RightMi.com doing a spot check on today's activity. (As of 11AM)
Today’s Hottest action in Lansing. So far.
The excitement grows. Using the RightMi.com Handy dandy legislative tracker in the bar above, we see that big things are afoot! Thoughts?
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Introduced
| HR 0229 of 2016 | A resolution to declare February 21-27, 2016, as Family Medicine Week in the state of Michigan. |
| SCR 0024 of 2016 | A concurrent resolution to create the Joint Select Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency. |
| SR 0146 of 2016 | A resolution to urge Michigan communities to pursue innovative policies that promote economic development by attracting young STEAM professionals to work in financially distressed communities. |
| SR 0147 of 2016 | A resolution to designate May 2016 as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. |
| SR 0148 of 2016 | A resolution to designate February 21-27, 2016, as National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. |
You Betcha! 
(7)Nuh Uh.
(0)
(7)Nuh Uh.(0)
Ok...I'll just come out and say it:
You don't FIX what's been going on since 1837 on a part-time basis. A 'part time' legislature involving the scale of responsibility that each office holds is ludicrous. This Kool-Aid and has been proven to be such in Texas where even oil riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams couldn't save the state from any one legislator's call by God to simply ACT on a daily basis. It has proven to be the largest fallacy in the conservative movement since transparency legislation took an immediate back seat in TP political strategies from day one (where Michigan leads the nation in ludicrous hand tying that our children will spend DECADES unraveling).
Any pie-in-the-sky talk of DOING so is ridiculously handing EITHER Party the greatest gift that they will ever receive in today's fast game of musical chairs on a sinking ship.
Every time I hear this?
I look in a child's confused eyes desperately wondering/asking how WE got them in to this mess...and how 'part time' desperate measures will NOW somehow save their generation(s) from further default or financial ruin.
The #1 least transparent area in the country will suddenly/magically be 'transformed' by PART TIME effort through a Party that isn't even 'transformed' itself in any meaningful manner...9 months before the most important election in state history with no solid game plan of CHANGING said Party yet revealed to the masses.
I'm not lying to these kids like that and honestly don't believe that anyone else should be either.
JD--why part-time??? MI is one of only two states in the Union which has a full-time legislature. Maybe you misunderstand the duties of the legislature--it is but ONE--that is to timely set and balance the budget for the coming year. They would only be in session for 90 days -- only be paid for 90 days, and if the budget is not set by that time, the Gov. will issue an order that the legislature remain until there is a Balanced budget. Thing is--there'll be no pay after that initial time period as they failed to do their job. Also, they will not be full time so there'll be no health insurance, no pension plans, no vesting in any other programs and each legislature can go home to their jobs which presumably provide them these goodies. Them being in session three days a week 40 weeks? (more or less) outta the year has been devastating to our state. If a problem arises--the Gov. can convene the legislature (with pay) to immediately resolve the problem.
In other states, like ALA (part-time) legislature--school boards and the like have to petition the legislature for things like millage elections. What occurs is state scrutiny of local school district finances to determine if the money has been wisely spent. Thing is, in one millage election approved to be held--it was told to the legislature it was to build a new high school. But really, it was a thinly disguise forever tax and the voters weren't fooled. School Board members were replaced. Now, that's the people speaking all with a part-time legislature.
I forgot to mention the best example for part-time legislature--May 5 2015 we voters said no to an increase in a forever gas tax based on inflation, as well as increased license and plate fees, etc. But, on November 3, 2015, the exact language from the ballot proposal which we voted NO on, is now law. If our legislature was part time, they would not have been available to have voted on this unnecessary gas tax, none of which will go to roads but is now funding the Flint crisis.
'Wanting' government out of our lives does not equate to 'getting' government out of our lives in one fell swoop.
I am also beyond tired (while respecting your opinion) of the pay and benefits whining.
What is an employee 'worth' who (hopefully) commits their entire career to serving a fickle master (an electorate which conservatives have long admitted is apathetic/politically uneducated) literally risking their lives (full time) fixing what WE have screwed up so badly for so long? For heavens sakes, we could spend literally tens of millions more right this instant simply bringing their long ignored security needs up to 21st century standards!
Would YOU expect anything less than what a courageous future legislator would receive right now for wading in to ANY corruption filled scenario that this state presents? Or does speaking of what our children will face in picking THEIR future legislative heroes shine a spotlight on just how difficult WE have forced that job to be?
I challenge anyone to go to Lansing, stand outside one of the chambers (just before it recesses) and take a look around you.
After doing so, please answer me the following:
How much would YOU demand yearly and with lifetime benefits to clear out every single glad-handler rushing the door when they open? How about hiring staff to videotape/publicly NAME every single one of them as they immediately 'glom on' to your fellow co-workers? Investigate corporate, union or any other corruption? How about calling for across-the-board benefits to be slashed (as they soon necessary will be) to save the state and children not even born?
Heroes don't work part-time. To suggest that our children are desperately needing anything BUT at this crucial juncture in this state's history is worse than forever claiming that heroes must be 'term-limited' whenever God graces us with even ONE of them next to never.
What we have just lost for our kids required heroes who KNEW that an electorate (literally) had their back at all times. We can disagree with who is there now...yet to abandon them and even (more importantly) all who would follow in the above "we could cut/limit your career and pay you squat" manner?..teaches our children absolutely nothing with truly 'legislating' being the absolute toughest job on this planet due to OUR generational apathy.
Jobs worthy of hero status (see our military, law enforcement, judgeships, etc.) should be respected as such whether we have been too lazy to frame/support them for our kid's sake or not.