Tag Archive for Governor Snyder

Cronyism, Flint Water Fiasco

Governor Snyder Dismisses Bipartisanship

by  •  • 0 Comments

After four long years of legislative hearings, public education, and good-old-fashioned compromise, the Michigan Senate and House last week passed a series of bills to regulate internet gaming in the state.  Earning overwhelming, bipartisan supermajorities in both houses, the bills landed on Governor Rick Snyder’s desk with a clear mandate from the legislature.

What did Snyder do?  The Governor ‘dropped the ball in the endzone’, vetoed the bills at the 11th-hour, and then he was less than honest with Michiganders about his reasons for doing so.  Par for the course for someone who started with such promise but leaves the office with approval ratings in the 30’s – covered in the stench of the Flint water crisis and sexual abuse scandal at Michigan State.

According to his veto message, Governor Snyder killed regulated internet gaming because the data doesn’t exist to justify it, and he fears that internet gaming will cannibalize the state lottery and existing casinos.

The Governor knows this is nonsense.

READ MORE ►

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

Cronyism, Democrats, Fees, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Humor in Michigan, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Flint Water Quality – Michigan Taxpayers Are Going To Pay For It

by  •  • 22 Comments

Amateur Chemistry, MDEQ Lies, All Around Government Incompetence, Social Justice Warriors => Everything Goes Wrong

Mad Chemistry Image 1
Usually, when the words ‘Flint’ and ‘lead poisoning’ are used in the same sentence you get a mental image of homicides by gunshot. Likewise, in Michigan, ‘amateur’ and ‘chemistry’ conjures up images of an illegal meth lab fire. Now, however, we have allegations that the City of Flint’s amateur drinking water chemistry is causing high lead levels in children.  This story has exploded over the last week and, as usual, the ignorati in the main stream media and Michigan politics are clueless.

Flint’s emergency financial manager switched the city’s drinking water source to the Flint River in April 2014, an attempt to save the ruined city $ 30 million a year – the vigorish being extracted by the pirates at the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department. The same extortion which motivated the Detroit suburbs to create the Great Lakes Water Authority. Using river water was an intermediate step, with the ultimate goal of Flint joining the new Karegnondi Water Authority and resuming Lake Huron sourcing after the new KWA pipeline is completed in 2016.

Unfortunately, Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz did not realize that river water would require much different preparation than the Lake Huron water they had been supplied by DW&SD. He rose in life as the leader of a business school, not as a chemist. It doesn’t appear that Flint Water Treatment Plant’s staff water chemists had a clue, either. Comments made by Governor Snyder at the presser for his Supreme Court nominee Joan Larsen suggest he was neck deep in this decision and also completely oblivious to the technical issues.

Flint residents protested immediately, complaining of poor taste, foul odors, and turbidity (lack of clarity). Much of this unrest was part of a long term drive to oust the emergency financial manager running Flint, the paramount goal of the city’s social justice warriors. It didn’t help that Ed Kurtz raised water rates about 50%, emulating DW&SD’s obscene fees on top of maximum taxes piracy. Public outrage has increased in Flint ever since. Genesee Circuit Court Judge Archie Hayman enjoined Flint’s water rate hike, throwing Flint’s finances back into disorder. Since Judge Haymen’s order was left in place by the Appeals Court and went into effect, Flint water collections have dropped by $ 1.75 million a month.

In all fairness to EFM Kurtz, part of his rate increase was intended to replenish $ 15.7 million which had been transferred from the Flint water fund in 2007 to pay a sewerage overflow settlement. However this entire situation was almost certainly an attempt to quickly balance Flint’s books and wrap up emergency financial management. Lansing was certainly sweating EFM Kurtz to conclude Flint’s restoration in order to shut down the social justice warriors before our 2014 election.

So what is happening here, technically? Will Detroit water fix Flint’s problems? (Hint: No)

READ MORE ►

You Betcha! (30)Nuh Uh.(3)

All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Democrats, Flint Water Fiasco, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Republicans

Who’s Missing?

by  •  • 8 Comments

Governor Snyder's New Pipeline Safety Advisory Board: Long on Bureaucrats & Special Interests, Short on Technical Talent

Ruptured Section of Enbridge Pipeline 6B Recovered from Calhoun County, MI. NTSB Image

Ruptured Section of Enbridge Pipeline 6B Recovered from Calhoun County, MI. NTSB Image

Governor Snyder filed Executive Order 2015-12 with the Secretary of State yesterday to create a Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board under the aegis of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A response to the disastrous 2010 Enbridge Pipeline 6B rupture in Calhoun County and the agitation against Enbridge Pipeline 5, which transects the Straits of Mackinac.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Schuette completed a binding legal agreement with Enbridge to prevent Enbridge Pipeline 5 from being used to transport ‘heavy crude oil’ under the Straits of Mackinac. This agreement formally implements the first recommendation of the Michigan DEQ Petroleum Pipeline Task Force Report released in July to ban heavy crude oil in Line 5. Sounds good, but Enbridge Pipeline 5 does not now have the pumping horsepower for heavy crude transmission, and the weight of the crude has very little to do with pipeline integrity. Corrosive constituents in the crude, biofouling, and a host of other technical issues are far more important determinants of pipeline integrity. This agreement has great optics, but little consequence.

