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State Rep. Tim Melton (D-Pontiac)

By State Rep. Tim Melton

Rally at the Capitol

A rally will be held at the State Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 9 a.m., and Wednesday, Feb. 23, at noon. They are intended to voice the people’s opposition to the Governor’s budget, and a number of bills being considered in the Legislature.

Gov. Rick Snyder presented his budget to the state Legislature this week. He outlined his plans to address the upcoming $1.7 billion deficit for next year. The Governor also presented a plan to restructure taxes in the state. A significant portion of the tax proposal includes cutting business taxes while shifting much of these taxes to individuals. His proposal essentially contains enough cuts to address the deficit, and then brings in additional taxes from Michigan citizens in order to eliminate the Michigan Business Tax.

The Legislature is faced with another difficult budget to balance for next year. I have serious concerns about the Governor’s proposal. The proposal shifts the tax burden to seniors and the working class, while cutting local governments and the services they provide in their communities.

Here is a brief overview of the Governor’s budget and tax proposals:

Education

• Higher Education cut 22 percent ($222 million)
• $83 million incentive fund to universities to not hike tuition rates
• Cut $470 in K-12 per pupil funding ($452 million), and eliminates categorical spending
• Community colleges are not cut

State Employee cuts

• Asked for unspecified concessions ($180 million)

Revenue Sharing

• Statutory revenue sharing is completely eliminated ($300 million cut)
• Revenue sharing payments to Auburn Hills will be reduced to $1.27 million
• Pontiac will lose about 57 percent in revenue sharing (approximately a $6 million cut
• Incentives for “best practices” will require locals to compete for $200 million pot of money, but won’t be announced until March 2012 and awards/payment could be much later

Corrections

• $51 million in direct spending cuts
• $32 million savings from privatizing food and privatizing prison stores and others
• Closing one prison saving $19 million
• Eliminates the public works program

Military and Veteran’s Affairs

• Privatize resident care aide service ($4.2 million)

Agriculture

• Eliminates the Dairy Farm Inspection program ($600,000) allowing the industry to police itself

Judiciary

• Eliminates six Trial Court judgeships ($940,000)

State Police

• $3.2 million cut; close state police posts

Human Services

• Instituting 48 month time limit on welfare (federal 60 month limit)
  •  
  • 20 percent can extend beyond for hardship or disability, etc.
• Eliminate 300 positions in DHS.
• Family day care provider rate being cut from $1.60 to $1.35 an hour

Community Health

• No cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates
• No cuts to Medicaid coverage

Tax Changes

• Replace Business Tax with 6 percent corporate income tax (approximately $1.5 billion cut)
• Only larger corporations pay
• Eliminate charitable giving tax deduction/credit
• Future business tax credits would end
• Current credits would be honored
• Phasing out film credits spend $25 million FY 12 from 21st Century Jobs Fund
• Eliminate credit for donations to public universities
• Tax increase on all income earners by freezing the income tax rate at 4.25 percent after October 1, 2011. Current law would drop the rate to 3.9 percent.

Tax Increases

• Tax public pensions ($128.8 million)
• Tax private pensions ($725 million)
• Change Homestead Property Tax credit to households ($320 million in additional tax revenue)
• Eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit for working citizens ($340 million) – Estimates on the EITC credit elimination show approximately a $430 tax increase to individual working taxpayers in Auburn Hills and Pontiac
• 1 percent tax on all health insurance claims. Every claim filed by an individual will add a 1 percent cost
• Tax increase via cap in the income tax personal exemption at $75k single and $150k couple

Changes to Emergency Manager Law

House and Senate committees have been considering repealing and replacing the existing law on Financial Emergency Managers. Republicans have called for this legislation to be moved quickly because of pending financial emergencies to local governments. Despite the necessity for Financial Emergency Managers, I have some serious concerns about the legislation. I’m continuing to talk with committee members and legislative leadership to get some changes inserted in the bills.

Here is an overview of the bills:

• The process begins with a state review of a local government’s finances. The bills add a number of ways in which the state can begin the review and Financial Emergency Manager process. The local government must cooperate with state officials.
• The state will create a review team to focus on the finances of the local government, if a probable financial stress is determined in the preliminary review. The review team will create a financial consent agreement for the local unit of government. The bill allows the state to empower local leaders with some authorities of Emergency Managers.
• The Review team will report to the Governor within 60 days of their appointment. They may recommend whether the local unit is working to fix the financial situation and abiding by their consent agreement. The Governor may declare a financial emergency, and an emergency manager will appointed to run the local unit of government.
• The proposed legislation does a number of things to expand the powers of an Emergency Manager appointed to run a local government. These things include: Assuming all powers of the elected board and city manager or mayor, control all aspects of a community’s finances; terminate and impose union contracts; borrow on behalf of the local community; and dissolve the local unit of government.

These bills empower Emergency Managers to control all aspects of a local government, and supersede any local government provision. A few pieces modified of the bill include**: removing the ban that prohibited officials from the local government from running for election again, and allowing Emergency Managers to take over pension funds**. I fought for language that prohibits an Emergency Manager from taking over a pension fund, if the fund is over 80 percent funded. The bill is still early in the process. But, at this point, this added language would exempt the Pontiac retiree pension fund from takeover.

