C.J. Williams
“On Target“
December 17, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 51
Michigan – the State of Confusion
Michigan citizens, generally known in the past to be residents of the “Great Lake State” and most recently of the “Great Take State,” should now more aptly be known as hailing from the great “State of Confusion.”
An online dictionary offers several definitions of the word “confusion,” but the one that best pertains to Michigan’s “State of Confusion” is summed up as being a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior.
Certainly, this definition should bring to mind our Governor and the state legislature, particularly since she and the majority of Michigan’s legislators seem to be confused about where to bang the tax hammer next and which already driven and badly bent nails to pull.
Synonyms for the word “confusion” are many, but, as applied to Michigan’s “State of Confusion,” the best choice would be “disorientation,” which is defined as being confused as to direction; confused as to where one is and how to proceed. The second choice would be “mix-up”, which is confusion created by wrongful actions attributable to bad judgment, or inattention, or ignorance, or all three, which now appears to be pandemic among a majority of our legislators.
In Michigan, the “State of Confusion,” it would seem as though the legislature, like a school of feeding frenzied piranhas, is roiling the water around the Ship of State, grounded on the shoals of poverty by helmsman-lady Granholm. And, instead of being the lighthouse beacon toward which taxpayers could swim for safety, the piranha-manic legislature is dining on them instead.
Many smoke and mirrors articles printed by mass-media newspapers and vitriolic comments spewed forth in online blogs, in barrooms, and on call-in radio talk shows point the finger of blame at former Governor Engler for the mess Michigan is now in. However, Granholm has been in office since January 1, 2003, and instead of moving the state forward, her administration has moved it so far backward that blaming Engler for the current “State of Confusion” is so absurd, it’s laughable.
When anyone, including the collective Granholm administration and the legislature repeatedly takes two steps backward and one forward, they make no headway except in a continuously negative direction. Unfortunately, at this point in time, moving forward means creeping back over lost ground, miles of it, and to shout “hurrah” over any progress made would indicate a tendency toward delusional thinking.
We’ve been told that the state’s budget was balanced, but the devil is in the details and an even bigger deficit awaits taxpayers in 2009 because there’s been no reform in government spending. Likewise, no attention has been given to watchdogging governmental department spending, particularly contract bids that far exceed the agreed upon amount when all is said and done.
Cuts were made to some department operating budgets, but meaningful reform in government spending was ignored. The new State Police Headquarters in Lansing shines as a perfect example of that; neither the police nor the taxpayers want it, but little things like that don’t get in the way of Granholm and her pandering legislators’ scheme to create a New Michigan.
Once again the holes in the state’s 2007 and 2008 budgets were stuffed with money robbed from Peter and from the pockets of taxpayers who will ultimately be the ones to suffer through increased fees for such simple things as building permits, septic permits, trail permits, park entrance fees, etc., as well as increased taxes on gasoline and other necessities.
Bar owners and restaurants can anticipate a huge rise in the cost of liquor licenses and businesses can look forward to a surcharge on top of the service fees they’re expected to pay, and of course these costs will be passed on to the consumer. Escalating energy bills and food costs add to the woe, but our confused legislators and equally confused governor seem to have overlooked the whole kit and caboodle in their zeal to move Michigan forward on the already overburdened back of the taxpayers.
Captain Granholm, who so resolutely stands at the helm of the “S.S. State of Confusion” has now promised “no more taxes,” at least for awhile, and has even agreed to a tentative plan not to increase sportsmen’s fees, even though she’s made cuts to MI-DNR programs and though the department, itself, is still wailing the “We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey Blues.”
A Detroit News and wire services article published in the Dec. 8 edition declared that DNR fees won’t rise in ’08 and that Michigan lawmakers had decided to plug the agency’s shortfall with funds from other, unnamed sources.
Of course, savvy taxpayers know full well that the unnamed source is Peter and that the legislature has become rather adept at creative financing by pushing money around on paper to sate Paul’s voracious appetite.
Note, the key word here is “tentative” and though it’s not written in blood, it seems that Granholm’s administration (apparently not the Captain of the “State of Confusion”, herself) confirmed a tentative agreement announced by Rep. Joel Sheltrown (D-West Branch) that hunting and fishing licenses will not increase during the ’08 budget year. Neither will environmental permit fees that businesses are required to pay, setting the MI-DEQ, which lacks about $17 million, to howling in unison with the MI-DNR.
Sheltrown, who is the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Chairman, explained that hunting and fishing fee increases will be “avoided by using extra money elsewhere in the state budget to fund shortfalls in the Game and Fish Fund.”
Are you catching onto why Michigan should be known as the “State of Confusion”? Only a few short months ago Michigan was broke, penniless, and in need of an infusion of dollars from a state income tax hike, service fees, a reinvigorated Business Tax program and assessment on top of that, an accelerated tax on gas and tobacco products, as well as various and sundry other hikes for permits, yatta-yatta, ad nauseum.
Now, however and according to Sheltrown, there’s a surplus of money, about $219 million of it in one-time money generated from changing the state’s business tax structure effective as of Jan. 1, and it’s now sitting in the state’s “rainy day” fund.
Lord, but life is grand in the State of Confusion, eh? Well, at least it temporarily is for sportsmen and women, including yours truly, who, like Popeye, have had about all they can stand and can’t stand no more, particularly with footing the bill for environmental eco-twit programs that are driving them out of the woods and fields and off the lakes. On top of everything else we all now have to pay extra for, the outdoor sporting community would have had to pony up even more to keep the olive drab woods police in ticket books and to oil the MI-DNR machinery that fans the fanny of the UN’s Gang Green preservationists and rewilders.
Sheltrown was quoted as saying, “There isn’t much stomach for raising fees in the House and the Senate.” Well, of course there isn’t when your puss is plastered on Right Michigan’s “Tax Wall of Shame” like Sheltrown’s is.
According to the Dec. 8 Detroit News article, the state budget director, Bob Emerson, had told House Democrat leaders the day before that Granholm, who proposed the sportsmen fee increases, now supports avoiding them. He said and I quote, “She prefers to plug funding gaps in (the) Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality with other money, though a specific source has not been agreed to.”
Also, according to the article, Republicans, who control the Senate and oppose the proposed hikes, hadn’t been briefed by the Granholm administration at the same time as the House Democrat leaders were.
Talk about “State of Confusion,” the Granholm administration apparently isn’t even on speaking terms with the Michigan Senate. Either that or it’s working at setting up the Republican controlled Senate to look like a bunch of bad guys once the House proposes restoring $5 million to the DNR and $11 million to the DEQ, which was thought to be in the hopper soon or possibly as late as sometime in January.
Now where do you suppose that money will come from if not from questionable excess money in Peter’s “rainy day” fund pocket that the Granholm administration is eyeing to pad Paul’s? It seems that in the “State of Confusion,” a.k.a. Michigan, there’s a perpetual rain cloud over Lansing.
On Target would like to wish Lake Superior Voice readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and let them know there will be no On Target column until the week of January 14. Anyone wishing to contact yours truly via snail mail can do so by sending a letter to P.O. Box 98, Pelkie, 49958; please include your name, return address and phone number. All e-mail regarding this column, however, should be directed to the Lake Superior Voice editor who will then forward it.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/POLITICS/712080401/1022/POLITICS
December 10, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 50
It’s official! The Great Take State has a new COO (Chief Operating Officer), charged by Gov. Granholm with the duty of helping her “blow us away,” as she leads the state’s residents into a golden age of opportunity and prosperity in her “New Michigan.”
Now I don’t know about you readers, but this voter was under the impression she was electing the state’s COO when casting her vote for governor during the November 2006 election.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the definition of “governor” is “a person who governs, especially the chief executive of a state in the U.S.; the manager or administrative head of an organization, business, or institution.”
Has an innovative definition of “governor” been written into a new dictionary for the 21st century, or shall we simply dismiss the foolish notion that a governor’s office is the place from whence the business of the state emanates?
On Nov. 21, Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley wrote that the idea of appointing a COO “was first put to Granholm late last summer by a group of women chief executives during a pair of come-to-Jesus meetings with the governor.”
According to Finely, the lady CEOs advised Granholm to bring on a strong operating chief because they were disgruntled over the way she was handling the state’s budget crisis. Their suggestion for an ideal man for the job was Kenneth Whipple who is highly regarded for his leadership skills under crisis conditions and has a proven track record as a CEO with CMS Energy and Ford Motor Co.