READ MORE ►

You Betcha! (22)Nuh Uh.(0)

Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Bankruptcy Stalks the Guardian Building

by  •  • 3 Comments

Dead Man Walking JPEGThe ball is now in the Governor’s court, so to speak.  The report is not public yet, but the press release is out.  It only took the State independent review team 18 calendar days to figure out what everyone knows: Wayne County is in a ‘Financial Emergency’.  Here is the money shot from the Michigan Department of Treasury press release:

The team’s extensive report indicates that numerous conditions led to the determination that a financial emergency exists in the county. Those conditions include the following:

  • The county’s last four annual financial audits re­­vealed notable variances between General Fund revenues and expenditures as initially budgeted, as amended, and as actually realized. In addition, County officials underestimated actual expenditures in three of the fiscal years by amounts ranging from $16.7 million to $23.7 million.
  • County officials engaged in unbudgeted expenditures in violation of Public Act 2 of 1968, the Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act.
  • Although there was agreement among county officials that existing de­tention facilities are inadequate, there is no consensus about whether to complete construction on a new jail or to renovate existing facilities.
  • According to the county executive’s recovery plan, unfunded healthcare-related liabilities were estimated to be $1.3 billion as of the last actuarial valuation with funding set aside for this purpose of less than one percent of liabilities. Healthcare-related liabilities represent 40 percent of the county’s long-term financial obligations.

The Governor now has 10 days to take one of five actions: do nothing, conduct another ‘neutral’ evaluation, arrange a consent agreement, impose an emergency manager, or file the County for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

READ MORE ►

You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(0)

Conservative News, Democrats, Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature, Republicans

Ready For A Crime Wave?

by  •  • 9 Comments

Governor Snyder's 'Smart Justice' Improves The Risk/Reward Payoff For Armed Criminals

Jackson PrisonMichigan House Bills 4419/4420, Proposed Substitute H-3, gut Michigan’s 25 year old mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed with firearms. Introduced by Republican Representative Kurt Heise (R-20th) of Plymouth and co-authored by 28 bleeding heart Republicans (4) and Democrats (24), these bills:

    1. Convert Michigan’s long standing mandatory 2/5/10 year minimum sentences for criminals using firearms into maximum sentences
    2. Allow ‘use of firearms’ sentences to be served concurrently with the underlying crime sentences for the first time
    3. Allow prisoners serving ‘use of firearms’ sentences to be paroled prior to completing even these sentences

Now the proponents of ‘Smart Justice’ are telling the public that their effort will:

    – reduce the number of ‘non violent prisoners’ held in Michigan prisons
    – reduce the price Michigan pays for incarceration

As you might imagine, this is quite attractive to Michigan politicians who just got slapped down on Proposal 1. The Michigan Department of Corrections consumes $ 2 billion in General Fund revenues every year.  Roughly 20% of the total General Fund.

Governor Snyder kicked off this issue back in early March with his Special Message to the Legislature on Public Safety. The primary public advocate driving his ‘Smart Justice’ sentencing reforms is one Barbara Levine, the Assistant Director of Research and Policy at the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Policy and one of Governor Snyder’s appointees on Michigan’s new Criminal Justice Policy Commission. She just released a massive study titled “10,000 fewer Michigan prisoners: Strategies to reach the goal”. This could produce up to a 23% drop in prison spending, something on the order of $ 450 million a year. A lot of new Lansing office buildings with views and more idle train cars in Owosso. A Pavlovian metronome irresistibly beckoning our state politicians.

But how much would it cost Michigan residents in crime taxes?

READ MORE ►

You Betcha! (11)Nuh Uh.(3)

Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

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

by  •  • 1 Comment

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.

READ MORE ►

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

Conservative News, Cronyism, Elections, Michigan Politics

Governor Snyder’s “Gay Advocate” Puppeteer Wants Your Help

by  •  • 0 Comments

A Snyder Cronyism

URGENT HELP NEEDED: An internal poll of the Michigan Femdom Fund has shown that Governor Snyder is up 100% to 0% over his challenger Mark Schauer. This “internal” poll must have only included “pegging” their staff members for these results? A Femdom Fund Logo

But this November the stakes are too high and we need your help. Please consider making a donation today of $20, $35, $50 or whatever you can generously afford to help us assure that Gov. Snyder is re-elected as to advance the Common Core, Gay Marriage and other progressive issues that Gov. Snyder will support.

For those low information voters and party loyalist I have compiled a list of bullet points, headlines and search phrases as to make it harder for those types to justify to themselves how they cast their votes!

READ MORE ►

You Betcha! (17)Nuh Uh.(1)