Youth. women and entire families celebrated the fall of Mubarak outside Dearborn City Hall Feb. 12

By Diane Bukowski

DEARBORN – “It’s just like an avalanche,” said Hasan Nawash. “This is a more significant loss to Israel and the U.S. than the fall of the Shah. The real Egypt is coming back in the most beautiful form, with the masses of the people, women, workers, the old people, the youth, professors, doctors, entire families. The people have been governing themselves for 18 days now. Today I’m proud to be an Arab, and proud to be a Palestinian.”

Nawash spoke at a celebration of the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s government, held at the Lebanese American Heritage Club in Dearborn, and sponsored by the Congress of Arab-American Organizations (CAAO) Feb. 11. The following day, a larger celebration was held outside the Dearborn City Hall.

Rally at Lebanese American Heritage Club Feb. 11

Osama Siblani, CAAO spokesman and publisher of the Arab-American News, told the gathering. “This is the most significant event in the history of the modern Arab world. Today we witnessed the rise of the Sphinx. We saw a 30-year dictatorship crumble before our eyes in 18 days. Nobody believed in them, but they believed in themselves. They marched for the rights of the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Yemenis as well as themselves.  There will be a domino effect throughout the region, in Morocco, Lebanon, and Africa.”

Siblani added, “We urge the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress to take a firm and unwavering stance in support of the Egyptian people and the ousting of not just the dictator Hosni Mubarak but also his entire regime. We strongly urge the U.S. to reverse its support of oppressive totalitarian regimes in the Arab world in support of the ideals of freedom and democracy that we cherish here.”

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Rally at City Hall Feb. 12

Speakers noted that Mubarak’s resignation took place on the anniversary of the fall of the Shah of Iran on Feb. 11, 1979. Arab-Americans of all nationalities joined in singing the Egyptian national anthem, as children cavorted in the aisles of the hall.

“This is the beginning of a bigger movement for independence, for the integrity of our people,” one speaker said. “This will be a great test for people of honor. We are proud of the Shia and Sunni brothers who supported this from Lebanon, and of the unity of Muslims and Christians. We are proud of the honorable position of President Barack Obama, and admire the army. We know it is not over, and there are many challenges ahead of us.

In a separate interview, Nawash said, “I am cautiously optimistic. We celebrated

Hasan Nawash

the rise of Obama but have been disappointed on all fronts, including the Palestinian question. The Egyptian army is still infiltrated at the top by generals with ties to all kinds of billionaires. We must be responsible and alert. The U.S. administration, with the role it plays in the world, will try to frustrate any people’s movement.”

Nawash said the Palestinian people will  target Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, because of his collaboration with the U.S. administration.

Those celebrating at both events took time to pay tribute to over 365 Egyptians who died in the uprising, saying that they and their families had sacrificed their lives for the future of their people. A speaker announced that CAAO is starting a trust fund for the families of the victims.

They also paid tribute to the the thousands of Arab people in Lebanon and Gaza whose uprisings paved the way for the Egyptian Revolution.

“Today, we have conquered again in Tahrir Square,” they said.

Another rally was held Feb. 20 in front of the Dearborn City Hall, sponsored by the CAAO.

Child at Dearborn rally Feb. 12

US Greens celebrate Egypt’s giant step towards democracy, assert that the Egyptian people must build a new government according to their own interests, not US strategic demands.

DEMAND U.S. FREEZE $70 BILLION IN MUBARAK ASSETS 

Feb. 13, 2011

http://www.gp.org

WASHINGTON, DC — The Green Party of the United States congratulated the Egyptian people and called President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation a huge step towards democracy, human rights, and stability for their country.

“The Egyptian revolution is a victory for the people of Egypt, and also the victory for an idea — the idea that violent regimes can be overthrown through nonviolent means,” said Romi Elnagar, member of the
Green Party of Louisiana and wife and mother of Egyptian-Americans. 

Celebration of Egyptian Revolution in Dearborn Feb. 11

“While police and rampaging pro-Mubark thugs killed 350 and injured thousands more, the protesters themselves remained overwhelmingly peaceful.”

US Greens hoped for an end to the 30-year-old ’emergency decree’ and for a broad-based transitional government that embraced opposition parties, to begin the work of dismantling the brutally oppressive
Mubarak regime.  The next step will take place when the military relinquishes power and Egyptians establish a civil government with a constitution, free and fair elections, democratic institutions, and
the means to solve problems like unemployment and poverty.

Greens also urged the Obama Administration to cooperate in an investigation of the alleged $70 billion that Mr. Mubarak’s accumulated during his corrupt regime and to freeze any of his assets that are held in the US.

Around 1,200 workers strike at the Oil and Soap Factory in the city of Mansoura, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011. Growing labor unrest, rekindled by the 18-day uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, is deepening economic malaise and compounded by weeks of bank closures that are hampering business operations and the drying up of tourism - a major money earner for Egypt. (AP Photo)

“We call on the US government to avoid meddling and respect the right of Egyptians to rule themselves.  Aid for Egypt must be for humanitarian purposes, not military, and without strings attached.  If the Obama Administration tries to press the new Egypt into subordination, to satisfy the US’s strategic military and economic interests in the region, we will betray the Egyptian people and their right to democratic sovereignty,” said Laura Wells, 2010 Green Party candidate for Governor of California.