Apparently the Gov was listening with only one ear because in a Nov. 29 press release, literally dripping with honey-coated spin, she announced the appointment of Dan Krichbaum to “oversee the implementation of my (Granholm’s) economic plan to ensure that all state departments work cohesively and aggressively to grow the state’s economy, improve access to health care for all citizens, and ensure a high-quality, highly-educated workforce. Krischbaum’s responsibility will go beyond those of a traditional COO as he focuses on the administration’s continuing efforts to streamline and reform government, bringing together public and private sector interests to make government more cost effective and business-friendly.”
Crain’s Detroit Business writer Amy Lane best summed up Krichbaum’s job description, sans smaltzy words, in her Nov. 29 article, ‘Granholm names state COO’: “Gov. Jennifer Granholm has named Southeast Michigan nonprofit leader Daniel Krichbaum to be her COO, overseeing the operations of the executive office and the enactment of Granholm’s economic plan and priorities throughout state departments.”
Krichbaum, a 65-year old ordained Methodist minister with a doctorate in education, will officially take over COO duty on Dec. 10, wrenching himself away from his 11-year stint as president and CEO of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion (MRDI).
MRDI is a Detroit-based non-profit human relations organization that works with business, university, and government clients to eliminate discrimination and racism. Its services include assistance “in building more inclusive communities, business, and institutions through diversity training, advocacy, conflict resolution, interfaith collaboration, youth leadership training, and community dialogue.”
MRDI, formerly known as The National Conference for Community and Justice – Michigan Region until it was renamed in ’06, was founded in 1940 as the Detroit Round Table of Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. It has a history of feeding off grants bestowed by many philanthropic foundations, including the John S. & James L. Knight, Kroger Co., Comcast, Skillman, and Andrus/Surdna Foundations, as well as the Hope Fund and Jewish Fund.
Now that the cat is out of the bag about Krichbaum’s ties to nonprofits, including the National Federation for Just Communities, some of his cronies are reinventing the wheel and claiming that the Gov’s new COO has tapered off his Michigan Roundtable’s dependence on sponsorships, grants, and personal contributions. He has, it’s now said, made his nonprofit much more entrepreneurial, with fees charged for many services offered.
That being the case, he’s sure to fit in quite nicely with Granholm and most of the Michigan legislators who, in addition to suffering from “tax-itis,” have also been infected with a severe case of the “fee frenzy fits.”
As far as Krichbaum’s business acumen, other than knowing how to operate a nonprofit and become the recipient of charitable giving, his purported talents as motivational COO material appear to have come from his former employment as a fund raiser for Detroit’s WTVS-TV56 and as director of Detroit’s parks and recreation department sometime during Coleman Young’s 20-year tenure as the city’s foul-mouthed mayor.
Now, after her announcement, Granholm’s spin machine has again been hauled out to run interference with public furor over the creation of yet another government position, particularly at a time when any and all measures are being taken by her administration to rape the pocket of every Michigan taxpayer so as to fund her “visionary” programs and balance the state’s perpetually out-of-whack budget.
In her original Nov. 29 press release, the Gov made no mention of replacing Mary Lannoye, her hastily departed Chief of Staff (COS) and third person to fill that position since 2003.
Prior to being appointed and taking a seat as the Gov’s COS on Jan. 1, 2007, Lannoye had also been appointed by Granholm as State Budget Director, a position she held in the Engler administration from 1998 until she resigned in 2001. Her tenure as Granholm’s Chief of Staff, however, was much shorter; she lasted only ten months and quit at the end of October.
Now it appears Lannoye’s COS position will be eliminated and replaced by a COO, whose job description has been stretched so Krichbaum can multi-task as the Gov’s COO-COS by overseeing the day-to-day operations of her administration, as well as by overseeing the implementation of her economic plan. While overseeing the plan, he’s to focus on her administration’s continuing efforts to streamline and reform government.
Though those efforts have so far been unsuccessful during Granholm’s disappointing five-year reign, they apparently, according to the spin, will bring together public (government) and private sector interests to make government more cost effective and business-friendly, that is if you can call slapping an almost 22% surcharge on whatever tax a business might owe prior to taking any allowable tax credits being business-friendly.
Krichbaum’s onerous double duty job, which he hardly seems qualified for, will pay the same annual salary of $136,000 that his COS predecessor Lannoye would have earned had she managed to hang around for a full year.
In addition to creating a COO multi-task position it seems Granholm created a state “Explorer” position, too, because on Nov. 29 she also announced that Deloitte Financial Advisory Services (FAS), LLP, an international accounting and professional services firm, is going to provide the State of Michigan with the services of Mark Davidoff to “explore new and innovative ways to move Michigan forward.”
Davidoff spent a dozen years as executive director and COO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD) until he was hired as a director with Deloitte in 2005 at the recommendation of Robert Naftaly.
Naftaly is a JFMD board member and former COO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan who was appointed to the State Tax Commission by Granholm, serving as its Chairperson since 2003. He was also appointed as Budget Director to the gubernatorial transition team of then Governor-elect Granholm and is a board member of AAA Michigan where Susan Krichbaum, the wife of the Gov’s new COO, serves as Community Relations Director. Naftaly was or is chairman of the Carl Levin for Congress Committee.
In 2006, Davidoff was moved from director, audit & enterprise risk services practice with Deloitte & Touche, LLP, Detroit to director, forensics & dispute services practice, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP.
Yours truly highly recommends that folks with computers fully investigate the Deloitte & Touche USA and Global Website through the final link provided with this article, keeping in mind that the company plans to pay Davidoff’s salary as he works to “explore new and innovative” ways to move Michigan out of the nation’s gutter.
Said the Gov in her Nov. 29 press release, “After working hard to put our fiscal house in order this year, we have to find new and creative ways to move Michigan forward. I’m thankful to Deloitte for allowing the state this unique opportunity to leverage its resources and tap into the rich experience base and skill sets of Mark (Davidoff) and Deloitte as we explore ways to be even more nimble and aggressive in growing the economy.”
Says yours truly, “Granholm’s annual salary is $177,000, minus the 5% or 10% she’s opted not to take over the past five years, plus a $60,000 expense account and health bennies. Now we have an overpaid governor who needs a COO and an Explorer to help get her Ship of State off the rocks where she grounded it. Perhaps the citizens of Michigan would have been better off with businessman Dick DeVos who already had a proven record as COO, COS, and CEO. Certainly, he couldn’t have done much worse.”
http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-whipple?cat=biz-fin
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071121/OPINION03/711210407
http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=739561
http://www.affund.org/comm_rec_grantees.html
http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/v1188584542.pdf
http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2007/11/30/101554/58
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte_Touche_Tohmatsu
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/home/0,1044,sid%253D2000,00.html
December 3, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 49
Reservation Shopping for Casinos
Over the years Rep. Bart Stupak has introduced many pieces of legislation to enable specific Native American gambling enterprises in Michigan. In fact, from May 3 through Nov. 13, 2007, a period of just seven months, he proposed four such bills that seem destined to not only enhance a couple of the U.P. tribe’s downstate gaming enterprises, but also the pockets of some very wealthy gaming enterprise entrepreneurs who gift politicians with campaign contributions.
In the not too distant past several other Michigan Congressmen have also introduced or co-sponsored legislation having to do with tribal gaming operations in the state. For the most part, however, they all appear to be engaging in what’s known as “reservation shopping.”
In essence, “reservation shopping” occurs when a Native American tribe decides it wants a piece of off-reservation land for a purpose that has little or nothing to do with tribal heritage and more to do with gambling. In many cases, what starts out to be just a little piece of land for a casino morphs into more and more land, as tribes buy surrounding property, which then becomes untaxable.
In some cases, tribes are willing to swap land for property situated hundreds of miles away, as is the case with the Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC) situated near Brimley and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe headquartered at the Michigan city of the same name. However, in this case, both tribes contend they have a claim to swap-able land although courts have decided otherwise.
The Sault and Bay Mills Tribes of the Chippewa (correctly, the Ojibwa) separated in 1948, but it wasn’t until much later that both claimed title to land at Charlotte Beach, a populated area near the mouth of the Charlotte River directly across from Sand Island point at the northern tip of Neebish Island and along the St. Mary’s River.
Regardless of the fact that an appeals court denied the tribes’ claim to the Charlotte Beach land on March 2, 2001, Gov. Engler approved a land swap on August 23, 2002 whereby the BMIC would give up its claim to 110 acres of Charlotte Beach property in exchange for 15 acres of land in Port Huron where a casino can be built on what’s known as the Edison Inn property, about 350 miles away from Brimley.
Then, on Dec. 30, 2002, Gov. Engler approved another land swap whereby the Sault Tribe would give up its claim to the same 110 acres of Charlotte Beach land for downstate casino land, eventually settling on the city of Romulus, several hundreds of miles away from the tribe’s reservation at Sault Ste. Marie.
