Follow the Money
The State wants in…
The new “marihuana” law…
Does a difference of one letter mean something in legal terms????…Can’t wait to find out…Anyway, back to the point…
As a Planning Commission member, the new medical marijuana (mariHuana???) laws directly affect my responsibilities a keeper of the Zoning Ordinance…The new laws take effect December 20th of this year, so we all might want to know what’s in them…As much as I hate wading through pages of legislative ‘legalese’, I have begun a cursory inspection…So far, looks like a great deal….for the State of Michigan…
So my being fairly conservative, I approached it from that perspective….To be blunt….the State wants in!!!…Seeing a thriving revenue stream go ‘untapped’ seems to be a cardinal sin to our State legislature, so they ‘fixed’ it…10 new licensing ‘fees’, two brand new taxes, two new ‘boards’ creating a total of 22 new government jobs would seem to do the trick…and I can plainly see more of this coming…Let’s do the “Readers Digest” version first, and we can discuss the issues later…
Five new licensing ‘fees’ (think tax) from the State, five again for any ‘municipality’ that decides to allow (and tax and regulate) any commercial operation connected with the industry…The legislature grants itself permission to ‘raid’ the “Michigan mariHuana registry fund, creates two ‘new’ regulatory boards (more later), and then actually ’taxes’ the commercial end of this…and puts the onus of implementation on the Townships, hence MY involvement…
I welcome any and all discussion here…should we be asked to write a new ordinance governing ‘commercial’ marijuana enterprises within our bounds, what safeguards should we insist be included???…I can make ‘private property rights’ arguments all day, but those need to be transmitted on a personal level to make them really ‘sink in’…I do not wish to suppress any committed commercial endeavor within my Township, but in order for that to happen, we must be ASKED to write the accommodating ordinance, which is why I post this….Please make this thread a topic of serious discussion…
Does one letter make a difference???…
I leave you with this, borrowed from a Libertarian post I saw recently…
“Any license or permit is simply the government stealing an individual liberty, in order to sell it back to you.”
More later…
Tom B…
(3)Nuh Uh.
(0)
I would suggest that you do some research in to the current Michigan Township Association tactic of removing agricultural uses by right (using zoning) to restrict commercial cropping uses not to mention commercial livestock production of any kind on large parcels of rural land in response to the 2014 MDARD GAAMPs released every year.
Next to Snyder's recently released water use implementation plan (which conservatives also refuse to debate openly and which causes much of the above to become a mute point) there is no other issue more pressing in terms of God-given rights about to be lost with not so much as a 'peep' from anybody.
All politics being local (see Michigan conservative's blatant refusal to punish even their local Republicans supporting Common Core for years now) it would be advisable to learn just how all these new local commercial farmers will be treated vs the larger farmers pretty much either (already) running rural townships presently or more accurately sucking up to Township leadership/MDARD at every turn.
Question:
Why is everybody so excited about the new 'marihuana' laws...while the legislature (with no resistance whatsoever from Michigan 'conservatives') is currently on the brink of passing legislation designed to simply pull them all over to have their DNA stolen...using no other reason than they certainly "look like" they might just be on 'marihuana' ???
What are we all going to do here, folks...somehow "rally" at the last second in lansing over all of this or 'just not show up for work' like those 26,000 teachers could do (on a dime) during Right to Work?
"Right to Farm" is fiercely defended in my Township...period...
I am the 'peep'...
(Tom): "..Right to Farm" is fiercely defended in my Township...period..."
It may be defended by those blessed with the handed down acreage to work it with subsidized/professionally lobbied for'help' from a government system anything but 'conservative' based..yet those facts have absolutely nothing to do with our children *seeking* to live a subsistence/commercial style farm living using only what God has blessed THEM with moving forward.
Again, we run in to this attitude (not necessarily Tom's) at literally at every turn involving the haves and future have nots:
"...If you (our grandchildren) are seeking to start anything from the ground up...forget it. We don't pay attention to what goes on in Lansing because we have people who do that for us. We don't have to due to many more reasons than you could ever count or might be sickened by. Even your seeking a traditional. rural (or urban) subsistence/commercial farming lifestyle with your family is of no interest to us *IF* publicly fighting for this involves 'us' questioning the systems which feed us now. Your burning God-given desire to mimic OUR never-to-be-seen-again lives will be necessarily met with scorn and ridicule. Musical chairs on a sinking ship is played no other way.
We've got ours..we know full well that 'yours' is dependent on OUR self-sacrificial actions NOW...and we, very frankly, don't care even a little"
The single determinant of (at least I strongly believe) our future in or admission to God's kingdom will be what is "fiercely defended" right here on earth.
If history hasn't shown us this time and again in getting all of us to where we are now (blessed beyond comprehension) then we haven't (intentionally) been paying much attention to where we are all ultimately headed in more ways than one.
We do what we can with those tools available to us, the 'community' per se, is rarely right on any single issue, much less all...I guess my balancing act is to protect them from themselves, while acting in the interest of their 'target', whatever that issue might be...and to do it without being tarred and feathered...