US Greens noted that much of the conflict in the Middle East and resentment of the US by Egyptians and other populations in the region centers around the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“Since making its 1979 ‘cold peace’ with Israel, the Egyptian government has supported Israel’s ongoing apartheid and dispossession of Palestinians, most recently complying with the siege of Gaza, in return for billions in aid from the US.   We look to the formation of a democratic Egypt which adheres to international law and reflects its citizens’ long-standing opposition to Israel’s oppression of Palestinians,” said Dr. Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl ).

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

• Green Party ‘Egypt in Revolt’ page with news feeds
http://www.gp.org/egypt.html

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES TAKE TO THE STREETS IN EGYPT

Feb 15, 2011  |  

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY and SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press

Bus drivers strike at a bus depot in the lower-income neighborhood of Shubra Mazalat in Cairo, Egypt Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. Bus drivers and public transport workers in Cairo joined thousands of state employees on strike Thursday in spreading labor unrest that has pumped further strength and momentum into Egypt's wave of anti-government protests. Writing in Arabic on placard center-left reads "Increase basic pay" and on placard center-right "End of work pension: 60 months."

CAIRO, Egypt — Thousands of government

employees, from ambulance drivers to police and bank workers, protested to demand better pay Monday, in a growing wave of Egyptian labor unrest rekindled by the democracy uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Egypt’s military rulers asked for an end to the protests in what could be a final warning before an outright ban.

The military said it needed calm to implement what it promises will be an eventual handover to civilian rule under a new, more democratic system. It has set a swift timetable for change, saying it aims to have the constitutional amendments drawn up within 10 days and a referendum to approve them within two months ahead of elections for a civilian government, according to youth activists who met two of the top generals.

The coalition of young activists who organized the unprecedented protest movement pressured the military Monday for new steps to ensure the autocratic system that has pervaded Egypt for the past 30 years is dismantled. Protesters welcomed the military’s takeover after Mubarak’s resignation, but many remain wary of the military’s intentions.

In a list of demands Monday, they called for the dissolving of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and for the creation within 30 days of a cabinet of technocrats. They want it to replace the current caretaker government, appointed by Mubarak after the protests erupted Jan. 25. 

Public transport workers on strike in Egypt

The military’s patience with the strikes, which are independent of the activists, may be running out as it struggles to restore stability and get Egypt’s economy functioning again.

Egypt’s dusty streets were transformed Monday into fertile ground for anyone with a grievance against anything.

Employees of the National Bank of Egypt, the largest government-owned bank, went on strike, a day after hundreds of them massed outside its headquarters.

Meanwhile, momentum is building to move against the international assets of Mubarak, his family and regime officials.

The U.S. is examining requests from Egypt’s new government to freeze the assets of top Mubarak aides, but not the president himself, a senior U.S. official said.

Chris Brown worked for Singapore Power International and DTE

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – In January, Mayor Dave Bing appointed Chris Brown, who was a managing director of Singapore Power International, and previously a DTE Energy Executive Vice-President, as the the city’s Chief Operating Officer. In that role, he was given oversight of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Bing selected Brown because of his “wealth of corporate and operational expertise,” according to a news release from the Mayor’s office. Bing has not yet appointed an official DWSD director to replace Victor Mercado, now under federal indictment.

DTE CEO Anthony Earley (l) with Mayor Dave Bing at his side during 2010 Christmas tree lighting in Campus Martius

Brown replaced Robert Buckler, previously President of DTE Energy, a subsidiary of DTE, headed by Bing’s close ally and campaign contributor Anthony Earley.

Brown’s role in overseeing DWSD must be watched, said John Riehl, President of Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Local 207 represents 3,000 DWSD workers.

“Since Brown comes from private utilities, we will see what direction he will take DWSD in,” Riehl said. His local has fought massive internal privatization under previous directors including Mercado, and the City Council vote last year to buy 100 percent of the Detroit’s power from DTE instead of using the Public Lighting Department.

DWSD workers and customers now have increased concerns as a new Board of Water Commissioners on which suburban appointees will have increased power over contracts and rates takes over in April (click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4544  to read VOD story.)

Singapore Power Building

Singapore Power was created in 1995 to take over the electricity and gas businesses of Singapore’s state provider, the Public Utilities Board. Since 2007, it has also owned Australia’s Alinta Limited, which was formed in 1995 to take over the role of the State Energy Commission of Western Australia. Alinta eventually bought out suppliers across Australia and New Zealand.

Customers of Singapore Power have increasingly complained of falsely inflated rates, according to an article in the July, 22, 2008 issue of Straits Times.

“A record number of complaints about overcharging for electricity were investigated by Singapore Power last month,” said the Times. “SP Services, the power company’s customer service arm, said it looked into 1,093 cases where customers had complained that their bills for May were higher than in previous months. . . . A Straits Times check of 100 households found many that also said their bills for last month had jumped. About 10 per cent said their charges went up by extraordinary amounts, of between 60 per cent and 113 per cent.”

