Tag: Dillon

In a year that will likely bring strong gains for conservatives and republicans alike, it appears there would be little gained even for name recognition by the bit players in the Democrat left.  Former treasurer Bob Bowman took one look at Michigan's finances, the party in power and said.. umm yeah.. I don't think so... From the Detroit News:

Bowman formed an exploratory committee last week but said in his statement he was compelled to do so because he had spent over $500 in considering a bid.

Bowman works in New York City and lives in suburban Connecticut but has a summer home in the northern Michigan community of Harbor Springs. He's also president of the Michigan Education Trust.

Received from the Michigan Republicans:

Lansing, MI--As Bob Bowman filed his paperwork for a Democratic gubernatorial bid, the Michigan Republican Party warns Michigan families to guard their wallets.

"Bob Bowman is a wall street carpet bagger who is responsible for the 38-percent tax increase on Michigan families under the Blanchard administration,"  said Michigan Republican Party Director of Communications Jennifer Hoff.  "He's just another Harvard Democrat like Jennifer Granholm--look where's she's gotten us.

Unless... we take the opportunity to reflect on the constitutionality of their voting records, and base a recall effort on their failure to abide by their oath of office:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

Detroit is in the eye of the storm...

Few government reformers have taken on a more impossible task than Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, who is trying to restore fiscal and functional sanity to the national disgrace that is the Detroit Public Schools. Now, Bobb is being sued by a defiant Detroit School Board determined to protect the status quo that they created and have benefited from.

Kudos to Attorney General Mike Cox, who will defend Bobb against the School Board's retaliatory suit.

Detroit Mayor Bing, meanwhile, is facing a fierce, daily battle with Detroit's unionized city employees, who believe they should be immune from the City's 22% unemployment rate, plummeting population, and evaporating tax base. These unions are more highly compensated than employees in similar cities (according to a Detroit Free Press study), but they won't concede a penny in adjusted benefits or pay.

Meanwhile, in the suburbs...

Watch some of the economic development possibilities in Caesarea!

Randy Andy Dillon and his merry band of legislators (Rep. Rick Hammel, Rep. Bert Johnson, Rep. Chuck Moss, Rep. Dudley Spade, Rep. John Proos, Rep. Shanelle Jackson, Rep. Vincent Gregory, Sen. Mark Jansen and Sen. Randy Richardville) are out on a weeklong lobbyist sponsored boondoggle to Israel while Michigan continues to face a $1.7 billion state budget deficit. Ooh, what kind of freebies will they get!??

They left today from Newark, on a El Al flight to Tel Aviv. Wonder if the lobbyists paying for the junket got first class tickets? A first class ticket on El Al to Tel Aviv is only $4391 each way but with such prosperous times here in Michigan, who cares? After all, with El Al's prestigious First Class cabin and dedicated crew, they'd be guaranteed the finest in in-flight pampering.... and they deserve it! Wonder if Randy Andy is a Ketel One man or if a single-malt scotch would be more to his liking? After all, it's not his money!

After arriving in Tel Aviv, Randy Andy and pals will stay at the plush Sheraton Tiberias, with an average nightly rate of only $441! ( See picture above-way nice) Hope they had an opportunity to take advantage of the on-site masseuse and spa facilities on the lobbyists' dime... even Mark Sanford didn't have it as nice!

What will Randy Andy and his merry band of legislators do tomorrow? A day shopping in Tiberias?? Or just lounging on the Sea of Galilee, resting after completing their work on the state budget?

But you know what they say... the more things change the more they stay the same.  

Lest you lose your footing, your grip on reality or your general intellectual equilibrium, there is evidence in fish-wraps across the state today that things aren't as topsy-turvy as the MEA / Dillon spat might indicate, and what good is a site like Right Michigan if we don't keep you grounded in reality?  

Not that reality is eeeeveryone's strong suit, though, but isn't that about what we've come to expect from paper's like the Ivory Tower?  The state's leading Lefty pub carries an AP story with an interesting headline that proclaims "Teenagers may receive pay raise this week."

Michigan teenagers who have jobs might see a pay raise this week.

Michigan's subminimum wage, a wage paid to employees younger than 18, will jump from $6.55 to $7.25 when the federal minimum wage rises to that rate on Friday.

And they're right, technically, though I couldn't help but be carried away to the bygone days of the Cold War when a two-car automobile race between the Soviets and the United States once produced a Moscow Headline proclaiming- "Soviets finish second, Americans second to last."

Yes.  Some teenagers might get a pay raise this week as the government introduces another bureaucratic regulation on job makers across the country, even here in a state where job makers have become an endangered species. Alas, many teenagers will also get a pretty serious pay reduction this week when their bosses crunch the numbers and decided instead of paying the higher wage they'll do without the seasonal help the rest of the way.

And as teenagers across the state find their jobs no longer exist, their parents back at home suddenly find themselves dealing with skyrocketing prices on their monthly utility bill, thanks in large part to the MEA's whipping boy, Andy Dillon.  The Grand Rapids Press reports on new, and unstoppable, rate hikes headed our way from Consumers and DTE.

Read on...

The same day we learned that Michigan's economy, in the third year of his "leadership" of the state House, has reached a devastating 15.2 percent unemployment rate and that 740,000 Michiganders are officially jobless, the ugliest number since they started keeping the statistic in 1976, Dillon strode to a podium in the Capitol City and told reporters that moms and dads across the state will be forced to endure yet another tax hike.  

Peter Luke reports:

Balancing the state budget in the next 10 weeks will require a combination of cuts as well as revenue, he said.

Never mind the fact that higher tax rates do more harm than good to total tax receipts as they force companies out of business, workers out of jobs and families out of Michigan (remember that "budget-balancing" $1.5 billion tax hike in 2007 and the precipitous fall revenue has taken each year since).  

Never mind the fact that a $10 million-plus property tax hike in Macomb County only three months ago, while aimed at wiping out county government deficits long term, has done nothing more than administer steroids to the problem, producing a projected $32.2 million deficit in 2010 and 2011.

Never mind the fact no one has ever squeezed blood from a stone.  Yesterday afternoon the House Democratic leader made his intentions pretty clear... grab your wallets (those of you who can still afford them) because Lansing's coming calling.  Again.

Not that that's why Dillon called his presser... like a magician distracting you with one hand and hiding an object with the other the man just snuck that one in there and hoped no one was paying attention.  Abra-kadabra.  Poof!  He's going to make our bank accounts disappear.  

And while it certainly won't be worth the price of admission, the distraction coooooould wind up being pretty interesting.

Read on...