On January 2, 2011, Governor Rick Snyder changed the fate of Michigan. Our deficit, according to a few sources was from $1.7 billion to $2 billion. His approach thus far has been egregious.
He gave the large Michigan corporations a tax cut of $1.8 billion almost doubling our deficit and raised the taxes by up to $1.7 billion on retired and the working poor. This is without addressing the budget deficit. So, essentially he shifted the tax burden from those that can afford to pay to those that cannot. The large corporations in our state are making and hording record profits while not creating one job.
The education budget actually had a surplus before the governor started making changes to the state budget. MEA President Iris Salters said, “Permanently tapping school aid fund surpluses -- an estimated $672 million in 2012 -- to bail out the rest of the budget violates the promises of the Proposal A school finance changes."
The governor cut school funding by 2.2%, higher education funding by at least 15% and lessened aid to local governments by $100 million. He slashed funding for essential services required by the sick, poor, and elderly while cutting revenue sharing for local governments.
The budget cuts don’t stop there though. The School Aid Fund provides $12.7 billion to school districts. That is $300 less per student than 2011. A $100 million fund would provide more funds for districts that demonstrate cost cutting measures. Public univeristies will get 22% less in state aid. If the they keep tution costs down to 7% or less, the state aid reduction will be 15%.
There is a per student cut of $170 currently in place. The governor added another $256 to $297 in cuts per student.
Welfare law was changed in Michigan to be effective October 1st, 2011. This limits the lifetime recipient to 48 months of cash assistance. It is retroactive, therefore ending benefits for 41,000 people. 30,000 of which are children. Some of these people will be homeless just before winter. The U3 unemployment rate is 10.9%. But that number does not count people who are no longer drawing unemployment. That number is probably closer to 20% when these people are included. Governor Snyder also reduced the unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. The US congress is currently considering cutting federal home heating assistance by 50%. The state is going to deny state aid for burials for the poor.
The next piece of legislation really aroused my ire. The changes made to the Emergency Financial Manager legislation called PA4. One: new provisions give the governor sweeping and unilateral authority to declare a "financial emergency" in townships, cities or school districts. Two: appoint an EFM with the broad new powers to nullify contracts, dismiss elected and appointed officials, committees, boards, and authorities. Three: eliminate or redistrict entire cities or schools. Four: sell public and private land. Five: hire private security forces. Six: eliminate services. All elected officials, police, fire department, and teachers could be fired. Ultimately, the citizen living in the city or township would not be able to vote in local elections.
The Benton Harbor commissioners, whom have no power because of PA4, decided to celebrate Constitution Week to honor the signing of the US Constitution. Joe Harris, EFM, made this statement about the decision by the commissioners: “The Following Action Taken or Decision Made by the City Commission Was Not Authorized by the Emergency Manager And is Null and Void, and Of No Force or Effect." So Democracy is dead in Benton Harbor.
On April 18th, 2011 I filed the language for recalling Governor Rick Snyder at the Washtenaw County Clerk’s office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On April 29th, the clarity hearing was conducted and we won 2-1 by the election commission.
Part 2
Currently there are about 20 legislators being recalled and they are at different places in the process. The recall for Governor Snyder did not get the required signatures. The referendum for suspending and repealing PA4 is almost completed and I am very confident that the law will be suspended. It will then be on the November 2012 ballot for repeal. The referendum was being organized by several groups including Michigan Forward, Rainbow Push, and Remove Emergency Manager or REM.
Betsy Coffia of REM explaining PA4, the Emergency Financial Manager law and the referendum to suspend and repeal the law.
http://www.youtube.com/...
The recall of Governor Rick Snyder comes up short.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Three illegal events took place to my knowledge. There may be more, but these are the ones that I am most familiar.
One: On the west coast of Michigan in Saugatuck, a petitioner was not allowed to speak while collecting signatures. The city informed the petitioner if she spoke, she would arrested and incarcerated. This was brought to my attention and we decided to turn this violation of the US Constitution over to the ACLU. The ACLU submitted a letter to the city informing them of being sued if they did not comply with the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Two: On the east side of the state in Genesee County, a petitioner was limited to nine square feet out of a 135 acre park to gather signatures. The ACLU was called again and this time sued the county.
Three: In Calhoun County, the recall of a legislator, Jase Bolger, was halted by his attorney who filed a temporary restraining order to enjoin and constrain the election commission from accepting any language filed or conducting a clarity hearing on the language submitted by the petitioner which lasted two months. Even though this violated our state constitution recall law, the judge ruled in favor of Jase Bolger. Later, the Bolger appeals were denied.
A quote from Alison Swan, "A quirk in Michigan case law makes it possible for a land speculator with deep pockets to force a change in local zoning rules that forever squelches any meaningful public participation. And it nullifies — again forever — local ordinances."
http://www.saugatuckdunescoastalalliance.com/...
The legislation passed in our state is mostly prepackaged from an organization know as ALEC. American Legislative Exchange Counsil. It is written outside of our state by and for special interests, not for the good of Michigan Citizens.
The goal or mission is to completely rewrite Michigan policies by and for right wing corporate interests.
Here is a link to Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America.
http://www.justice.org/...
Lisa Graves, Executive Director of The Center for Media and Democracy, produced a website dedicated to Alec.
http://alecexposed.org/...
http://www.prwatch.org/
Another link about ALEC.
http://www.pfaw.org/...
The Think Tank in Michigan is called the Mackinac Center. One may say that Alec is the mother of the center. The board members past and present reveal some interesting names. Also the people that fund it. The goal is to privatize our state as much as possible. Here is a link to a document called The Truth About The Mackinac Center.
http://bloggingformichigan.com/...
A good video explaining how ALEC works. The video is an interview with Daniel Denvir, an investigative journalist.
http://www.youtube.com/...
The MEA rally on May 21st when we started collecting signatures for the recall of Governor Snyder.
http://www.youtube.com/...