The Times said SP Services claimed the rates were accurate. The paper predicted, however, that the alleged overcharges would continue in the future.

Alinta Energy logo

In January of this year, the Western Australia Council of Social Service (WACOSS) issued a release saying Alinta had the highest rate of customer shut-offs in the previous year, of the country’s utilities.

“Alinta’s disconnection rates reveal the most worrying data of the [Economic Regulation Authority] reports, increasing for the second year in a row. Alinta disconnected 17,223 households in 2009-10, compared to 12,942 in 2007-08,” said WACOSS.

“WACOSS cautions against further price hikes and calls for careful consideration of essential service affordability following the release of the performance reports on electricity and gas retailers by the independent regulator today.”

DTE demo July, 2009

DTE has been the subject of continuing demonstrations sponsored by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) and other community groups for its draconian policies of shut-offs of heat and lights to thousands of its customers.

After toddlers Tro’vion, 4, Fantasia, 4 and Selena Young 3, died last March in a fire caused by a DTE shut-off, their grandmother Martha Young, said, “It sure was murder. My daughter begged the man not to shut her power off because there were babies in the house. He saw at least three or four of the children. She told him the utilities were included in her rent, but he wouldn’t wait for the landlord to get there. He said he was just doing his job.”

Travion, Selena and Fantasia Young, murdered by DTE

Seventeen people died that season as a result of shut-offs, said MWRO President Maureen Taylor.

 “We recognize that DTE Energy is a private company, but it is subsidized by the people, by federal and state sources,” she declared. “DTE continually violates Michigan Public Service Commission regulations which give limited protection to seniors and low-income people. Utilities are necessary for life and should be protected as a human right. We demand an end to shutoffs for seniors, low-income people and the differently-abled all year round.”

MWRO has also demanded affordable water rates for Detroiters and an end to shut-offs of that basic necessity, which have continued unabated under the Bing administration.

Ohio workers pack State Capitol

PROTESTS SPREAD TO OHIO FROM WISCONSIN 

By Mark Niquette – Feb 18, 2011 

Bloomberg News, Feb. 18 

(EDITOR: Go to VOD national page to read Stephanie Taylor’s column on the history of the use of military force against labor in the U.S. Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has threatened to call out the National Guard as crowds have now grown beyond 50,000 every day, and appear determined to remain.) 

In what union leaders say is becoming a national fight, protests against legislation to restrict public employees’ collective-bargaining rights spread from Wisconsin to Ohio. 

In Madison, Wisconsin, crowds that police estimated at 25,000 engulfed the Capitol and its lawns yesterday during a third-straight day of protests as Democratic senators fled the legislative session. In Columbus, Ohio, about 3,800 state workers, teachers and other public employees came to the statehouse for a committee hearing. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohioan, argued over whether the bills are “an assault on unions.” 

WATCH BLOOMBERG VIDEO AT —http://www.bloomberg.com/video/66862588/ 

Wisconsin protesters occupied capitol 24-7

Ohio firefighters Dave Hefflinger and Jerry Greer said they were. They stood near hundreds of workers elbow-to-elbow in the statehouse atrium and listened to a Senate hearing through speakers. Chants of “Kill the bill” echoed.

 “We’re here to support our brothers and sisters,” Hefflinger, a 27-year veteran, said in an interview. “They’re trying to take away what we fought for all of these years.” 

Hefflinger, 49, and Greer, 39, members of the department in Findlay, Ohio, drove two hours south to protest the bill. The measure would eliminate collective bargaining for state workers, prevent local-government employees from negotiating for health insurance and replace salary schedules with merit pay. 

With states facing deficits that may reach a combined $125 billion next year, Republican governors including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich and New Jersey’s Chris Christie are targeting changes in rules for collective bargaining and worker contributions for health-care coverage and pensions. 

Wisconsin Walkouts 

Union strong

In Wisconsin, Walker championed a bill that would make public workers bargain only for wages and require them to pay 5.8 percent of their pension costs; they pay nothing now. They would have to foot 12 percent of their health-care premiums, up from 6 percent. Police and firefighters wouldn’t be covered by the measure.

Fourteen Democratic senators disappeared from the Capitol yesterday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating, according to the Associated Press. Their flight brought the debate to a swift halt by denying the chamber a quorum, the news agency said. 

‘Don’t Blink’ 

Yesterday, University of Wisconsin-Madison students walked out of classes at the urging of student government and campus newspapers and marched to the Capitol, about a mile away. There, they joined protesters who filled the rotunda to chant, bang drums and sing, and spilled outside. 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has threatened to call out National Guard; photo at left shows Guard threatening striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched with them and was assassinated shortly afterward

In a telephone interview Feb. 15, Walker said he spoke with Kasich about the demonstrations. When asked for advice, Walker said, “Don’t blink.”  

The White House’s political operation, Organizing for America, helped to build crowds using social media, the Washington Post reported today, citing an unidentified Democratic Party official. Obama himself spoke to Milwaukee television station WTMJ. 

“Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions,” the president said. 

Boehner, a Republican from a Cincinnati suburb, responded with a statement saying he was “disappointed” that Obama criticized Walker. 

