It's actually been hard to pick out the details in the bills just passed by the Michigan Legislature, as the multiple effects of Governor Rick Snyder's actions have been shifting like melting ice in Lake Huron. But the cumulative effects are going to be devastating.
Snyder has robbed the most vulnerable and valuable of your community servants in order to make his rich friends even richer. Please take the time to "meet" a couple of the people who just got attacked on this holiday weekend.
Sally has been a school cook for 20 years. She's not yet vested in the Michigan School Employees Retirement System. The new Michigan school funding act slashes her district's state aid, but adds a little carrot: The governor is willing to share just a bit of the half billion dollars extra that the treasurer just found IF her superintendent outsources services. So her job is gone. At 50, she now has no job and no retirement. (She can withdraw what she's physically put into the system, and that will make 3 house payments. After that, she'll try Walmart.)
Fred drove bus for 30 years. He is about to retire. He's 61. The retirement wouldn't be great because he only worked 5 hours a day all those years, but he had a little farming on the side and his projections showed that since that retirement wasn't taxable and he'd get medical insurance he could make it. Last week the GOP slammed Fred harder than a traffic crash (which he never had in all those years.) He's one year too young to be grandfathered and now has to pay Rick Snyder out of that allotment. He also has to pay a much bigger portion of his medical insurance.
Dave is better off. He has seniority. He will still have a job. He has one of the finest band programs in the nation, but next year he'll have to pick up a couple of sections of social studies--which he's never taught before--to fill out a schedule as music is now an optional activity. Of course, that depends on whether Michigan becomes a right-to-work state as Snyder wants. Without a union, the district might just pitch all the experienced teachers and pick up cheap temps to fill the podiums.
When you see the ads and get the emails to help folks recall Rick Snyder please don't just think of the big ticket items--think of Sally and Fred and Dave. They need your help.