In order to make Gov. Engler’s approval of the BMIC land swap binding with the federal government and move ahead with the casino building, Congress must also approve the land swap, and in order to do so Rep. Stupak introduced HR 2176 on May 3, 2007. Co-sponsors of his bill are Candice Miller (R-Dist. 10), who represents Port Huron citizens, and Ted Kennedy’s son, Patrick (D-RI), who has been gifted with nearly $650,000 in donations from Indian Tribes in the last five years.
Likewise, on Nov. 8, 2007 Rep. John Dingell, (D-Dist 15) who represents Romulus citizens, introduced HR 4115 on behalf of himself and co-sponsor Bart Stupak to gain congressional approval of Engler’s approval of the Sault Tribe’s land swap.
Both proposals were scheduled to be heard in the House Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 15, but were pulled from the agenda after opponents of both casinos kicked up a great deal of fuss.
Committee chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) said he expects the committee to consider the bills in the “relatively near future,” which some are interpreting to mean when the committee meets again in January and which opponents hope will be never.
These two bills were far from being the first to emerge regarding reservation shopping for the Port Huron and Romulus casinos. Over the years there have been many such attempts by Michigan Reps. Stupak, Dingell and Miller, as well as Sen. Stabenow, and now Sen. Carl Levin has thrown his support behind the effort.
Throughout it all, since the early 1990s when Bay Mills began trying to get entitlement to Charlotte Beach, casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr. and various partners have been bankrolling the tribe’s off-reservation gambling efforts. They also poured tons of money into a campaign to coerce voters into approving commercial gambling in the state because “it would be so good for the economy.”
One of Malik’s long-term partners is Marion Ilitch, the owner of Motor City Casino, which is one of three casinos allowed in Detroit after Michigan voters approved Proposal E in 1996 by a narrow margin. The Greektown Casino is majority owned by the Sault Tribe, much to the disappointment of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa, and MGM Mirage, controlled by billionaire Kent Kerkorkian, owns Detroit’s MGM Grand.
Marion Ilitch and her husband, Mike, formed Ilitch Holdings, Inc. in 1999 as an umbrella for all companies they owned. In addition to Marion Ilitch’s Motor City Casino, the couple’s privately held businesses include Little Caesars Pizza, the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Tigers, Olympia Development, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Uptown Entertainment, IH Gaming (Detroit Entertainment LLC), among many other things. They either control or are affiliated with a multitude of enterprises having to do with restaurant, entertainment, tourism, gaming, and development entities, the majority of which are related to casino/development projects. To merely say they’re wealthy is an understatement.
Mike Malik, a Detroit developer and entrepreneur, has partnered with Marion Ilitch since the early 1990s to legalize gambling in Michigan and other states and set up off-reservation casinos all across the nation and in Hawaii.
Malik, who was refused a state casino ownership license by the Michigan Gaming Commission, works behind the scenes in the development of casino projects and, when the time is right, will either restructure or sell his interest in the projects to others, such as Marion Ilitch, for millions of dollars.
That he’s still very much involved with the Bay Mills Tribe is witnessed by the fact that Bay Mills recently entered into a new contract with Malik’s Blue Water Resorts enterprise, which has been covering the monthly option on the potential casino property in Port Huron. The new contract, which expires in 2010, involved rewriting a management contract into a consulting arrangement whereby the tribe will have from 20 to 30 years to pay back money owed to Blue Water Resorts instead of needing to pay it back in five years time. It’s said this deal could end up saving the tribe at least $48 million, though no one is saying what’ll happen if the casino never gets built.
However, gaming entrepreneurs like Malik and Marion Ilitch, who have no qualms about feeding off Native Americans and gamblers with an addiction for wanting more out of life than they’re getting, also have no qualms about greasing the palms of any who can help them feed, including the palms of those whose avarice for campaign money outweighs their sense of honor in carrying out their duties of office.
Mike Malik and various members of the Ilitch family are no strangers to palm greasing by way of political contributions. From 2003-06 they gave committees controlled by Rep. Miller at least $75,000. They also gave well over $54,000 to benefit the reelection of Sen. Stabenow, and many more thousands to governors and various folks who sit on committees that decide whether or not certain Native American tribes should be allowed to go reservation shopping for gambling land in more lucrative areas of a state.
As for Sen. Carl Levin, they threw a fundraiser to win him over, but poor Rep. Stupak got thrown only crumbs by comparison. However, he’s been reservation shopping for several tribes for several years, so who knows who’s already greased his palm and waiting for it to pay off. However, if it’s any solace to the Bay Mills and Sault Tribe, Stupak recently said, “I’ll get it done. I’ve been working on this for 10 years. I’ll get it done.”
Of course, he may have been saying the same thing to another tribe for well over a decade because since at least 1994, if not longer, Bart Stupak has repeatedly introduced legislation to reaffirm and clarify the Federal relationship of the Burt Lake Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa as a distinct federally recognized Indian Tribe.
Stupak most recently proposed this legislation on March 19, 2007, as HR 1575, and should it ever be enacted, it will not only entitle the Burt Lake Band, located northeast of Petoskey, to federal services and benefits provided to recognized Indians, but will also provide for lands to be acquired and held in trust for the Band by the Secretary of the Interior.
Perhaps they, too, have been patiently waiting to do a little off-reservation shopping for casino land somewhere in the state even though David Anderson, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Dept. of the Interior declared in 2004 that the Burt Lake Band does not meet the criteria to be federally recognized.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071116/NEWS01/711160311
http://www.theverifiabletruth.com/search/label/Bart%20Stupak
http://www.saulttribefacts.com/
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ddq3kq9f_96r6w9gw
http://www.hotel-online.com/Neo/News/2007_Nov_25/k.DEE.1196096676.html
November 26, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 48
Illegal Aliens Can Get MI Driver’s Licenses
The national news now points out that Michigan is one of only seven states in the nation that still issues driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Whether they be Mexicans hoeing Farmer McGregorís beans, Hondurans manicuring milady’s lawn, or sand-country terrorists training to fly planes, if they’re illegal they can still get a driver’s license in the Great Take State or in Hawaii, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
Not only does Michigan allow illegal aliens squatting in the Great Take State to purchase licenses, it also allows illegal aliens hiding out in other states to get Michigan driver’s licenses, too. This means that “undocumented immigrants” Jose E. Menace, Manuel Labor, and Osama Bin Sneakinin, who currently reside in New Jersey where illegals aren’t issued licenses, can wind their way to Michigan, declare their intent to live in the state, pick up a license, and drive back to New Jersey or any state of their choice, providing they can afford the gas or steal enough to get anywhere in their go-mobile.
Insurance? Come on; let’s get real! When illegals engage in identify theft in order to get a driver’s license in the first place, do you think they follow the rules for obtaining insurance to make their vehicle road legal or pay the fine when they’re ticketed for no proof of insurance? And when accidents occur, which they invariably do, who ultimately pays through the nose for higher premiums so auto insurance companies can continue to make a profit from their con game? The legal citizens, do, tha’s who!
In reality, it’s been over six long years since the events of 9-11-01 brought home the horrible threat that illegal aliens pose to the American people, and though our porous national borders were brought into the limelight at that time, our Washington Congressmen and women have done absolutely nothing to staunch the flow of illegals into our country.
And, while Michigan could have by now joined forty-two other states that have taken matters into their own hands and refused to cater to illegals by giving them driver’s licenses, our state legislature chose not to clamor for the enactment of HB 5497 and opted, instead, to protect migrant workers and Michigan’s second largest industry—the farm industry—which is quite dependent on truck loads of those willing to do jobs Americans won’t do and belly up to the government entitlement trough while doing them. In 2001, it was believed that at least 50% of Michigan’s migrant workers were illegals, but instead of taking matters into their own hands, our state legislators are still wringing their hands almost seven years later.
At the prodding of Candice Miller, who was Michigan’s Secretary of State from 1995-2003 before she became a U.S. Representative, Rep. Lauren Hager (R-Port Huron) introduced House Bill 5497 on December 12, 2001. HB 5497 would have required a person to be a citizen or legal “resident alien” in order to receive a Michigan driver’s license. The proposed bill would also have authorized the Michigan Department of State to report to an appropriate federal agency if it had reasonable cause to believe that a driver’s license application contained information that an applicant was an illegal alien.
After much political posturing and brouhaha about Secretary of State employees becoming spies for the federal government, all measures taken through HB 5497 to ensure that illegal aliens wouldn’t be welcome at the Secretary of State’s office with vehicle title in hand fell by the wayside under the shadow of Attorney General Frank Kelly’s 1995 opinion #6883.