Everything old is new again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marihuana_Tax_Act_of_1937
There is not one "tool" in a township's toolbox more powerful or influential than the Michigan Township Association (period). and their intentionally created lopsided influence both in Lansing and our daily lives.
Given Michigan township leadership's long recorded reluctance to even so much as 'question' this very well funded wrecking hammer or the irreparable damage to our freedoms that it quite often wreaks?
Township leadership invariably defends itself with the tired old refrain of:
"We're just a tiny community with no power over or united voice 'in' Lansing.." (crap) artfully designed to disprove any 'misguided' notion of all politics being local.
Those of us who have witnessed the 'training' (brainwashing) which the MTA provides or their very public (and not) proclamations involving what exactly should be given to Caesar and what is indeed under the power of our creator?
"Fiercely defend" the latter.
Perhaps you should read MDARD's recent white paper entitled:
"Removal of Zoning as a Condition for Livestock Siting"
...and note even the state's reluctance to sit actual small subsistence/commercial farmers (soon to be 'marihuana'-related as well?) on their decision-making Commissions involving small farming here in Michigan.
We are currently in a tug of war between these two entities (and large farming) over these issues (not to mention the largest concerning the staff of life or 'water') and nobody wants to be the rope (us).
Not a whole lot of sympathy for township leadership (here) given their sickening track record of transparently informing those that they serve (their very neighbors) or setting a leadership standard for area children to date.
I've been living here for 21 years and remain (for the most part) the 'outsider'...I have swayed some of the 'natives' here that my intentions are only to protect the individual at every turn from the more 'democratic' (and most times more vocal) community 'do-gooders'...Those who think nothing of trampling on an individuals rights in the name of 'community'...Striking a balance here is indeed considerable progress in the face of incessant badgering by the small, but aggressive, cabal that seeks no progress other than the protection of their own personal interests...
The MTA is viewed by both Township and County officials as near Gospel here, and treading on that must be done in a tactful and nearly covert manner, lest we upset that applecart...I have managed (in nearly 4 years on the Commission) to sneak in a half dozen or so changes to the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance that effectively recognize and enhance the protection of personal private property, sometimes this is as simple as deleting a single word from an ordinance, other times rewriting or deleting in total existing encroachments on private property and individual freedoms...
This one will be touchy though, thanks for the references...that kind of input is what I am seeking here...
Missed your comment on Township politics, Tom (sorry).
(Tom):
"..I've been living here for 21 years and remain (for the most part) the 'outsider'...I have swayed some of the 'natives' here that my intentions are only to protect the individual at every turn from the more 'democratic' (and most times more vocal) community 'do-gooders'...Those who think nothing of trampling on an individuals rights in the name of 'community'...Striking a balance here is indeed considerable progress in the face of incessant badgering by the small, but aggressive, cabal that seeks no progress other than the protection of their own personal interests..."
You couldn't have explained what is wrong and being first-hand taught to our kids at the local political level any better. It is amazing (to me at least) that so many in the grassroots conservative movement choose to 'skip' just as high as they possibly can over what is being demonstrated to their own children as "good governance" right down the street. For me. it is very hard to 'strike a balance' when your basic God-given rights are being trampled by your very neighbor under the flag of a local (in my case Republican) Party and your entire system of governance in terms of funded power flipped exactly as Detroit's has just up the road a bit farther.
'Peyton Place' had absolutely nothing on this county, Townships or even Villages and our kids don't deserve to witness this corruption go unchallenged.
"...The MTA is viewed by both Township and County officials as near Gospel here, and treading on that must be done in a tactful and nearly covert manner, lest we upset that applecart...I have managed (in nearly 4 years on the Commission) to sneak in a half dozen or so changes to the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance that effectively recognize and enhance the protection of personal private property, sometimes this is as simple as deleting a single word from an ordinance, other times rewriting or deleting in total existing encroachments on private property and individual freedoms..."
When we aren't privy (and I have been saying this for years in regards to our kids) to exactly how the MTA or any other 'state' sponsored quasi-NGO *TRAINS* Township employees to act in our regard?
How 'tactful" do we all have to be in even demanding to know EXACTLY what they are taught and how this indeed affects how our Townships are run in the first place?
As far as one can tell, these (cough) 'leaders' are being taught,,,what?...which would ever merit 'dues' (our taxes) being sent to anyone for the purposes of "leadership training".
Let me condense:
The MTA, in their formal powerpoint presentation to Townships, has concluded that ALL agricultural uses by right be put in play, in response to the state GRANTING livestock (and commercial agricultural) uses by right.
If it gets any simpler or more alarming than that without describing all the other corrupt players involved in pushing God's spoken will aside not to mention any 'serf' they believe to be their own and absolutely nothing else...I need to take a course in creative writing.
Our kids are watching and we need to start being ashamed of that fact when we know that all politics are local vs some 18th century fantasy 'revolution' roll play exercise.