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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Commission needed


    By JGillman, Section News
    Posted on Fri Nov 19, 2010 at 07:29:10 AM EST
    Tags: Washington, Michigan, Schools, Tobacco Settlement, Money, DPS, Detroit, Bobb (all tags)

    You know, one like they have in Washington DC because the 160,000 congressional staffers cannot handle their bosses so well.  A couple of old school legislators who might have personally laid the groundwork for the ongoing failures we are seeing..  Except in THIS case, maybe its the legislators and school administrators not handling the school unions.. or SOMETHING so well.

    Detroit schools apparently have some gaping holes to fill, and they would like to do it with money that the state doesn't have yet. So to make ALL schools feel like they have failed as badly as the best laid liberal plans in Detroit, they have proposed using $400,000,000.00 in [future] tobacco settlement money to plug a couple hundred million of that leak. From the Detroit news:

    Rep. Fred Durhal, D-Detroit, sponsored the legislation in response to a request by Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools.

    In an interview Monday with The Detroit News Editorial Board, Bobb said the district was asking for money from the state's settlement with tobacco companies to alleviate DPS' $327 million deficit. In return for the aid, DPS and other districts would implement reforms based on the federal Race to the Top initiative.

    b-but.. Wouldn't that be 'borrowing'?  And isn't a d-deficit against our constitution?

    Yep..  and Its been done before.  

    Incoming money is treated as if it already is there.

    In fact the tobacco money has been raided to balance our budget, buy $100,000,000.00 police posts, and make happy happy the state's employees, (particularly the ones with a union card) who have not seen the cuts those of us in the private sector have seen.  ..yet.

    Michigan's assets are fungible.  And all that smoking that Michigan loves and hates at the same time sure is one great big asset that loves to be spread around for good cheer.

    Financial manager Bobb has one job. That is to find ways to fund the DPS system.  He has been one of the most feared men by those within the DPS looking to keep whatever it is they still have.  He has actually done a decent job, and I wouldn't trade places with him for a minute.

    But this is going too far.

    The hard decisions made possible by DECADES of mismanagement, corruption and fraud cannot be continually placed as a burden on Michigan taxpayers.  Money that was once coerced from a business for 'health reasons,' had its first earmark as a PROMISE to Michigan youth who agreed to commit to college and achievements in school.  The tobacco settlement has become a pot of gold now used to fill in for whatever shortfall the state finds itself in, and usually BEFORE the actual funds are made available.

    So maybe a commission, with a couple of has-been congressmen, to do the work of the legislature would be in order here..

    Or we could sell Detroit to the Chinese.

    < Its going to take some talent.. | Sorry.. but I couldn't resist.. >


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    Really? Does this surprise anyone? (none / 0) (#1)
    by KG One on Fri Nov 19, 2010 at 09:42:39 AM EST
    I was a little P.O.'s when this story first creeped up  its ugly head several weeks ago.

    The fact that a Democratic representative from the People's Republic of Detroit authored this bill, in a lame-duck session of all times, doesn't surprise me in the least.

    Honestly, I don't know what a commission can possibly do here?

    You are literally fighting against mostly a half-century of thought that people in Detroit don't have to do anything to get something.

    My recommendation would be to let the bill die (which it will anyway), let the system collapse on itself, and have Gov. Snyder sic some investigators on the principles involved for whatever legal malfeasance they can find in DPS and the other school districts that cannot live within a budget.

    It's the only way you'll nip this issue in the bud once and for all.

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