Dire Challenges  

Learn from history

“Republicans in Congress — and reform-minded GOP governors like Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie — are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity,” Boehner said. 

The bills are state-level skirmishes in a national battle, and the purpose is to undermine labor unions and the Democrats they support, said John Russo, a professor and co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio. 

“It’s really an ideological battle that’s being fought across the country right now,” Russo said yesterday in an interview while waiting to testify before the Ohio Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee. “This is a real teaching moment. Let’s have this debate about the role of the public sector.”

There were 50 witnesses scheduled, and Chairman Kevin Bacon said the committee would hear them without a break. 

“This is a true test of democracy,” Bacon said. 

Biggest Crowd  

Defend Ohio

The statehouse spokesman, Gregg Dodd, estimated the crowd at about 3,800 and said it was the largest gathering inside the statehouse since it was renovated in 1996. 

Mixing with protesters were members of Tea Party groups who staged their own rally in support of the legislation. 

Mike Wilson, who founded the Cincinnati Tea Party, said the bill is an effort to restore balance between governments and their workers, who he said are overpaid. 

“This bill is not on attack on public employees; it is not an attack on the middle class,” Wilson, 34, a technology consultant, said at the rally. “This bill is about math.” 

Joe Rugola, the former president of the Ohio AFL-CIO who also is executive director of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, said he represents bus drivers and janitors who earn about $24,000 a year. 

“I’m still looking for this privileged class of workers,” Rugola said in an interview while waiting to testify. “This is just part of a national attack on working people.” 

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus, Ohio at mniquette@bloomberg.net 

Public Worker Protests Spread To Ohio

Grace Wyler | Feb. 18, 2011 

http://www.businessinsider.com/public-worker-protests-take-hold-in-the-buckeye-state-2011-2#ixzz1ERDCeiwV 

All eyes are on Wisconsin as a battle unfolds between public employee unions and Republican lawmakers looking to limit their collective bargaining rights. But as overburdened state governments look to close deficits and cut costs, other states are in the middle of the same debate. 

In Ohio, a fight has been playing out more quietly over a bill that would end collective bargaining for all state workers and limit it for other public employees. The legislation would also eliminate salary schedules in favor of merit pay, a measure that has been heavily criticized by the state’s public safety workers’ unions. Unlike Wisconsin’s bill, the Ohio legislation includes firefighters and police officers unions. 

Firefighters joined fellow union members

About 3,800 firefighters, police officers, teachers and other public employees rallied outside the state Capitol during three days of state Senate hearings on the bill this week. Yesterday, about 200 Tea Party activists turned out to support of the legislation, the Columbus Dispatch reports.  

Ohio legislators are expected to vote on the bill in the next few weeks.

GO TO http://www.detnews.com/article/20110221/SCHOOLS/102210355/Michigan-orders-DPS-to-make-huge-cuts TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE NEED TO STORM LANSING FEB. 23. LANSING HAS ORDERED HALF OF DETROIT’S SCHOOLS CLOSED, AND INDICATED IT WILL APPOINT ANOTHER EFM AFTER BOBB LEAVES!

EDITOR: MICHIGAN GOVERNOR RICK SNYDER’S PLANS TO SLASH STATE REVENUE-SHARING FUNDS FOR MUNICIPALITIES, TAX PENSIONS, AND CUT FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL SERVICES ARE TIE-BARRED TO H.B. 4214,  WHICH WOULD ENABLE EMERGENCY FINANCIAL MANAGERS TO DISSOLVE CITIES AND SELL OFF THEIR ASSETS WITH VIRTUALLY NO RESTRICTIONS.

THE ATTACKS ON WORKING AND POOR PEOPLE IN MICHIGAN PARALLEL THE ATTACKS IN WISCONSIN AND OHIO: IT’S TIME FOR THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN TO JOIN THE BATTLE! GO TO LANSING FEB. 23! NO EXCUSES!

CLICK ON People’s rally registration formTO REGISTER FOR RALLY. EVERYONE FROM ALL OVER MICHIGAN SHOULD COME FROM THEIR OWN AREAS AS WELL!  FORWARD THIS NOTICE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!  

CLICK ON http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4622 TO READ ABOUT FRIGHTENING EMERGENCY FINANCIAL MANAGER H.B. 4214. THIS BILL WILL FORCE MUNICIPALITIES AND SCHOOLS DISTRICTS ACROSS THE STATE  INTO RECEIVERSHIP! ASK YOUR LEGISLATOR TO WALK OUT AS DID DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS IN WISCONSIN IF IT APPEARS THIS FASCIST BILL WILL PASS. IT’S TIME FOR A PEOPLE’S WAR TO SAVE OUR FUTURES!

PICKET MAYOR BING’S ‘STATE OF THE CITY’ ADDRESS

Tues. February 22, 6pm, Fisher Music Center, Woodward & Selden  

Dictators Bing, Snyder, Bobb, Hitler

Bing has said he is “joined at the hip” with Gov. Rick Snyder, signed U.S. District Judge Sean Cox’s order diminishing Detroiters’ power over our Water Department, has slashed city jobs and services, and plans a “Trail of Tears” to drive poor Detroiters out of their homes (otherwise known as the “Detroit Works Project”). Robert Bobb is joined on Snyder’s other hip, demolishing the Detroit Public School system. Put them all together —?

