Mark Maynard | 2007 | September

the michigan budget crisis

By Mark | September 26, 2007

I just received an email from a reader named David Palmer. He wanted me to read a MySpace post by our former Assistant City Manager (who is now the City Manager of Ferndale) on the State of Michigan’s current budget crisis. As I found the analysis to be pretty damned good, I thought that I’d reprint some of it here for your consideration:

Tomorrow is the big day. The state legislature and governor must make a budget deal tomorrow to avoid a shutdown. Republicans are calling on Governor Granholm to accept a 30-day budget extension. However, this will only increase the budget deficit and make it more difficult to balance. Why should we believe the state legislature will do in the next 30 days what they have failed to do in the last 300?

I do not normally weigh in on state policy issues. However, I cannot remain silent on the state’s current budget crunch any longer. I am a non-partisan professional administrator appointed by the Ferndale City Council based solely on my qualifications and I refrain from all political activities which may undermine public confidence in professional administrators. I mention this so that you may understand that my comments and concerns are those of professional resident rather than a partisan.

Like many Michigan residents, I have been watching the budget negotiations in Lansing with bated breath. I receive daily communications from colleagues in education, local government and other sectors warning of the harms of further state budget cuts. As a result, I am convinced spending cuts will jeopardize vital public services such as public safety, health care and education.

Michigan’s communities and public safety agencies are heavily dependent on state revenue sharing. Revenue sharing is an important promise the state has been making to local communities since the 1930s. Today revenue sharing is more important than ever before because the interaction between the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A has created an institutional formula for bankrupting Michigan’s communities. 2006 marked the sixth consecutive year of cuts to revenue sharing. That amounts to a $1,100,000 annual reduction for the City of Ferndale. We have 1,600 fewer police officers and 2,400 fewer firefighters in Michigan today because of state budget cuts….

The facts are clear: Michigan is not a high tax state. Michigan is spending less as a percentage of total state income on state government today than it has in 20 years. The Detroit Free Press reported this spring, “A new study by Federal Funds Information for States (FFIS) ranks Michigan 23rd in per capita state and local taxes and fees, and 21st in total revenue as a percentage of personal income statewide.” Michigan taxpayers in 2005 paid 9% less of their income to state and local taxes than they did 10 years earlier. In state spending, Michigan is spending a far smaller piece of its income today than it did in 2000 — in fact, we are $5 billion below the Headlee limit, the level proposed in conservative Richard Headlee’s Constitutional Amendment as the amount of state spending Michigan must not exceed.

At one point in the recent debate, state lawmakers seemed to have reached consensus on increasing the state income tax rate from 3.9% to 4.3%. The debate then focused on whether to make cuts of about $1 billion or increase the state income tax rate all the way to 4.6% to resolve the remaining deficit. For historical reference, Michigan’s state income tax rate was reduced from 6.35% to 4.6% in 1986, to 4.2% in 2000, to 4.0% in 2003, and to the current 3.9% in 2004. The state income tax rate has not been this low since 1971. That means the income tax rate has never been lower for an entire generation of taxpayers like myself. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, Michigan’s median family income (in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars) was $57,996. That means state lawmakers were essentially debating whether to jeopardize vital public services or increase the average income tax bill by $173.99 a year, $14.50, a month, or $3.35 a week. How much is Michigan’s future worth to you?…

If I knew more about the intricacies of the Headlee Amendment and how it’s fucking* older Michigan towns like ours, this is the point where I would insert a rant and call for its immediate destruction. As it is though, I’m just going to make my way across the room, pop in a Battlestar Gallactica video, and try to forget about the fact that my City and my State are tanking.

(*Sorry for the profanity. I tried to substitute “making love to,” but it just didn’t pack the same punch.)

Posted in Politics | 12 Comments

the tasers of ypsilanti

By Mark | September 26, 2007

It’s been mentioned here on the site that Ypsi cops, if they’re not already, will soon be carrying tasers. I recently heard that our Chief of Police has made an offer to demonstrate these tasers to interested community groups. If there’s enough interest, I was thinking of asking for a demo for the local blog readers. If anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll pursue it. I personally think that it would be useful not just to know what they look like, how they’re used, and what affect they have on people, but under what circumstances our police officers have been trained to use them… Anyway, let me know if you’re interested. Ideally we’d have a half dozen or so people prepared to ask questions and we’d have someone volunteer to shoot video and post it to YouTube.

I should add that I’m not necessarily anti-taser. I’m admittedly not up on all the facts, but it seems to me that a taser, properly used, would do a lot less damage to a person than say a metal baton to the head. (From what I understand, when Pittsfield Township cops got tasers 11 months ago, they stopped carrying metal batons. Furthermore, they’ve only reported using the tasers on two occasions in that time.) With all that said, however, I still find the thought of police officers accustomed to using such devices to be rather chilling, in a dystopian nightmare kind of a way. Yes, I suppose it’s better than being shot with a bullet, but is that what it’s come to? Are we OK with anything short of murder? One wonders where all of this is heading. Pain guns perhaps?

