STATE REPRESENTATIVE MIKE SAK (D-GRAND RAPIDS)

There are plenty of Michigan House Democrats who've lied to their constituents and to the voters as they head to the polls, telling them they're anti-tax and then turning around and voting consistently to raise taxes, fines and fees.  Frankly, those sorts of lies are pretty old hat for Michigan's left.  Grand Rapids, though, is the home to a special sort of liar.  

Not that he doesn't do his best to convince his pro-life, blue collar, union friendly district that he's anti-tax.  But 76th District State Representative and likely 2008 Congressional candidate Mike Sak's dishonesty with his constituents runs much deeper than the typical populist platitudes.  

Sak fashions himself a man of the people and a defender of the working man.  You'll often see him in the district with an open blue collar and he's the darling of union bosses statewide.  But does his voting record really protect Grand Rapids residents... or union members, for that matter?  Let's take a quick look at this past year alone, shall we?

Mike Sak got started early when he sponsored House Bill 4261, a measure that taxed hotels in Lansing and Grand Rapids, his own home town, while excluding every other city in the state.  And he's followed that up by being on the wrong side of somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 tax votes in calendar year 2007 alone.

The big votes, obviously, came at the end of September as the legislature stumbled over the budget finish line and approved the largest tax hike in the history of the state of Michigan.  Mike Sak voted YES on the nearly $800 million income tax hike on working moms and dads.  He also voted YES on the $613+ million increase in sales tax on services.

But that's only half the problem.  Well, less than half the problem.  Job makers got together to do the calculations in the month since Sak's vote and realized that compliance with the service tax will cost them an additional $900 million, costs that are passed on to consumers.  All told, Sak's fateful tax hike votes that early October morning cost struggling Michigan residents $2.3 BILLION, creating the largest, most bloated budget in the history of the Great Lakes State.

Hardly votes that protect the working man.  And, shockingly, hardly the worst of it.  That same evening Mike Sak voted NO on MESSA reform that aims to send $400 million a year into the classroom to help our teachers provide the very best for our kids.  The reform just plain makes sense.  Take the cash out of the gilded pockets of a few union bosses and give it to the teachers and administrators.  Use it to raise pay.  Use it to provide classroom supplies.  Use it to minimize class sizes.

So why would a man of the people, a defender of the common man, vote no and hurt our teachers?  The sad reality is that with Mike Sak, his support of the common man runs as far and as deep as union leadership, never able to break through to the people unions claim to represent.

And sadder still, Sak's gone a step further in his assault on our teachers by this month sponsoring House Bill 5454, a measure that attempts to repeal the provision in MESSA reform that requires competitive bidding of health insurance contracts.  Competitive bidding that ensures our teachers get the very best health care at the very best price!

Sak has raked in tens of thousands of dollars from the MEA, the Trial Lawyers, the UAW, Teamsters and sundry other unions including cash from law enforcement unions, though one wonders if they may have asked for a refund after he was caught stumbling around drunk in Traverse City, threatening police funding if they refused to become a personal taxi service and then calling the trooper who reported his behavior a liar.

Everywhere you look there's a pattern of Mike Sak portraying himself as the voice of the common man and then doing his best to silence them.  

There may be no better example than Sak's own House Bill 4628.  This legislation really takes the take.  You see, there's an age-old safeguard on union dues that requires union bosses to ask their memberships' permission before spending their dollars for political purposes.  While it doesn't do much to actually stem the tide of campaign cash flowing into Democrat coffers it's a powerful and important symbol of unity and the importance of every man and woman on the line.

Sak's bill moved to eradicate that safeguard, allowing union bosses to make political contributions when and as they see fit, without consulting the members who's dues they're spending.  Doesn't seem much like solidarity, does it?

A select few power brokers win, membership loses.  That's the pattern with Sak.  He's victimized the unions this way for years.  I suppose we were lucky it took him until 2007 to victimize the rest of the state the same way, though a $2.3 BILLION tax hike certainly indicates he was hoping to make up for lost time.  Can you imagine what the man would do if he made it to Washington DC?