorry water quality.
Michigan’s lefties and the ignorati in our media have fabricated a popular history of the Flint water situation which begins with Governor Snyder and his emergency managers on 25 April 2014, the date Flint started drawing its drinking water from the Flint River. Craven emergency managers appointed by Governor Snyder plotted to poison Flint residents to save a few bucks. The truth is rather different.
The history of this calamity actually begins in 1978, when the Headlee Amendment to Michigan’s Constitution was passed by outraged Michigan voters.
(26)Nuh Uh.(3)
Do you remember reading any stories about a Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in Genesee County during 2014 or 2015, or this year before last Wednesday? I don’t, and neither does Google. Nor do companies which specialize in tracking Legionnaires’ Disease. It was a real shock when Governor Snyder announced Wednesday that Genesee County had recently experienced 87 cases of this disease, 10 of which were fatal.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services quickly put up a ‘FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE’ web page describing two sequential Genesee County Legionnaires’ Disease outbreaks. A first outbreak from June 2014 to March 2015, followed by a second from May 2015 to November 2015. This web page provides a dead link to a June 2015 preliminary report and a live link to a May 29, 2015 dated summary of the report created by Susan Bohm of the MDHHS Communicable Disease Division on June 4 2015. The Bohm summary was then modified by someone on Wednesday January 13, 2016 at 3:21:26 PM. The Bohm summary only covers the first, June 2014 to March 2015 outbreak, not the subsequent May 2015 to November 2015 outbreak which was developing as her summary was being written.
Governor Snyder said on Wednesday that he had just become aware of this outbreak. You are expected to believe that functionaries deep in the bowels of MDHHS were not communicating with either the Governor or their own superiors, for six months. The Bohm summary specifically and painstakingly categorizes those victims of the first Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak who were exposed to Flint water. Flint water quality was a blazing issue at the beginning of June 2015. This report and the Bohm summary didn’t make it to the Governor’s office at the speed of light? No one in the Michigan government would lie to the public, would they?
The fundamental question here is whether the Genesee County Legionnaires’ Disease outbreaks are related to the coincidental Flint drinking water quality – or lack thereof. Governor Snyder and MDHHS say such a connection has yet to be made scientifically, but they are investigating. Marc Edwards, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech said “that it’s not 100% sure” that the outbreak of Legionnaires’ is tied to the change to Flint River water, but the association “looks very strong.”
Professor Edwards agrees with Governor Snyder and MDHHS that, even if the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak is associated with Flint River water sourcing, the risk is over now that Flint has returned to Detroit water. However Ms. Bohm’s summary declared the first June 2014 to March 2015 outbreak over, just as the subsequent May 2015 to November 2015 outbreak was developing.
Are outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease in Genesee County now history?
Did Flint’s October switch to Detroit water end the possibility of another outbreak?
Will corrosion control measures really suppress Legionella pneumophila in Flint water?
(18)Nuh Uh.(3)Flint Water Quality is Now a Presidential Campaign Issue
Governor Snyder’s many attempts to deflect responsibility and and tamp down adverse media coverage of the Flint water situation are failing miserably. Snyder cannot make a public appearance without getting peppered with antagonistic questions about the circumstances behind the Flint water sourcing change. National International media are now all over this story, and their coverage is ugly. Democrats are having a field day promoting the ‘uncaring Republican’ meme. This story is going to really hurt the Republican Party’s 2016 Presidential nominee unless it is spiked quickly. Hillary Clinton is already using it.
Snyder’s ineptitude at handling the Flint situation, plunging from a deep hole into the abyss, also creates great risks for taxpayers across Michigan. We have already pointed out that skilled, predatory legal vultures are circling the Michigan Treasury. The torrent of adverse publicity will predispose any jury they impanel to hammer the State of Michigan financially. Now a variety of self-interested parties within and without Flint are proposing an avalanche of new, State-paid goodies for the citizens of Flint. These acts of contrition will be paid for by Michigan taxpayers who played no role in the Flint water situation and will not receive any benefit from a lavish expenditure of their hard earned dollars.
Snyder’s political career is over, but he will enjoy his remaining days living in well earned obscurity akin to his mentor Bill Milliken. You can safely bet that our accountant-in-chief will use his single real world skill to avoid paying the penance for his decisions. Michigan taxpayers, Republicans, and conservatives will take the big hit here.
(20)Nuh Uh.(4)
The standard form required to request an absentee ballot in the upcoming March 8th Michigan presidential primary is now available online as a .pdf file here. The large print version of the application for the visually impaired as a .pdf is here. Completing and filing this application also gets you the ballot(s) for any local candidates and/or issues also voted on in March. Note that you have to designate your political party preference on this request form to receive the presidential primary ballot you wish to vote. A neat way to get you into someone’s big data file.
Just download this application form, fill it out, and mail it to your clerk. Completed applications which request an absentee ballot be mailed to you must be received by your clerk no later than 2:00 PM on Saturday, 05 March. However, this is cutting things awful close. You will receive your absentee ballot in the return mail, but bear in mind that U.S. Postal Service First Class mail is running slow in the age of Obama. Late absentee ballots are not counted and this has become a significant issue as of late.
You will probably have to mail your ballot by Thursday, 03 March to be assured that your clerk receives your ballot by election day. You can always hand deliver (or have a friend deliver) an absentee ballot to your clerk before the polls close on election day.
(9)Nuh Uh.(0)Canadian Economic Collapse and Extravagant Liberal Party Campaign Promises Doom Governor Snyder's Bridge
The estimated cost of constructing the NITC DRIC Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit and Windsor has now more than tripled since the Canada agreed to fund the entire cost back in June 2012. Its total cost, including interest payments, is now over four times the 2012 estimate. The recent, sharp collapse in the value of the Loonie – the Canadian currency – is being blamed. But it appears that deliberate lying cost underestimation in 2012 and project creep over the last 30 months play a much bigger role in the eyepopping new cost estimates.
Financial markets trade the U.S. Dollar and the Canadian Dollar back and forth as ‘USDCAD‘, which is the equal value ratio of Loonies per greenback. The higher USDCAD is, the weaker the Loonie. USDCAD is now quoted around 1.40 (1.4 Loonies per greenback). The Loonie was 37% stronger back in June 2012 when Governor Snyder and then Canadian Prime Minister Harper worked out their agreement; USDCAD was then about 1.02.
Direct construction costs are now estimated to be C$ 2 billion ($ 1.43 billion USD) higher than the C$ 973 million ($ 950 million USD) estimate touted back in 2012. A 37% increase due to currency adjustments would be only $ 360 million (USD), so we know the 2012 deliberate lie underestimation was in the vicinity of $ 1.64 billion (USD). Additionally, the collapse of the Loonie now requires the establishment of a C$ 1.5 billion ($ 1.07 billion USD) reserve to offset the expected rise in Canadian dollar denominated bond interest rates. The Canadian government bond yield curve has doubled at its short end since the middle of September 2015 in response to the collapse of the Loonie. The Gordie Howe Bridge will be financed at those higher Canadian bond interest rates. The total Canadian government cost estimate is now C$ 4.8 billion ($ 3.43 billion USD).
Harper’s Conservative government was defeated in October of last year after NDP voters abandoned their own party for the elysian promises of Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party. Virtually the same promises our Dear Leader made in 2008 – ‘Hope and Change’ recycled for a northern audience. Harsh reality is already wrecking the promises Trudeau made to win the October election, so will the Canadian government continue to throw money at an unneeded bridge?
(14)Nuh Uh.(3)