Posted in Ypsilanti | 21 Comments

john dingell, natalie portman, gas tax and nudity

By Mark | September 25, 2007

Dingell’s Press Secretary wrote in this morning to tell me that the Congressman’s plan for a gas tax would be unveiled on his website this Thursday. According to a piece in today’s “Detroit Free Press,” it’s looking like, when all is said and done, that the Congressman will be proposing a tax of 72 cents per gallon. The article went on to say that, in a very unusual move, the Congressman has said that he would be encouraging people to leave comments concerning the proposed legislation on his site. (No doubt he’s hoping to illustrate just how unpopular such legislation would be.)

Most people that know Dingell seem to think that it’s a ruse meant to torpedo any meaningful legislation on global warming that would include higher fuel efficiency standards. Conventional wisdom is that no one in Congress would support a bill that called for a gas tax, regardless of how well intentioned or necessary it might be, for fear that they’d soon be voted out by their constituents. Dingell, if you ascribe to this interpretation, would, by adding a gas tax to any legislation moving through his committee, come across as a heroic politician fighting to pass meaningful legislation that aimed to get Americans driving less and buying more fuel efficient cars, while, at the same time, dooming the bill, and keeping the status quo for Big Auto and Big Oil. It’s a brilliant strategy. He comes off as an environmental hero, at the same time he’s killing any chance of significant climate legislation being passed. Of course, he denies that this is what he’s doing.

According to Dingell, he has “never” in his 52 year career in the House put forward legislation that he did not believe in and want to see pass. He says that he believes in the gas tax, and wants to see it enacted. While a great part of me thinks he’s being disingenuous when he says this, I hold out some hope that he’s at least on the fence. I can’t help but think that, regardless of how he might have felt when he first floated this idea a few months ago, that there’s a possibility, if he feels the tide turning, that he might really embrace the idea and run with it. And, personally, I don’t care what the original motivation was as long as it leads to legislation that encourages conservation and decreases the polution that causes global warming. So, on Thursday, when he asks for public comment on the idea of a gas tax, I’d like to get as many people as possible writing in, leaving comments praising him for his courage and thanking him for stepping up and doing what other politicians are too spineless to do.

I’d love to write more tonight, but Linette just poked her head into this little corner of the living room closet that we now call my office and told me, “Tomorrow night, I’m going to arrange for you to see Natalie Portman nude.” I think you’ll understand why I need to cut this post short and start investigating.

update: OK, here’s the deal. As best I can tell, it’s viral marketing for the new Wes Anderson movie that’s coming out. And, according to the “LA Times,” Natalie Portman is nude. Apparently she’s in a five-minute nude love scene with Jason Schwartzman, and it’s going to be available for free though iTunes on Thursday… A nice double feature with Dingell’s announcement, don’t you think? If only Portman had done this to sell a gas tax instead of yet another Wes Anderson film.

Posted in Global Warming | 12 Comments

is there evidence of rove’s involvement in election fraud?

By Mark | September 24, 2007

I don’t have a lot of time tonight, but I wanted to throw this out there for all the conspiracy buffs in the audience.

I was just sent an interesting piece of video by a reader in New York. It’s of a recent call between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and author Greg Palast on the subject of election fraud. I can’t get into all the details right now, but one of the thoughts put forward by Palast is that Karl Rove’s decision to leave the administration earlier this summer was somehow connected. One wonders if it might be true, and, if it is, if anyone will care. Kennedy and a few others have been beating the “election fraud” drum for a while now, and my sense is that people just don’t give a shit, even if it’s true.

[It’s probably worth noting that the University of Florida journalism student that was tasered during a John Kerry speech the other day was carrying a book by Greg Palast with him at the time… If you don’t mind the thought of being tased, you can buy a copy of “Armed Madhouse” by following this link.]

Posted in Other | 10 Comments

shadow art fair deadline looming

By Mark | September 24, 2007

The deadline for applying to be a vendor at the upcoming Shadow Art Fair is this Monday, October 1. The application, if you’re interested can be found online. Or, if that’s not your thing, there’s also a poster design contest. The deadline for that is also October 1. Just do me a favor and don’t steal my “Now with Free Pet Euthanasia” line.

Oh, speaking of art, Linette tells me that that when she went to pick Clementine up from school today, Clementine wanted to show her a new painting that she was working on. Linette was looking at it for a few seconds when Clementine said, “It’s a beer.” Maybe I should encourage her to apply. Who wouldn’t want to buy a painting of beer by a three year old?

Posted in Shadow Art Fair | 5 Comments