Robert Bobb takes DPS Back to Court

 Robert Bobb’s attorneys will be in Judge Wendy Baxter’s court on Tuesday, February 22 at 11 am to seek a stay in her order that bars Bobb from exercising academic authority at DPS. The Judge is being asked to delay implementation of the order, presumably so that they can seek to overturn it in an appeals court. It appears that Bobb does not want to wait to see what happens with the new takeover law and does not want to take the chance of allowing the Board to function for even a few weeks.  

At 10:30 am that same morning is the proceeding in Baxter’s court to discuss the awarding of attorney’s fees to the Board attorneys. It is important for fees to be awarded so that the Board can continue to have legal representation.  Judge Baxter’s court is room 1421, Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at Woodward and Jefferson. 

Monica Lewis-Patrick, Public Policy Analyst-Legal, Council Member JoAnn Watson, Detroit City Council. Suite 1340, CAYMC (313) 224-7892 or 224-4535  Email: patrickm@detroitmi.gov

Aiyana's mother and father show their child's portrait during Geoffrey Fieger press conference

WHERE IS JUSTICE FOR AIYANA JONES?

By Roland Lawrence (aka Fige Bornu)  rolandlawrence@msn.com
 Chairman, Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee

(Ed. note: The Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee is planning a protest on May 16, the one-year anniversary of Aiyana Jones’ murder, because her killer has not been charged. Contact the author of this article for more information.

Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley, resident of Grosse Pointe Woods

In a city obsessed with the fate of the Detroit Lions, it casts a disturbing pall where the sensibilities and priorities of the city’s decision makers lie.  It has been nine months since Wayne County Procrastinator, I mean, Prosecutor Kym Worthy bailed on her responsibility to determine if Detroit Police Officer Joe Weekley committed murder in the shooting death of 7 year old Aiyana Stanley Jones as she slept in her family’s home on Detroit’s eastside.  Worthy “referred” the case to the Michigan State Police citing supposed conflict of interest issues (she’s worried about the appearance of a conflict of interest).  Interesting, isn’t it?  And thus the case languishes in Lansing — no doubt in file drawer marked “who cares?”  In the meantime Officer Weekley escapes justice and justice for Aiyana escapes official daylight.

For those of you who don’t know – the murder in process was being filmed with the permission of Detroit Police Department (DPD) for a nationally syndicated cable program, The First 48 Hours, when a group of officers or should we call reality stars with guns in May of 2010 raided Aiyana’s home in search, we are told, for a murder suspect.  The premise for this all too real reality show is that police have 48 hours to try to solve a homicide case before it goes cold.   The suspect could not be found at the home.  There are a litany of stories detailing what happened during the police raid including a flash-bang grenade being thrown into a window near where Aiyana slept – (love those special effects). 

Aiyana's grandmother Mertilla Jones weeps in the arms of her daughter LaKrystal Sanders, during press conference held by attorney Geoffrey Fieger after the child's murder last May 16

Another story claims that the Detroit Police blamed Aiyana’s grandmother for trying to grab an officer’s gun.  Yet another story reports the murder suspect that DPD was looking for was seen hours earlier that day, but for reasons unknown, DPD did not apprehend him (maybe they can’t apprehend with a camera lens).  But clearly, the “real” reality story is that DPD acted in wanton disregard for the safety of citizens and residents in the rush to perform for the camera. They blitzkrieged a home, cameras rolling, and trampling over the many toys in the yard, and managed to snuff out the life of an innocent child as she slept.

We may never uncover the precise events of that fatal night. But it’s the duty of the County Prosecutor and the Michigan State Police to try.  Critics like me surmise that the investigation, having gone cold and getting colder, will not reveal the truth.  Instead, as are in the many other cases where Black men are suspiciously killed by police, the investigation will claim that the police in this case, Joe Weekley, was in compliance with his department’s training protocol when Aiyana was killed. Speaking of blitzkrieg, Himmler’s SS might have found such training protocols instructive.

Is young Black life in Detroit so cheap?  Indeed life is cheap when you’re not wealthy. GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN RICH, I guess.  Image the same scenario occurring in, let’s say, the rich Detroit suburb of Birmingham.  Would police employ the same paramilitary tactics in a white neighborhood where a Rebecca of Grosse Pointe Farms slept?

Jewel Allison with daughter Honesti at her right lead June 26 protest against Aiyana Jones murder down Woodward Avenue; photo by Herb Boyd

 Wayne County Medical Examiner Dr. Carl Schmidt, while being studied by a Hollywood actress as she prepared for her role as the medical examiner in the ABC series Detroit 187, said in an interview, “You might say that the homicide of Aiyana is the natural conclusion to the disease from which she suffered,” which is ‘The psychopathology of growing up in Detroit.  Some people are doomed from birth because their environment is so toxic.’” 

There is another disease that appears increasingly epidemic and catching. It’s called evade-your-duty-itis. Kym Worthy and the Michigan State Police should be tested for this virus.