That opinion disallowed Michigan’s Secretary of State to refuse illegal aliens driver’s licenses because, in essence, neither federal nor Michigan statutes precluded an illegal alien from establishing residence in Michigan. According to Kelly, “the courts (at that time) have consistently ruled that illegal aliens, who are persons protected from arbitrary state action by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, may meet state residency standards.”
In typical Democrat fashion, Attorney General Kelly’s interpretation of that clause appears to have been quite liberal in that the 14th Amendmentís “Equal Protection Clause” isn’t intended to provide “equality” among individuals or classes of people, but only “equal application” of the laws.
To refresh your memory, Section I of Amendment XIV, the only section that might possibly have any bearing on illegal aliens, reads:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Nowhere in that amendment are the words “illegal aliens” found and it should be quite clear that the pertinent “equal protection clause” wasn’t intended to stretch our imaginations far enough to believe illegal aliens, lawbreakers themselves, should be given driver’s licenses, as well as safe harbor in our Michigan cities. Merely intending to reside in the state or simply residing in the state for 30 consecutive days, as proof of that intention, shouldn’t cut it.
In light of New York Governor Spitzer’s recent plan to give driver’s licenses to illegals in his state, attention is once again being drawn to Michigan and its liberal attitude toward “undocumented workers.”
Like three barn cats in a hissing contest, Gov. Granholm, U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, and Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land are now spitting at one another and attempting to claw their way out of the blame game. Miller is challenging Granholm to denounce the practice of giving licenses to illegals, and Granholm is denouncing Miller for handing out such licenses during the time Miller was Secretary of State, regardless of the fact that she did try to do something about it for many years. And Ms. Land, who seems to be a very nice person, is protecting her turf and has no choice other than to wait for the federal REAL ID Act to kick in.
The REAL ID Act will, in part, require all states to use proof of citizenship for obtaining a driver’s license, but when such proof can be bought on the street, the Act will likely resolve nothing. Additionally, while it’s thought that it will kick in on May 11, 2008, there’s already opposition, and some portions of the Act have been put off until Dec. 31, 2009. In fact, at least 17 states have passed legislation opposing it and at least 21 other states, Michigan among them, have similar bills pending.
A resolution against REAL ID proposed by Rep. Espinoza (D-Croswell) has already passed the Michigan House, and Sen. Jim Barcia (D-Bay City) has proposed a similar resolution in the Senate. While they’re singing the old “Michigan is Broke” song and claiming the state can’t afford to implement REAL ID, it should be noted that the areas of Michigan these gentlemen represent are heavily dependent upon migrant workers.
On a more positive note, Rep. David Agema (R-Grandville) proposed HB 4881 on June 7, 2007, to establish that only citizens or resident-aliens with “lawful status” would be allowed to get a Michigan driver’s license and to limit the forms of identification accepted from resident aliens to non-foreign documents (i.e. Social Security cards) and/or official passports or visas.
Like the previous proposal made by Rep. Hager in 2001, HB 4881 has been referred to the House Transportation Committee chaired by Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), and while the wringing of hands continues in Lansing, thousands more illegal aliens will continue to pad the Granholm administration’s coffer through the purchase of driver’s licenses, plates, and vehicle registration fees.
http://mmlap.com/Documents/mastertalker.doc
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:vR3hY14wNsQJ:mmlap.com/Documents/mastert†
http://www.newhouse.com/n.j.-targets-illegal-immigrants-by-license-plates.html
http://www.ag.state.mi.us/opinion/datafiles/1990s/op06883.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Equal_protection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act
http://www.michigansthumb.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19002809&BRD=2292&PAG=461&dept_id=571474&rfi=6
November 19, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 47
MI Legislature Takes Hunting Vacation
Taxpayers should be delighted to know that the Michigan legislators opted to take a leave of absence from their Lansing offices so that they could enjoy 18 weekdays and six Saturdays and Sundays of hunting during the 15-day rifle season.
At the time of their leave-taking late in the day on November 8th and according to MI-DNR records, a total of only nine of the 148 lawmakers had thought far enough in advance to support the natural resources aagency by purchasing a deer-hunting license for ‘07 and only 20 bought them in 2006.
Well, of course, the citizens of Michigan, who are still bleeding copiously from the tax knife thrust in their back by their outdoor sports-minded lawmakers, don’t expect that all 148 will bundle up in hunter orange and take to the deer-infested woods, but certainly it shouldn’t be too much to ask for a little scrupulous integrity from them when it comes to what amounts to a lengthy Thanksgiving break mislabeled as a Hunting Hiatus for Harried Lawmaking Harpies.
“Ah, but, during this free time we’re planning to do what we were elected to do and that’s go back to our districts and represent our constituents”, said many of the non-hunters as they boogied out of Lansing.
Well, excuse me ladies and gentlemen, but it seems to me you were elected to represent your constituents in Lansing, not in outer Mazulla or downtown at “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe” during eighteen days off on the taxpayers’ nickel.
Every single one of these cads and cadessess is getting paid an annual salary of at least $79,650 plus $12,000 for travel expenses and very generous health benefits that continue after retirement, thanks to Michigan taxpayers. Over-worked and under-paid? I hardly think so, particularly since the legislature is generally in session only a mere 92 days out of the year…or is it now only 85 days because of the additional week-off for the “deer season” vacation they felt they were entitled to?
Meanwhile, back in Lansing at the old MI-DNR headquarters ranchero, Director Rebecca Humphries waits with baited breath to learn if the legislators will return in December and stick it to Michigan citizens once again by way of hunting license fee increases so as to plug a $9 to $11 million dollar hole in that agency’s budget for Fiscal Year 2008. For the sake of your heart, which likely can’t handle any more financial stress caused by government at this point in time, On Target will refrain from discussing the projected hole in the MI-DNR budget for 2009. Quite, frankly, yours truly isn’t up to the stress right now, either.
More than likely, though, the Michigan senators and representatives will return to Lansing and make a worse mess of things before taking a Christmas break to do a little last minute shopping at Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, or F.O.A. Swartz online. The Lord knows we won’t see them at the Dollar Store or St. Vinnie’s Boutique where lots of taxpayers will, out of necessity, need to look for bargains in order to fill Santa’s stocking if they can afford the gas to drive that far.
During the first eight months of this year from January through August, a period of 233 days including weekends and holiday, the Michigan Senate and House had met only 80 times, and though they had marathon sessions late in September to resolve the FY 2007 and already projected FY 2008 budget woes, they resolved neither. The budget fiasco was hardly a secret all those months, but instead of during something constructive about it, our lawmakers settled for robbing one fund to pad another, leaving hefty holes elsewhere; resolving nothing, changing nothing, and putting off until later what should ultimately be done now, namely downsizing government and knocking off the unnecessary spending on the countless programs meant to fulfill the governor’s “visions”.
Furthermore, on October 1, to resolve the financial mess they’d made over the years, they hefted our personal income tax liability by 12%, slapped a 6% service tax on certain businesses, and, at the time of their leave taking a little over a month later on November 8th, were considering eliminating that service tax and replacing it with a 33% business tax hike that will be devastating to many small to mid-sized business owners. Simply put, the Michigan legislature waffles like presidential hopeful John Kerry did on campaign issues in ’04 and like socialist Hillary is waffling now in ‘07.
Anyone who has been following the Michigan articles in the bigger downstate metropolitan newspapers should by now realize that Lansing’s capitol building has become a sand box of sorts where our lawmakers gather to fight like little neighborhood brats. Constituents mean nothing to them; it’s just a party war and seeing who can be the best bully – the Democrats or the Republicans. What we constituents really need is a “Common Sense” party and not the buffoons we’ve been stuck with.
As I was growing up, I was taught that my elected leaders, like the flag of the United States of America, should be treated with respect. However, it’s really a challenge to treat any of my elected leaders at any government level with respect.
To me, respect is earned, not just a given because of a title claimed through election or appointment, and once earned, it must be maintained through personal integrity and not through mealy-mouth platitudes uttered without sincerity of purpose and dedication to doing a job so well that it commands respect.
As of the writing of this column on November 13, Right Michigan has a dossier of 17 of our legislators listed in its “Tax Hike Wall of Shame”, including one from the U.P., and it’s certain that others will be added in the future. The link to the Website is provided at the end of this column.
Much to the Lake Superior Voice editor’s delight, I’ll have to cut this short this week. With tomorrow being the last day before the rifle season opener, I’ve got to get the cobwebs out of the corners and start banging some pots and pans and rustle up some “big pot” meals for the real sportsmen who’ll be stopping by for a short visit during their three day or so hunting hiatus here at Prickett Dam.
November 12, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 46
Rails to Trails and the MI-DNR
The Houghton Daily Mining Gazette recently published a series of articles about another MI-DNR land grab, though it wasn’t billed as such. However, as with most things the DNR does to facilitate United Nations bioreserve building, there’s usually more to the story, and the agency’s “Rails to Trails” program is no exception.
