Will The Courser Gamrat Scandal Get In The Way Of A Road Package ? NO.

Nobody cares about them. But this is what WILL keep blocking any progress, as September 2015 ends with no Road Funding Solution in Michigan in sight!

The Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat scandal was such a big deal it even got national news coverage.

What adulterous sex ? What government scandal ? Who Me ?

At first they were innocent - they said. Or just being picked on by the republicans in Lansing who simply did not like them - they said. Well finally they either quit or were thrown out of their jobs. Good - we said.

We screwed up (literally) but give us our jobs back !

Then, surprise surprise, they flip-flopped, turned around (or over) and said to the astonishment of the whole state, that they wanted the voters to decide if they were good enough to be part of Michigan government again and would run for the vacant offices they got canned from or ran out of !

Michigan House Votes To Use Forced Labor To Fix Roads ?

If someone takes something from you without your permission what might you call that? Steeling?

If you were told you must work and someone else will get the money even though you do not wish it, how would you feel? Like you were forced?

Some 3/4 Million Michigan tax payers will be forced to fix the roads, whether they like it or not, by working more hours without actually receiving pay in their pockets for the work they do. And the majority of the Michigan house of representatives is all for it. What? Let me try to explain.

Here is what I have read:

"House Republicans voted this week to eliminate the earned income tax credit as part of a plan to spend more on road improvements. Senate Republicans may follow suit this summer." - Oakland Press

The Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EIT) Democrats and others say, is the state credit which helps low-income people pay their bills and buy necessities. About 780,000 qualifying Michigan taxpayers received an average credit worth $140 last year. People who need this credit use the money not for luxuries, but for necessities, like food for their kids. Republicans want to use that money to fix our roads instead.

Fix The Roads - Are We There Yet?

Will this republican plan hurt people in Michigan?

For people earning minimum wage, that might amount to 2 or more days of work. Work which will now be paid, not to them, but to the state to 'Fix The Roads'!

If they do not wish to do that, some feel that may amount to Forced Labor. What do you think?
 
Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof thinks it is a small thing and supports it.

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof tells The Associated Press he supports ending the tax credit and so does a majority of his caucus. He says it’s a small credit compared to a larger federal credit. - Oakland Press

And in addition, while republicans exist in office to a large extent off the mantra 'no new taxes' and 'lower all taxes', their vote to completely remove the Michigan EIT is in essence a raise in taxes for those that currently claim it.

Increase taxes on poor?
'Nothing is off the table' - Arlan Meekhof

Is this republican proposal impractical, ignorant or just plain mean spirited? My hope is it simply will not fly and a Real Plan to Fix Our Roads will be put forward by the legislature. However like the Bible says; 'hope is the expectation of things not beheld'. I hope but I just don't see it.

Thanks for taking a look at this, my opinion. Please tell me what you think.

Drive Careful,
Will

Mackinac Policy Conference Begins - Will There Be Potholes?

UPDATE:

Well it's 2016 and another Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference - Woo Hoo !

"Expectations for real results in solid policy to benefit the state and its citizenry this year are slim. However the horses are thick on the island and so is the horse shit there, et al" --someone who know horse shit

So much for the Update.
____________________________________

Another work week begins now that the Memorial Day weekend of 2015 is over. Will the week bring a solution to our Michigan road problem?

To The Island !

Hitch up your horses, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference gets underway on Mackinac Island this week.

It happens every year at the Grand Hotel.

You can bet a major subject to be discussed will be the failure of Proposal 1 and where the Michigan legislature will go from here to get to a Real Road Funding Solution. And what irony, Mackinaw island!

Snyder and his business allies on this island trip will no doubt try to convince the Republican lawmakers in attendance that they can and should put more than a billion dollars into roads, and keep it flowing. But there are going to be a lot of issues to dodge and get around, like steaming piles on the Mackinaw streets, before there can be results.

On the one hand you have governor Snyder, very much wanting to put Billions of dollars into a permanent road funding program. Snyder says polls have shown the people are open to some sort of new tax or tax increase if it goes to roads.

Then you have his Republican lawmakers, wanting to at all cost avoid those steaming piles of taxes. All they can think about is their dainty anti-tax constituents getting the vapors and passing out at the slightest hint of a smelly tax, and then forgetting them on re-election day.

And of course there are the Democrats in Lansing. Like any good farmer, they don't mind stepping in a pile of taxes, so long as there is something left on their shoes for them to spread over their constituents. Democratic support in the legislature is needed because they will have to make up an expected  Republican lack of votes. But they will want something in return, just like last year! Yet they are not always so welcome at the island conference. Last year, in fact, Snyder’s Democratic opponent for governor wasn’t even invited to take part in the event.

Suffice it to say that the island conference will be looking to its historical darling Snyder for leadership (though his attractiveness has declined in the last few years). And the center-right businesses will have a say on road funding. They are still giggling over the  Michigan Business Tax toss, and the giant Tax Cut for businesses handed to them not long ago, all packaged up pretty with a big bright bow. And lately the states businesses have been tearing open those presents like greedy four year old's on Christmas morning (so much for budget surplus for roads). Better roads for better business, right?

Well, Mackinaw island is a lot about history. The way things used to be. No cars. No car noise. No cars torn up from potholes. Just like the good old days. Let's hope the result of this conference will Not be a return to the bad old days of no road funding. 

Michigan Road Funding Of The Past

 

Oh, by the way, to get into the conference:  $2,150 for Chamber members and $2,925 for Future members. So I suspect I wont be there. Anyway, it seems I've been kicked out of the Grand Hotel in the past (speaking of history), and they may notice me. I'll be in the LP probably driving my car into another pothole no doubt.

Drive Careful, Will