Editor: Go to http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_7001.shtml to read interview with Aiyana’s family by Diane Bukowski, published in the Final Call. Also see Final Call article by Andrea Muhammad at http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/frontpageFeaturedArticle/article_6999.shtml; additionally click on http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_7130.shtml for Bukowski’s article on June 26 march in Detroit, organized by New Yorker Jewel Allison, to demand an end to no-knock raids and justice for Aiyana; and http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_7530.shtml for Bukowski’s article on lawsuit against 48 Hours and A&E on behalf of Aiyana’s family.

Four other articles on Aiyana’s murder by Bukowski were featured in the Michigan Citizen at http://michigancitizen.com/city-mourns-death-of-yearold-aiyana-jones-p8635-1.htm; http://michigancitizen.com/weekley-has-prior-record-p8634-1.htm; http://michigancitizen.com/community-enraged-at-nd-police-shooting-p8679-1.htm; and http://michigancitizen.com/fieger-says-childs-death-is-no-accident-p8682-1.htm, before her discharge from that newspaper after 10 years.

Kelly Smith, Russ Bellant, Helen Moore react to Robert Bobb's testimony Feb. 9

By Diane Bukowski

LANSING—During a joint meeting of the Senate Education and Local, Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs Committee Feb. 9, state senators from the Republican side laid the plans for H.B. 4214 as described above. Their discussion is moot at this point, because it is reflected in the 44 page bill itself as detailed above.

But Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover, Russ Bellant, and former DPS teacher Kelly Smith traveled to Lansing that day to be heard when Robert Bobb spoke at a committee meeting that morning.

They were not allowed to comment then, but Bellant and Moore were finally heard during the Senate joint meeting, and Smith spoke with the VOD separately.

Helen Moore testifies at Lansing committee meeting

 “I would have thought that Robert Bobb wrote the law you are planning, because everything that has been said about broadening the Emergency Financial Managers’ powers today, is what he has said,” Moore stated.

“Bobb took the entire system [including academics] into his hands even though the law does not allow it. It has been disastrous for Detroit. The children have been led astray by the emergency financial manager. He believes he is God. We are still in court now because of his takeover of academics.”

Moore said Bobb has spent $50 million of Title I funds, meant for special education and other student services, on hiring consultants. She noted that some schools still don’t have books, while many high schools have as many as 52 students in a class. She testified that Bobb’s salary is being supplemented by the Eli Broad Foundation and other privation organizations to carry out their mandates of closing public schools and opening charter schools.

“Bobb cannot close as many schools as he has and still operate the district,” Moore said. “Are you ready for cross-district bussing, because the state constitution guarantees free public education for every child. The state’s plans as carried out by Bobb and prior to him Kenneth Burnley and other state appointees have not worked and will never work.”

Barbara Byrd Bennett (l) and Robert Bobb (r) photo DPS website

Russ Bellant said, “DPS is a case model of absolute power and lack of legal rights. My son graduated from DPS and I have attended every school board meeting for the last five years. When Robert Bobb came in, he placed gag orders on DPS employees. He has not responded to 32 Freedom of Information Act requests I have submitted. He has given no public reports on contracts and spending that he has sole authority over, even though the current EFM law requires him to do so. He has hired as many as 10 additional Assistant Superintendents and other high-level staff, at inflated pay rates, and is giving bonuses of $50,000 to favored individuals.”

Bellant added that Bobb’s tenure as city manager in Washington, D.C. was marred by five separate audits condemning his hiring and contracting practices. A 2005 city audit denounced Bobb and former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams for their no-bid hiring of friends and associates on a stadium project. The Washington Post castigated them for “failure to follow city procurement law.”

Bellant, who has done clandestine research on the district’s financial practices, said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Bobb’s Chief Academic and Accountability Officer, is required be contract to work only two days a week for her $200,000 salary. He said she brought in a team of her friends from the Cleveland school district (where her husband still lives) at high-paying salaries and has had an otherwise checkered past (ed: reflected in the following commentary from Cool Cleveland):

“Barbara Byrd Bennett: Paid for by Corporate Club

The real problem with the high spending from a special fund by Cleveland CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett wasn’t totally about what she extravagantly spent. More important was where she got the dough. Although distasteful, the fancy dinners and trips to London and Hawaii were peanuts in comparison with the cost incurred by Cleveland schoolchildren by Byrd Bennett’s co-opting by Cleveland’s Corporate Club. She’s being pampered (fed money to entertain herself and others) by the Cleveland Foundation, Gund Foundation and Cleveland Tomorrow (so discredited that it recently changed its name to Greater Cleveland Partnership). They give her dough to do this fancy stuff so that it wouldn’t come from public funds, thus likely not be revealed in a school system now run essentially as a private club for its hierarchy, including its mayoral-named school board.