For years the MI-DNR has been buying or otherwise getting title to old railroad beds under the guise of creating trails for recreational use, and though the agency already “manages” at least 6,200 miles of such trails, the most of any state in the nation, the Governor issued an edit in 2006 to buy more trails, upgrade existing ones, and meet “her vision” of a statewide network of interconnected trails by 2009.
Indeed, the State is working to meet the Guv’s vision in partnership with the MI-DNR and the Michigan Department of Transportation (M-DOT), as well as with the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund board, which has been providing funds for some of the old railroad bed purchases and upgrades.
At the present time some of these trails are open to off-road motorized vehicles, but when eco-tourism really kicks into high gear, you can bet your winter woolies that snowmobilers and 4-wheeler owners are going to lose their battle with Gang Green and its passive, leave-no-human-footprint-behind-while recreating partners. This is already happening in our federal forests, and it’s going to happen with state land, too.
Gang Green doesn’t want smelly, noise pollution machines anywhere near its pristine connectivity corridors, particularly machines that rip away at endangered, threatened or sensitive vegetation and land formations or murk up habitat for endangered purple people-eaters. But for the time being Gang Green’s representatives are willing to sit at a stakeholder table with local snowmobile and 4-Wheeler club representatives and give a few concessions to keep their club members happy until the boom is lowered on motorized machines and their users.
However, the MI-DNR, M-DOT, and State of Michigan partnership has run into snafus in the Copper Country, among other places, with legal challenges to state-claimed trails on former railroad corridors. The legal challenges purportedly “pose a critical threat to the objectives of trail connectivity and the future of rail-trails if the disputes aren’t resolved in the state’s favor”.
Though lately much of the Copper Country’s attention has been focused on a legal battle having to do with a trail between Houghton and Chassell, it’s by no means the first time railroad corridor ownership has been contested in the state.
In fact, Bruce Lahti, the brother of Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock), and his real estate partner, Mr. Carmody, instituted one such “legal challenge” and were successful in keeping their ownership right to a rail-trail near their apartment complex in west Hancock. In 1997 they put up a fence to keep off-road vehicles away from that property, and then were met with a show of force, not unlike that shown to Richard Delene when he exercised his property rights on land he owned at Covington Junction. Despite the fact that the DNR has blown a ton on money fighting the battle in court and is still fighting it ten years later, Lahti and Carmody have so far prevailed.
It now appears that although the DNR has recently opted to close a plethora of state parks and recreation areas, cut programs and projects and whine for sportsmen license fee increases to resolve its projected $9 to $11 million budget crisis, the agency has ample money to instigate lawsuits regarding government land grabs and, when thwarted, pursue them all the way up to Supreme Court level. Just how gullible does the MI-DNR think taxpayers are?
On the one hand, we have Bruce Lahti and his real estate partner, Carmody, prevailing on their right to block a snowmobile trail with a fence, and on the other hand we have Bruce Lahti’s brother working in Lansing to reward the two men with money for a DNR easement, paid for with the public’s money, if the men opt to take the DNR up on an offer. Those two, however, won’t be the only property owners to have a dollar sign covered carrot dangled in front of them to entice them out of what’s rightfully theirs so as to fatten the UN’s bioreserve land bank.
According to Houghton Daily Mining Gazette reporter Dan Schneider in his 10-24-07 article titled “Trails important for local economy; Lahti, Prusi weigh in on issue”:
Lahti, who is chair of the House’s natural resources appropriation subcommittee, said trail easements on the abandoned grades would be a good use of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust fund money. While the DNR manages former railroad grades as snowmobile trails throughout the region, some of these routes depend on year-to-year easement agreements and the ownership of one local railroad grade is being decided in court. “I think if we could get permanent easements on them, it would be better because the snowmobile trails are very fragile and…we should do what we can as a state to secure them on a more permanent basis,” Lahti said. “All of the trails should be secured as much as possible and we can use trust fund money to do it.”
The “Rails to Trails Program” isn’t the brainchild of the MI-DNR and the vision to interconnect trails throughout the state isn’t Granholm’s “vision”. Rather, it’s an international scheme and just another item on Gang Greens’ agenda being implemented, in good part, through the tax-exempt “Rails to Trails Conservancy”, based in Washington, D.C.
The mission of the Rails to Trails Conservancy is to “create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people”. It’s founder, David Burwell, was a former attorney for the National Wildlife Federation where he specialized in transportation, land use and air quality issues, and of course, we all well know that the Michigan United Conservation Clubs is the Federation’s sole Michigan affiliate.
Another tangled web that becomes more complex as one researches? You betcha! For example, Mr. Burwell sits on the Global Urban Development (GUD) organization’s advisory board. GUD was founded on the principle of “Treating People and Communities as Assets”.
Former President Clinton invited GUD to actively participate in the Clinton Global Initiative, which he launched in Sept. 2005 at a gathering of world leaders in New York City that coincided with a special session of the UN’s General Assembly to review the five-year progress in implementing the UN’s Agenda 21 Millennium Development Goals. The Clinton Global Initiative is set up to address four worldwide challenges that center around issues related to the UN’s Agenda 21 chapter on Human Settlements.
As usual, some projects and programs that might appear wonderful on the surface actually aren’t so wonderful when one takes the time to scratch the spin-covered top coat, and the MI-DNR’s Rails to Trails program is most likely one of them even though it may currently be providing a system of trails for snowmobilers, 4-wheelers, and trail bike owners, as well as for hikers, bikers, cross-country skiers, and Maud and Stanley who want to take Fido out for a walk.
Underlying the Rails to Trails Conservancy is federal government funding through a “Transportation Enhancements” Program, which among other things has recently provided some money for the state to put toward a $318,000, 4-ft high, two-mile long, black chain-link “turtle fence” along downstate Michigan’s US-31 in Muskegon County. Of that amount, $28 thousand will come from our state gas taxes and the rest from federal funding (more of our tax dollars) and other sources.
The fence, which is being built to prevent turtles from becoming road-kill by diverting them to the banks of a nearby river, is being defended by Governor Granholm, though she hasn’t shared with taxpayers whether this is part of “her vision” for connecting trails or not.
Ah well, there’s plenty of money to burn in Michigan, so I suppose it’s only fitting for M-DOT to provide a turtle trail or two since the MI-DNR is intent on providing “sheeple trails” for healthier communities, even if they have to spend ten years or more in court suing private property owners to do so.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/DNR_Trail_Report2-6-07_188399_7.pdf
http://www.railtrails.org/whoweare/index.html
http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&npoId=364186
http://www.globalurban.org/mission.htm
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/OPINION01/710260306/1007/OPINION
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/dcblog/index.cfm?blogid=327
November 5, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 45
MI-DNR Sings the Down & Out Blues…
As of writing this column on Oct. 29 so as to meet the midweek deadline, the Michigan legislature was still trying to resolve the state’s budget cry-sis after making a half-baked attempt to resolve it by sticking a knife in the taxpayers’ backs on Oct. 1.
To date, the lawmakers sent to Lansing by a majority of voters to do right for ALL Michigan citizens have failed miserably at their job. Not all, by far, can claim lack of experience, so to use term limit-created ignorance, as an excuse for incompetence, doesn’t cut it.
I’d get light-headed and keel over backwards if the state legislature ignored the MI-DNR’s whining and refused to allow the agency to raise the cost of sportsmen’s licenses and user fees, incrementally or otherwise.
It’s got so lately that one can’t pick up a newspaper anywhere in the state that doesn’t have an article in it that puts the spin on the DNR’s leaky money bucket. But, that’s how the DNR’s “con-the-great-unwashed-masses” shill game is played through the “we-get-paid-by-the inch” media reporters.
Compared to the total budget cry-sis, which legislators failed to resolve in a timely and more effective manner by curbing the Granholm administration’s voraciously insatiable spending habits, the DNR’s 2008 shortfall, reported to be between $9 and $11 million, is minuscule.
Nevertheless, as early as Oct. 22 and anticipating a no-go from the lawmakers, the DNR with poison pen in hand was already lurking in the wings with a list of spending reductions that could, if one overreacted to them, create a fear-factor that could possibly cause the Henny Pennies among us to run off screaming into the night!
The cost saving maneuvers scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1st would have included, and perhaps may still include, adding two more state forest campgrounds to the long list of twenty already scheduled to be closed next year; reducing bovine tuberculosis disease surveillance; disallowing conservation officers to “address general conservation laws” (their words, not mine); the closure of two fish hatcheries and the elimination of the remaining fish surveys; the closure of a research station and the elimination of university research and use of the Great Lakes research vessels; a reduction in the conservation officer force, as well as a reduction in the amount of time the emergency dispatch is available for conservation violations; the closure of 28,300 acres of managed waterfowl hunting acres; the elimination of translocating nuisance bear and geese (at least 6,000 pesky geese have been translocated in SE Michigan); office closures and elimination of “presence” in field offices.
