213 search results for "the wall"

Mackinac Policy Conference At The Grand Hotel: Protect Your Wallet!

Detroit Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference 2015 Starts Today - You Won't Like The Outcome

Is that a donkey in front of the Grand Hotel?

Is that a donkey in front of the Grand Hotel?

Later today Michigan’s Self Very Important Persons start checking in at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2015 Mackinac Policy Conference held on Mackinac Island. At $ 2,150 per person for Chamber members and $ 2,925 for Chamber wannabees, average Michiganders will not be much in evidence. The attendees list reads like the last itemized contribution report for SafeRoadsYes!, along with the clueless Michigan politicians who endorsed Proposal 1.

The Detroit Regional Chamber’s “Vision and Pillars” for the 2015 Conference is innocuous enough, but the Conference’s agenda is far less oblique. A host of left luminaries and crony capitalists orbiting Michigan government will be plotting higher taxes, bigger spending, and more vexatious regulations.  When they are not drinking.

The official agenda is all about Detroit, Michigan schools, alternative business subsidies, and the roads, but there is also the transformation of Detroit Water & Sewerage Department into the Great Lakes Water Authority lurking in the background. Roads are the most interesting part of the official 2015 Conference agenda, given the near universal support for Proposal 1 amongst the attendees. Despite touting ‘vision’, expect the Conference to endorse new taxes over improved efficiencies and better engineering.

You Betcha! (13)Nuh Uh.(0)

MDoT Train Wreck Still Emptying Michigan Wallets

Michigan Department of Transportation passing even more cost through to taxpayers.

Train Wreck ImageThe failure that is Kirk Steudle and the Michigan Department of Transportation continues to demonstrate that it cannot plan nor manage taxpayer funds efficiently.

RightMi.com readers might recall that the MDoT has been spending taxpayer dollars to babysit equipment that other people own. In the last few years, it has amounted to a drop in the bucket when compared to what is a bloated state budget of 52+ billion smackers, right?  But buckets eventually fill from all the droplets as we all know, and the spigot in this case is opening more.  From the Lansing State Journal:

At the current lease rates, that means MDOT would have to sink about another $4.4 million into lease charges before it is able to put the cars into service.

That line is sufficient to point out that Steudle’s comment earlier in the year was nothing more than lip service.

“These cars are costing us money right now and we’ve got to figure out how are we going to … stop the bleeding,”

As the old joke goes .. “Whats this ‘we’ s##t Kemosabe?”

 

 

 

You Betcha! (17)Nuh Uh.(0)

Kowall & VerHeulen Pushing MORE Regulation On Michigan

Big Box retailers have found foot soldiers willing to do bidding in HUGE rent seek.

Kowall-Verheulen-TaxersHeads up!

Word on the street is that HB 4202 and HB 4203 are on the schedule for second reading today in the Michigan House of Representatives. That means it would be up for FINAL PASSAGE tomorrow. You can read below all the details about the bills. Bottom line, if they are enacted, you will be paying MORE taxes.

Please take a moment and contact your representative today. Let your opinion be known! These phone calls and emails do matter. They do affect how a representative votes.

Find your representative’s contact information here.

We will keep you posted of the progress (or lack therof) of these bills tomorrow.

House Bills 4202 (Kowall-R), and 4203 (VerHeulen-R), will impose new taxes on consumers in Michigan and will further burden online sellers, especially the mom and pop shops that operate out of a small store front office or the business owners home. They will be subjected by government to an abundance of new compliance requirements. It will stifle competition as many smaller competitors to the big guys (like Amazon) will likely be forced to downsize or worse yet, go out of business.

You Betcha! (21)Nuh Uh.(6)

Peyronie’s Baird sat on a wall

Peyronie’s Baird had a great fall

WilliamMakepeaceThackeray

Since Baird’s tax issue came to light, he has worked to clear up residency issues. He still claims a tax exemption on his home in suburban Chicago, where he spends his weekends with wife and family, Snyder’s office has said.

Baird’s Illinois driver’s license expired Aug. 24, according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, but he continues to drive a Mercedes SUV with Illinois plates.

As of Monday, Baird remained on the voter rolls in Illinois, said Courtney Greve, spokeswoman for the Cook County Clerk’s Office.

Records show Baird last voted by mail in the November 2012 elections, Greve said.

Snyder, who is in a tough re-election battle against Democrat Mark Schauer, has expressed support for Baird and acknowledged he “made a couple of errors.”

All the Nerdking’s horses and all the Nerdking’s men

Couldn’t put Peyronie’s Baird together again.

You Betcha! (18)Nuh Uh.(3)

Minimum Wage Insanity Passes GOP ‘Firewall’

Sausage Grinding In All Its Glory. Minimum Wage Today, Higher Gas Taxes Tomorrow.

snyderIn a move reportedly designed to head off a ballot initiative, a higher minimum wage was passed and signed by Governor Rick Snyder.

Snyder yesterday signed ‘bipartisan’ legislation raising Michigan’s minimum wage by September to $8.15, and to $9.25 an hour by 2018, a move he said “will help hard-working residents without hindering the state’s improving economy.” SB 934 is now Public Act 138 of 2014.

Oh, and by the way; It should be noted that a majority of the House Republicans voted NO on this. (albeit a small one)

We support those voting no, including one of our Northern Michigan legislators who gets it.  Greg MacMaster (R-105) says

You Betcha! (18)Nuh Uh.(2)

Just Raise Your Menu prices

Surcharges are crap.

They reek of doctor’s bills.  You get a bill, then weeks later you get a billing charge, then a room charge ..and so on.  No transparency until its all over.

Government, in dealing with covid-19 has screwed over restaurants terribly.  It costs a helluva lot more to do business, and the peak business revenues are reduced by half.  Disposable safety elements are used, and efficiency is destroyed by protocol and staffing limitations.

So much so that Some restaurants are adding fees to their bills.

You Betcha! (10)Nuh Uh.(0)

Porkculus – The Revenge

Some readers may recall this term bandied about several years ago, when Congress being Congress, went on a spending spree that can be accurately compared to giving an alcoholic an open bar tab and then being shocked when not only all of the top shelf inventory is cleaned out first, but the rest of the bar as well.

Take a wild guess what happened earlier this week?

{Continued below}

You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(1)

Taxupalozza 2020

Coming when you least expect it!

So, what do you get when you add a ton of special interest groups who feel that they are even more entitled to your money than you are (and their hopes that you’re not paying any attention to them whatsoever)?

You get the makings for a very interesting (series?) of elections in 2020…that’s what!

{More below the fold}

You Betcha! (9)Nuh Uh.(3)