Today’s Freep provides an excellent chat about FOIA and the public’s right to know.
Some of these points are obvious – “Before disbursing a dime of its anticipated $7.1 billion in federal stimulus funds, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature should create a very public and straightforward "checkbook" showing deposits from Washington and payouts in Michigan.”
Obvious but very unlikely.
You may have seen the Mackinac Center’s attempts to persuade the governor to be more open and the lack of regard the state’s chief holds for an open government. If not, we’ve posted the correspondence below.
The Center aptly summarizes the exchanges, “Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office has twice refused Mackinac Center requests to replicate the online spending transparency found on the Secretary of State’s Web site. Claims by the governor’s office that such a project would be “cost prohibitive,” however, don’t add up.”
On the subject of stimulus money: What’s the lead us to believe that the money will be spent any differently than any other government welfare lottery? Political favors will be paid and those tight with the administration will receive most of the proceeds. This is not just the case in Michigan, but how business is done in all states. Lip service is being paid to transparency here and for Michigan, here.
So far, Michigan has handed over stimulus $$ to public health clinics that didn’t even ask for financial help, a stateside arm of the Peace Corp, and law enforcement.
President Obama’s vast expenditure is neither sound nor fair. And even if we can see where this money is going, this is a rare case in which transparency is frustrating in confirming what we know: Special interests rule.
Granholm - Mac Center Letter
Mac Center Back to Granholm Letter
Granholm Back to Mac Center
Showing posts with label Stimulus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stimulus. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
List of Those Who Are Holding Hand Out for Stimulus $$
Now we’ve got it – a government provided site to tell us just how the Stimulus Bill will provide for us and how that money is being spent.
I decided to poke around on the 1,238-page request list and see just who wants what from the Fed giveaway. Some stunning stuff. For example, at Wayne Gray Elementary in the Addison Community Schools district, $3,500 is needed to replace the partitions in the boy’s bathroom. OK, maybe. But the start date is listed as June 8. The completion date? September 1. It’s going to take three months to do a job that should take three hours. I might add that the city of Alma is seeking $860,000 to reconstruct a half-mile of road. That, too, will take three months. Perhaps this is the bigger problem, this snail’s pace that government likes to toil at. Lapeer Community Schools also put its hand out for $13 million to “install geothermal heating and cooling system; replace existing windows, building remodeling to accommodate geothermal…” I guess if we are going to get the dough to install geothermal, we might as well remodel the building to accommodate it, eh?
In fact, let’s look at Lapeer Community Schools. With 7,337 students, it spends $22 million a year on 354 teacher salaries and benefits. Yet somehow it feels that shelling out $13 million on geothermal heating is a suitable way to spend money.
We’re also fond of Insight Management and Consulting Practices which asked for a staggering $84.5 million. The group was incorporated in March 2008 by Tarik Hafeez, a Canton lawyer who is part of a group called LegalEase Solutions . Insight is located in Flint. Its request covers the cost of a nursing home, a high school, a neuro rehab unit (we presume the high school will prepare this unit’s team) and a study of scar tissue. This is a company with no apparent claim to credibility nor does it appear to be able to keep its Web site up to date. Sure, let’s hand them $84.5 million.
One more thing: the Ingham County Health Department received money that it didn’t even have to ask for. Nice work if you can get it.
Michigan Welfare From Stimulus
I decided to poke around on the 1,238-page request list and see just who wants what from the Fed giveaway. Some stunning stuff. For example, at Wayne Gray Elementary in the Addison Community Schools district, $3,500 is needed to replace the partitions in the boy’s bathroom. OK, maybe. But the start date is listed as June 8. The completion date? September 1. It’s going to take three months to do a job that should take three hours. I might add that the city of Alma is seeking $860,000 to reconstruct a half-mile of road. That, too, will take three months. Perhaps this is the bigger problem, this snail’s pace that government likes to toil at. Lapeer Community Schools also put its hand out for $13 million to “install geothermal heating and cooling system; replace existing windows, building remodeling to accommodate geothermal…” I guess if we are going to get the dough to install geothermal, we might as well remodel the building to accommodate it, eh?
In fact, let’s look at Lapeer Community Schools. With 7,337 students, it spends $22 million a year on 354 teacher salaries and benefits. Yet somehow it feels that shelling out $13 million on geothermal heating is a suitable way to spend money.