The above-mentioned reduction threats pertain to the General Fund and Game & Fish Protection Fund and will reduce staff by 70 people and free-up $6.25 million, which the Granholm administration has probably already spent.
In order to save another $1 million and cut staff by 9 in relation to the Forest Development Fund, the DNR intends to eliminate the natural features inventory reviews, which could have a negative impact on the state’s two sustainable forest certifications ala Gang Green. Additionally, the DNR plans to reduce timber marketing, regeneration, and planning efforts, all of which could negatively impact the amount of marked timber, oil and gas reviews, use permits and leases, and fire response, among other things. Furthermore, if $1 million is transferred from that fund to the MI Dept. of Agriculture, additional reductions will be necessary.
To reduce the DNR’s workforce by another 253 people and address a Park Improvement Fund deficit, the agency will stop taking reservations next year for at least 37 state parks that are to close during fiscal year 2009. State recreation areas and scenic sites will be closed, but it’s not clearly stated if this is in addition to the 37 state parks. Also in ’09, eight interpretive centers will be closed. No expected cost savings was reported for this fear factor.
Though few may recall it, when Jennifer Granholm was campaigning for governor in ‘02 she promised to merge the DNR and DEQ, so it should come as no surprise if she ends up doing so under the guise of “cutting to the bone”. However, Russ Harding, a Mackinac Center for Public Policy “think tank” author, advises that, at best, lumping the two agencies with the Dept. of Ag might only save $1 million or less and create more problems than it’s worth.
Actually, it might be best to solve the DNR’s budget cry-sis by convening a round table of wizened and crotchety old Yooper sportsmen with some business-sense savvy to put the axe to questionable spending by the state DNR agency.
For instance, according to Delta Co. Conservation District Exec. Dir. Rory Mattson, who was a recent guest on Bill Moore’s Outspoken Sportsman radio talk show, the DNR is paying Carol Bambery $91,724 though she’s listed as being out of state.
Yours truly went on a research mission and discovered that Ms. Bambery, legal counsel and legislative liaison for the MI-DNR, has been on special assignment from the agency to serve as counsel for the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA) in Washington, D. C.
Not only that, but while working for the MI-DNR, its Director, Rebecca Humphries, offered Ms. Bambery’s services to the regional Midwestern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (MAFWA) so she could follow up on Humphries suggestion and prepare necessary incorporation papers and set up MAFWA’s “Conservation Enhancement Fund” as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3).
According to information in IAFWA’s 7-10-05 meeting minutes, “Thanks to Michigan there will be no charge for her (Ms Bambery’s) service, all MAFWA will pay will be the appropriate filing fees for incorporation.” So, dear over-taxed taxpayer, consider yourself thanked for freebie legal services ala Humphries, who is a director-at-large for MAFWA’s Executive Committee.
Interestingly, at the 3-10-05 Michigan Natural Resource Commission (NRC) meeting, Ms. Humphries stated that Ms. Bambery would be helping the DNR in a different capacity and for the next two years would relocate to Washington, D.C., where she’d assist with the “Teaming With Wildlife Coalition” (read lobbyists looking for our federal tax dollars) and also work with IAFWA to help coordinate legal issues between the states.
A year later, at the March 6th NRC meeting, Ms. Bambery, a former attorney for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs for twelve years and current board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), told the commissioners that the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies had been renamed and would simply be known as the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
On a hunch, I searched Google for IAFWA – IUCN (the UN’s World Conservation Union) and discovered that IAFWA is one of IUCN’s Gang Green partners who are collectively bringing the Wildlands Project to America, as well as laying groundwork for erase-the-borders, bi-national ecosystem rewilding programs with neighboring Canada and Mexico.
Further cyberspace research indicates that more denial is being broadcast in that IAFWA, aka AFWA, claims that although the four “regional” Associations of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (the Midwestern, Western, Southeastern and Northeastern) aren’t part of its organization, they are nevertheless its most important partners in setting standards for conservation and wildlife management efforts. Well, of course they are; they’re facilitating the Wildlands Project and the UN’s Sustainable Development Program on a regional and state level through “wildlife management action plans” and on the taxpayer’s nickle.
IAFWA’s core functions are inter-agency coordination, legal services, international affairs, conservation and management programs, and legislation, and the “Teaming with Wildlife” initiative is its eco-brainchild.
The spin about the International Association’s name change is that, since voting members “are really only found in North America” and are “mainly” fish and wildlife agencies, it more directly reflects its membership, which includes both Canadian and Mexican members who represent many provinces. However, dropping the word “International” to make for a shorter, less confusing name won’t affect the “strategic” mission of the organization that also partners, at times, with the NRA, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation (the MUCC is an affiliate), and Defenders of Wildlife, et al.
With the Internet, you might be able to run through cyberspace, but you can’t easily hide, and merely dropping the word “international” from an organization’s name doesn’t mask its complicity with the IUCN’s Wildlands Project and partnerships with other agents of Gang Green who are all working together to help erase our national borders under the guise of restoring environmental biodiversity.
For this insidious and costly international scheme, the DNR wants to close parks, etc., and raise the cost of sportsmen’s license fees, but it appears our choice is limited to coughing up the money or suffering the consequences, which in the long run we’ll suffer anyway.
http://daviddempsey.typepad.com/davesblog/files/dnr_budget_crisis_10.23.07.doc
http://www.midnr.com/Publications/pdfs/InsideDNR/publications/HR/IC7000_EmploymentOpportunity.htm
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8650
http://mafwa.iafwa.org/documents/meeting_05/1.pdf
http://www.fishwildlife.org/press_050106.html
October 22, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 43
Cuckoo for Conservation
One of the front-page headlines greeting readers of the Oct. 12 edition of the Michigan Outdoor News screams in big, bold face print, “Legislature cuts tax hike for conservation.”
At first glance one thinks, “Uh-oh, what did the dirty beggars do now?” But, after a couple of read-throughs and employing a little logic and common sense, comes the understanding that it’s most likely a good thing that not all of the Michigan lawmakers are cuckoo for conservation or they’d have driven the tax knife even further into state residents’ pockets.
The informative article written by Editor Bill Parker explains that when the legislators were hunkered down at the 11th hour, deciding how best to stick Michigan citizens with income and service fee tax hikes on Oct. 1, they elected to remove a “conservation amendment’ to the income tax increase proposed by Rep. Matt Gillard, D-Alpena.
Gillard’s amendment would have fattened the state’s Game and Fish Protection Fund to the tune of $42 million annually, and, according to Parker, it’s the Game and Fish Protection Fund, which legislators are constitutionally forbidden to raid, that provides much of the DNR’s operating budget.
Had it survived the lightly wielded “cut to the bone” axe in the House, the earmark would have directed 0.025 of 1 percent of the tax hike into the Game and Fish Protection Fund that’s tapped to pay for conservation officers and wildlife management, making all taxpayers liable for some of the MI-DNR’s budget that pays instead of just sticking hunters, fishermen, and trappers with the financial onus.
But, stick us they will and since someone has to make up the projected $8 million deficiency in the DNR’s fiscal year 2008 budget, which began on Oct. 1, the state’s olive drab clad faction of Gang Green plans to cajole our lawmakers into approving a 50 percent incremental hike for sportsmen’s license fees over the next four years.
That’s right, folks, as yours truly types this column on Oct. 16, the State of Michigan already has another budget crisis, and I don’t mean just with the DNR, even though the tax-alcoholics haven’t yet completely resolved the one for FY 2007.
DNR spokesperson Mary Dettloff told Michigan Outdoor News that Gillard’s earmark would have eliminated the need for a license fee increase and that the DNR’s budget for 2008, which was approved by the Governor and Legislature, is based on some sort of incremental license increase.
Clearly, the Governor and the lawmakers put the cart before the horse when they approved the DNR budget for 2008 with an already known $8 million shortfall, and rather than sending the DNR budgeteers back to the drawing board, they opted, instead, to give a nod of approval and let the chips fall where they may.
As of FY 2003, the State of Michigan had a surplus of at least $10.13 billion in taxpayer money that the government wasn’t using, and unless the Granholm administration has blown it all away, most of it should still be there, particularly the seed money that’s been salted away in restricted funds.
According to information found on the CAFR Network Website at carfman.com, “the budget only covers a small portion of the State’s financial condition. There are a group of funds not part of the budget process. The complete list of funds and budgetary requirements are found in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). This report depicts the complete financial status of the State” and the actual budget covers only a portion of the financial resources of the government.
In other words, when Gov. Granholm and the Lansing legislators were publicly crying the blues because they’d blown their wad through over-spending and were threatening to shut down necessary services to resolve the ’07 budget crunch, they kept mum about other revenue. And, instead of making a “tough” decision to come to the taxpayers with a request to get at that other revenue, they opted, instead, to get tough with the state’s people and tax the heck of them.
As of 2003, there were a total of 81 government funds that had cash and investment reserves that weren’t being used. Some examples posted on the CAFR site are:
The Game and Fish Protection Fund, a Special Revenue Fund and part of the budget, had net expenditures of $8.5 million, but it also had cash and investment reserves of $37 million.
The Bottle Deposits Fund, another Special Revenue Fund and part of the budget, had net expenditures of $3.3 million and reserves of $125 million.
The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, a Permanent Fund and not part of the budget, made a profit of $37 million in ’03 and had reserves of $321 million.
The Michigan Unemployment Compensation Fund, an Enterprise fund, had net expenses of $665 million, but also had reserves of $1.7 billion.
All totaled, in 2003 there was a collective surplus of a little over $361 million in just the eleven conservation, environmental, and recreation related funds alone, and that’s in addition to the surpluses of $321 million in the Natural Resources Trust Fund, $141.5 million in the State Park Endowment Fund, and another $20.5 million in the Michigan Civilian Conservation Corps Endowment Fund.
It’s interesting to note that Sen. Michael Switalski (D-Dist. 10) proposed Senate Bill 799 on Sept. 27, 2007 to appropriate $20 million from the Michigan Civilian Conservation Corps Endowment Fund to the General Fund as a measure to close the gap between expected FY 2007-2008 revenue and spending in other areas of state government. Though this would essentially have had the effect of ending the depression-era program that still pays some 18-25 year olds a minimum wage to help out at state parks, an amendment to require the DNR to find other ways to fund it, such as corporate sponsorships, was added before the legislation was passed in the Senate two days later on Sept. 29.
So you see, there are ways to get at the hoarded surplus of taxpayer money purportedly earmarked to pay for this program and that project, and since everything done by government is supposed to be done by law, it is the legislature that can change those laws having to do with hoarded money in cash and investment funds if the lawmakers really want to make a tough decision instead of taking the easy way out by sticking it to taxpayers, many who are also sportsmen who’ll get a double whammy once license fees go up.
In his Outdoor Observations column in the Oct 12 Michigan Outdoor News, Bill Parker opined that “of the DNR’s $288 million annual budget, only about 9 percent ($25.3 million) comes from the state General Fund, and half of that is designated specifically for payments in lieu of taxes to local units of government.”
Well, cry me a river and sing the blues til you’re hoarse, but a simple fix is to require the Natural Resources Trust Fund board to cease and desist with buying more state land to make PILT payments on and quit with the grants for more conservation easements on property somebody else owns.
Considering that in 2003 there was about $682 million in surplus dollars sitting in various and sundry “cuckoo for conservation” funds, perhaps it’s time to use the interest generated and/or part of the capital for something other than Gang Green’s agenda. Perhaps now is a good time to put surplus state revenue toward necessary services like funding schools, police and fire departments, and prisons, and not toward yet another special fund such as the “Wildlife Action Opportunity Fund,” which the Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) is now proposing.
The MUCC has already received a $93,455 grant from the Doris Duke Foundation to implement a Michigan Wildlife Action Plan and set the wheels in motion for the new fund by building a public/private partnership with the MI-DNR and other participants in the Teaming With Wildlife Coalition.
One of the objects of the MI Wildlife Action Plan is to integrate the plan’s many priorities, targeting invasive species and preventing land fragmentation for instance, with other land use planning efforts at the local, state or federal level. In other words, it’s another item on Gang Green’s agenda and the MI-DNR is buying into it with whatever funds they can come up with and with the agency manpower needed to help implement it paid for through our tax dollars.
At this point, when there isn’t enough money to steer the Ship of State off the shoals of financial ruin without dipping further into taxpayers’ pockets and increasing sportsmen’s license fees, Michigan simply can’t afford to be cuckoo of conservation.
http://www.michiganoutdoornews.com/articles/2007/10/11/news/news4.txt
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/Constitution.pdf
http://cafrman.com/Articles/Art-MI-S1.htm
http://www.michiganvotes.org/2007-SB-799
http://www2.eli.org/pdf/research/openspace/michigan.pdf
http://www.wcs.org/wildlifeopportunity
http://www.michiganoutdoornews.com/articles/2007/10/11/news/news4.txt
October 15, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 42
Tax-itis – Part II
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill
Envision a blond-headed woman, empowered with her political party’s financial backing and socialistic platform, standing with both feet firmly planted in a bucket and pulling up on the handles with all her might, and you’ll have a better idea of just how effective the Granholm administration’s scheme to tax Michigan and its citizens into prosperity will play out.
While the blond and her entourage of international jet-setters skitter here and there from country to country trying to bring “good paying jobs” to Michigan, the legislature and milady, herself, demand and institute policy that’s anti-business, anti-job growth, and counter productive to the best interest of the majority of Michigan citizens who are circumstantially forced or elect for other reasons to remain in the state.
Much of the new and barely discernable growth the Governor’s costly job-hunting trips have brought to the state over the past few years is generated from corporations already settled in Michigan, and most of that pitiful growth is romanced with “tax-abatement” incentives, creating a deficit that other businesses and individual taxpayers are coerced into absorbing so it can be claimed that the state’s budget is balanced each year.
This latest budget fix gleaned from the toil of taxpayers, which Granholm claims will go a long way to resolving the state’s financial woes, resolves nothing, and instead once again slaps a temporary band aid on the situation while the legislature takes another look at fixing what they haven’t been able to fix during months and months of wrangling.
One thing they’re now talking openly about is to hit taxpayers in the pocket book again with an increase in sales tax—up from 6 percent to 7 percent. Now how smart is that at a time when taxpayers are still up in arms over the last assault? What do the legislators do, drink a bottle of “Stupid” immediately after the results are in on election night?
To make an increase in our state sales tax more palatable, our keepers are offering to possibly remove some of the targeted businesses from the “service tax hike” list. Should that be the case, let us Yooper Sheeple pray that the tax on ski lifts, color tours and other travel services are cut and not just the tax on palm reading and crystal ball gazing.
Ah well, while the state burns, Lansing is celebrating inner-city revitalization, not just because taxpayers are getting socked for a new multi-million dollar State Police Headquarters building along Lansing’s riverfront, but also because the Accident Fund Co. of America, a subsidiary of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, has elected to take over the old Lansing Board of Water and Light building, also along the riverfront, and turn it into their national headquarters.
Lauding the move as creating 500 jobs in the state, the Granholm administration actually maneuvered to give the Accident Fund a $25.9 million state employment tax credit for bringing up to that many new jobs to Lansing over a 10– to 15–year period once the building is operational.
In addition to the state employment tax credit, officials plan to pay for the $182 million renovation through $130 million worth of private investment, as well as $500,000 from the city of Lansing over the next three years for a parking ramp incentive; the establishment of a tax-free Renaissance Zone at the site worth about $5 million in property and business tax savings over 15 years; a state “brownfield” tax credit worth $9.4 million and tax increment financing of up to $30 million for environmental cleanup and site work; a $600,000 federal EPA grant for environmental assessment and remediation; and a state grant of around $3 million for a 20-foot wide park along the property’s riverfront. A lot of that money, ladies and gentlemen, is going to come from your pocket on both the state and federal level, as well as from the taxpayers who live in that city.
This deal, which was recently announced on Oct. 8, was being put in motion as our state’s newspaper reporters were ear to the ground in Lansing listening to the state legislators pounding their chests while wrangling about how to resolve the “budget crisis.”
It came at a time when the state, by way of a handful of members of the Capital Outlay Subcommittee, also approved a multimillion dollar “rent to own” scam for the state’s new State Police Headquarters building not too far from the Accident Fund’s new digs along the riverfront in downtown Lansing.
It also came at a time when Rep. Lahti was negotiating a $475 thousand (almost half a million) real estate deal to move the Calumet State Police back into the headquarters it had just vacated—a post that had previously been under the “cut to the bone” axe wielded by Governor Granholm.
Oh yes, in the months leading up to “Tax-itis Monday” on Oct. 1, we heard all about the sad state of Michigan’s economy and how education would suffer if the budget mess weren’t resolved immediately, particularly our universities that were hard pressed to make ends meet. But, on the heels of the Oct. 1st tax hikes, and citing financial stability, increased enrollment and increased research dollars as products of his tenure at the university, Michigan Tech announced on Oct. 5 that it had given its president a much-deserved 4 percent raise, boosting his income to $262,000.