We’re also fond of Insight Management and Consulting Practices which asked for a staggering $84.5 million. The group was incorporated in March 2008 by Tarik Hafeez, a Canton lawyer who is part of a group called LegalEase Solutions . Insight is located in Flint. Its request covers the cost of a nursing home, a high school, a neuro rehab unit (we presume the high school will prepare this unit’s team) and a study of scar tissue. This is a company with no apparent claim to credibility nor does it appear to be able to keep its Web site up to date. Sure, let’s hand them $84.5 million.
One more thing: the Ingham County Health Department received money that it didn’t even have to ask for. Nice work if you can get it.
Michigan Welfare From Stimulus
Friday, February 20, 2009
Is That a Road or a Chinese Checkerboard?
The $787 stimulus plan signed by President Obama Tuesday allocates $64.1 billion for transportation and infrastructure projects, with $27.5 billion aimed at highways and bridges. The question many have is why states and municipalities have allowed roads to deteriorate at such a pace. Most municipalities have road crews and budgets for such. Leaders are supposed to know and plan for problems. The roads we drive on are part of our quality of life. Third World countries are known in part for their poor roads and infrastructure.
The incredibly depressed state of Michigan is by far the biggest offender in allowing its roads to sag. Drivers here are amazingly docile about the horrendous condition, even holding a contest to see who can find the biggest pothole.
The problem allows a lot of finger pointing but no solutions. And it has a history.
In 1991, then-Gov. John Engler promised to funnel $78 million in road funding to towns and counties. He later rescinded the funding amidst his usual political game playing. In October 1995, the Grand Rapids Press in an editorial promised that in the wake of a defeated gas tax measure, roads would suffer. Higher taxes, it reasoned, would surely make things right.
The state raised its gas tax to 19 cents in 1997 with the promise of good roads in the future: According to an AP story in July 1997, Rep. Clark Harder, D-Owosso, said the public won't see the results of the tax hike immediately. "If we can get another $20 million to $40 million into this year (for road repairs), we'll be doing well," said Harder, a chief negotiator on the road plan. "A year from now people will be saying, `Thank goodness the Legislature did something about this."'
The gasoline tax increase is expected to raise about $200 million a year for road repairs.
Other elements of the road repair package include a 30 percent increase in truck registration and weight fees for $42 million; a one-time, $69 million dip into the state's Budget Stabilization Fund; and a plan to pave the way for reforms that might include the state taking control of more primary roads from local governments.
Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Gary Naeyaert said the $69 million the state's rainy day fund will pump into road repairs this year will still leave a lot of the work for the years ahead.
Wrong. In a recent interview on WJR, listen to MDOT flak Rob Morosi do the dance.
(BTW, Naeyaert is now head of Naeyaert Advocacy Group, a lobbying group in Lansing)
This is how political promises work, my friends. And don’t be surprised to see other elements of the stimulus plan fail as well.
The incredibly depressed state of Michigan is by far the biggest offender in allowing its roads to sag. Drivers here are amazingly docile about the horrendous condition, even holding a contest to see who can find the biggest pothole.
The problem allows a lot of finger pointing but no solutions. And it has a history.
In 1991, then-Gov. John Engler promised to funnel $78 million in road funding to towns and counties. He later rescinded the funding amidst his usual political game playing. In October 1995, the Grand Rapids Press in an editorial promised that in the wake of a defeated gas tax measure, roads would suffer. Higher taxes, it reasoned, would surely make things right.
The state raised its gas tax to 19 cents in 1997 with the promise of good roads in the future: According to an AP story in July 1997, Rep. Clark Harder, D-Owosso, said the public won't see the results of the tax hike immediately. "If we can get another $20 million to $40 million into this year (for road repairs), we'll be doing well," said Harder, a chief negotiator on the road plan. "A year from now people will be saying, `Thank goodness the Legislature did something about this."'
The gasoline tax increase is expected to raise about $200 million a year for road repairs.
Other elements of the road repair package include a 30 percent increase in truck registration and weight fees for $42 million; a one-time, $69 million dip into the state's Budget Stabilization Fund; and a plan to pave the way for reforms that might include the state taking control of more primary roads from local governments.
Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Gary Naeyaert said the $69 million the state's rainy day fund will pump into road repairs this year will still leave a lot of the work for the years ahead.
Wrong. In a recent interview on WJR, listen to MDOT flak Rob Morosi do the dance.
(BTW, Naeyaert is now head of Naeyaert Advocacy Group, a lobbying group in Lansing)
This is how political promises work, my friends. And don’t be surprised to see other elements of the stimulus plan fail as well.
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