Interestingly, your truly came across an e-mail message from MTU’s president to a student named Paul, which the young man has posted online in regard to his frustration over a 9.5 percent increase in tuition again this year. It reads:
“Dear Paul – In just a few days you will receive e-mail notification that your fall tuition bill is available online. It will reflect an average 9.5 percent increase in annual tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students. This amounts to about a $30 difference in the cost of per credit hour.
We strive to contain costs for students, but we do rely on state appropriations for a large portion of our operating expenses. In the past few years, however, we have had to live in an uncertain world when it comes to state revenue. Our state appropriations have fallen consistently every year from 2001 to 2007, and this year has been especially challenging.
This month, the state cut this year’s allocation to Michigan Tech by $718,000; that money is gone forever. The state will also withhold its entire $4.5 million August payment to Michigan Tech, though it has indicated it will restore it in October.
Nevertheless, Michigan Tech remains committed to quality. Quality defines us. You deserve outstanding educational programs, and we will continue to deliver them. We also are conscious of keeping Michigan Tech affordable, but tuition increases are inevitable as state support declines.
I appreciate that you have chosen to attend Michigan Tech and look forward to your return in the fall…”
Already, on Oct. 5 and in addition to giving its president a raise, Michigan Tech’s board of control announced that it was sending a state capital outlay request to the state for approximately $44.5 million for funding in 2009 for renovations to Fisher Hall. It was noted that if the state grants the full capital outlay, Tech would come up with the remainder needed for the $59 million project.
According to a MTU representative, if the state allocates a lesser amount than what’s needed for the Fisher Hall renovation, Tech will request funding for other projects on its capital outlay priority list that includes a new $35 million building for the School of Business and Economics, a new Great Lakes Research Center, renovation and expansion of Dillman Hall, and a new manufacturing center.
When taxpayers are being asked to tighten their belt and do without in order to meet the state’s budget liability, there’s clearly something wrong with this picture.
Readers who want to get a better handle on more of what’s really going on in Lansing are advised to find a computer and, using the final link at the end of this column, download the “complete contracts” list. What an eye-opener it is!
http://www.mininggazette.com/stories/articles.asp?articleID=8879
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071009/NEWS01/710090313/1001/news
http://mtu4wheelers.powweb.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=918&sid=2187c7d19553772a0bee928221ebeedf
http://www.michigan.gov/doingbusiness/0,1607,7-146-6579-123529--,00.html
October 8, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 41
Tax-itis? Take $2 Billion and Call Us In the Morning
“Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.” —Will Rogers
As On Target’s friend “Wisconsin Bob” says, “Ignorance is temporary; stupid is forever.” So how exactly shall we categorize the bulk of the dangerous Michigan legislators—the user-unfriendly ones who seem to believe that the way out of a single state recession is to increase income taxes and levy taxes on services? Are they merely ignorant or incurably stupid? And if these lawmakers continue to refuse to listen to the vast majority of state citizens who clamored for no tax hikes, are the Sheeple who continue to vote these fools into office the ones who are ignorant, stupid, or both?
The basic law of “supply and demand” dictates that sooner or later the well will run dry when demand exceeds the amount of money taxpayers can contribute to the government’s coffer, and with the cost of everything escalating at an alarming rate, that day may have just arrived.
Undoubtedly, there are few citizens who are unwilling to pay their fair share, at least among the law-abiding sector of society, but to be forced into further financial servitude because the Granholm administration is in the habit of spending beyond its means is not only unfair, it’s unacceptable.
Over the past few months yours truly has shared a few facts with readers. Among them is the fact that the Governor and state legislators have been engaging in “creative accounting,” transferring bill paying money from one fund to another on paper without admitting that the cold hard cash really isn’t in the bank.
Well, the day of reckoning was October 1, and instead of taking the fat out of bureaucracy, our legislators opted to victimize taxpayers instead. All Upper Peninsula representatives and senators except Rep. Tom Casperson and Sen. Jason Allen voted to increase the state income tax from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent, but then all but Casperson and Allen are loyal-to-the-party Democrats. And it was the Democrats who, along with six RINOs, disregarded the wishes of the majority of Michigan citizens and chose instead to stand behind Granholm’s tax and spend policy. This was hardly what anyone would call a “bipartisan deal” though they’re now trying to imply that it was.
The vote to impose a 6 percent sales tax on a wide variety of services, including various personal services and services used primarily by businesses was very similar, with our U.P. representatives and senators voting the same—all but Casperson and Allen supported it. In both cases, Lt. Governor Cherry had to cast a 19-19 tie-vote breaker in the Senate, and of course he voted the way his empowered boss lady wanted him to.
But this “tax-itis” malady that apparently strikes politicians isn’t just rampant in the state, it’s infecting congressmen in the nation’s capitol, too. In fact, Michigan’s Rep. John Dingell, a downstate Democrat who the Michigan United Conservation Clubs’ former CEO referred to as “our man in Washington,” is proposing a 50-cent gasoline tax hike, a new carbon tax, and decreasing tax breaks for some homeowners and eliminating them altogether for certain others.
Using pain as a sadistic tool to give himself pleasure while instilling a lesson for the Sheeple, Dingell wants to drive home the seriousness of global warming, which many scientists are now claiming is a bogus threat. He recently told an Associated Press reporter, “I’m trying to have everybody understand that this (dealing with global warming) is going to cost and that it’s going to have a measure of pain you’re not going to like.”
Dingell, who at the age of 81 is marking his 52nd year in Congress, went on to say that he wants to make certain “the pain is shared in a way that is fair, proper, acceptable and accomplishes the basic purpose” of reducing greenhouse gases.
That’s all well and good, but if he really wants to make certain the shared pain is fair perhaps he should spend the rest of his golden years representing the people of China whose leaders could give a rip about Gore’s climate change globaloney. That way he could spread that fairness around a little bit instead of just sticking America’s citizens with a heaping dose of pain.
Another legislative proposal that recently came out of Washington has little chance of passing, but never the less is indicative of the tax-itis mentality of some of our congressmen. To help finance the Iraq war, and probably another “unpopular” one (has there ever been a popular war?) to come in Iran, too, Democrat Representatives David Obey (WI), John Murtha (PA), and Jim McGovern (MA) have proposed an income tax surcharge of two percent for low and moderate wage earners and up to 15 percent for more wealthy Americans. If it were to pass, which is highly unlikely, it would bilk an estimated additional $15 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets.
Obey openly admits that the proposal’s ruse is to generate opposition to the war with the comeback line, “If you don’t like the tax—shut down the war.” Well, hey, if it were only that simple, maybe Michigan citizens should shut down the Granholm administration because, God knows, one heck of a lot of the state’s people don’t like the recent tax increases.
The last link at the bottom of this article leads to Part III of a series of articles titled “Money to Burn in Lansing?” written by KXYZ’s chief investigative reporter Steve Wilson. The series exposes the cronyism and manipulation involved with the new $45 million State Police Headquarters in downtown Lansing that will end up costing taxpayers somewhere around $117.6 million when all is said and done. If you have access to a computer, it’s highly recommended that you grab some Pepto Bismol, read through all three parts of the series, and take a gander at the list of dangerous politicians on the Capital Outlay Committee who voted in favor of this “rent-to-own” scam that will put millions and millions of dollars in the pockets of a couple of Lansing area political campaign contributors.
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/10/new-granholmdem.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298271,00.html
http://www.rttnews.com/FOREX/politicalnews.asp?date=10/02/2007&item=8
http://www.wxyz.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=84aa2e42-5f44-4458-832e-ffd2116e8caa
October 1, 2007
Vol. 8 Issue 40
Retired research chemist Charles Bolgiano, Ph.D., is the Legislative Liaison for the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania. For several years now sportsmen in that state have been fighting the same battles Michigan sportsmen are now fighting as we realize our state’s deer herd is also under attack by Gang Green. Dr. Bolgiano has given yours truly permission to reprint his article, “The Biodiversity-Socialist Movement” so that readers will understand the insidiousness of the rewilding of America scheme. ~Cj
Landowners and sportsmen in Pennsylvania are beginning to learn how devastating, threatening and costly the Biodiversity-Socialist movement in Pennsylvania has become. It is not only a serious threat to hunting sports, but goes much further by threatening the very foundations on which this Nation was founded, namely, the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution and the basic right to own property.
Several years ago (1996-97) the state was paid a visit by Maurice Strong, a Canadian Socialist and chief organizer of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Biodiversity held in Rio de Janeiro. He paved the way for biodiversity (ala U.N. style) in Pennsylvania by being invited and urged o