Byrd Bennett, the $300,000 wonder, complains she wasn’t cavorting on the taxpayers’ dime. Actually, worse – the money she’s taking came from those who siphon off gobs of taxpayer’s money – particularly from Cleveland schools – every chance they get to pocket it. Tax abatements, exemptions and reductions on property taxes are their game. The spending became public because of statements in a document of State Auditor Betty Montgomery. Pumped up TV news outlets had their own orgy with the revelations that startled Byrd Bennett, not accustomed to being treated as a mere mortal. What does this funding by private sources mean? It means that she becomes indebted to their leaders. Who are their leaders? The people who run the town and the people hired to do their bidding. This control of the public agenda by these experts in manipulation and subtle propaganda is old stuff, though. Walter Lippmann, in one of his treatise on public decision making, divided decision making into two segments: the “responsible men” – the Corporates – who make the decisions – and the “bewildered herd” – the rest of us who have to live with the verdicts of our betters.

So, when you think of the 600 or so teachers and 300 others ready to be laid off, when you think of the school children who won’t have proper text books, and when you think of the kids who won’t have sports and extra curricular activities, think Cleveland Foundation, Gund Foundation and Cleveland Tomorrow. Why? Because the schools should have asked for a levy last year. Why didn’t they? Because the people who run the town, i.e., the people of the institutions mentioned above, intent upon getting Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to buy them a new Convention Center.”

by Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole Roldo@Adelphia.net

Thompson, Cobb and Bazilio were Bobb's largest campaign contributors in Washington, D.C.

Bellant also  reported that Bobb hired his former deputy campaign manager from Washington, D.C. to be in charge of DPS contracts and grants, and awarded a $672,000 contract to Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio and Associates, his largest campaign contributor in Washington.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Bellant said. “You are getting the waste, fraud and abuse you can predictably expect from Robert Bobb. There should be financial and other penalties for Emergency Financial Managers who abuse those positions.”

Bellant noted that out of the last 12 years, the district has been governed by an elected school board for only three years, and inherited a $212 million deficit from the first state takeover. It has lost 11,000 students per year.

State Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit), said he had submitted four separate pieces of legislation over the previous two weeks that would provide transparency for EFM’s and school districts, and oversight and accountability to the people, but none of them has been accorded a committee hearing. He noted there is already a state board that is supposed to oversee the actions of Emergency Financial Managers, but that the board has done little to check the actions of Bobb or other EFM’s.

Famed Detroit-born pianist Alma Smith

Detroit piano legend Harold McKinney

Kelly Smith told the VOD she had come to testify about the decimation of arts and music programs at DPS during Bobb’s tenure. She formerly taught music at DPS and currently tunes pianos for them as a vendor.

“Fifty years ago DPS had the best music and arts programs in the country,” Smith said. “When you take away music and art, you take away from academics. There are three new pianos in every new school building, but they are sitting idle and are not being tuned. The Music Department of DPS has been replaced by one person who had to go to a foundation to pay two piano tuners.”

Up to 30,000 Wisconsin workers have packed streets outside state capitol since Feb. 15 to stop union-busting, pension attacks; teachers and students have walked out of class

Senate vote to end collective bargaining for most state workers delayed by opposition

Wis. union vote on hold after Democrats leave state

MSNBC.COM

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin state Senate Democrats boycotting a vote to curb the union rights of public employees left the state on Thursday while 25,000 critics of the bill marched on the state Capitol. At least nine protesters were arrested.

1. 1.   What’s at stake in Wisconsin

What bill would do
1) Eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public workers. So while unions still could represent those workers, they would not be able to seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum.

2) Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

3) Local police, firefighters and state troopers would retain their collective bargaining rights.

4) Public workers would have to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage. That represents an average of 8 percent increase in state employees’ share of pension and health care costs.

Workers have occupied State Capitol building, sleeping over every night in Rotunda

In exchange, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Gov. Scott Walker has threatened to lay off up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

Estimated savings
$30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Background
The proposal marks a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which in 1959 was the first to pass a comprehensive collective bargaining law for public employees and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

Workers remain outside state capitol; Cairo in Wisconsin

When voters last year elected Gov. Walker, an outspoken conservative, along with GOP majorities in both legislative chambers, it set the stage for a dramatic reversal of the state’s labor history.

National significance
New Republican governors and legislatures in other states have proposed cutting back on public employee costs to reduce budget shortfalls, but Wisconsin’s move appears to be the earliest and most extensive.

Source: Associated Press and Reuters

As ever-growing throngs of protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared around midday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating the measure, which would eliminate collective bargaining for most public employees.

They were not in their offices, and aides said they did not know where any of them had gone. Hours later, one member of the group told The Associated Press that they had all left Wisconsin.

Wisconsin firefighters join protest even though they are exempt from union-busting attack

“The plan is to try and slow this down because it’s an extreme piece of legislation that’s tearing this state apart,” Sen. Jon Erpenbach said in a telephone interview.

He refused to say where he was, but WTMJ later reported that they had fled to a hotel in Rockford, Ill.

Democrats hoped Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers would consider revisions to the bill.

Walker, who took office just last month, called on Democrats to return out of respect for the democratic process and the institution of the Legislature.

“Their actions by leaving the state and hiding from voting are disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who showed up to work today and the millions of taxpayers they represent,” Walker said.

Republicans hold a 19-14 majority in the Senate, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before voting on the bill.

Other lawmakers who fled sent messages over Twitter and issued written statements, but did not disclose their location. Erpenbach said they planned to gather in the same place later Thursday.

The People vs. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

In response to a question of where she was, Sen. Lena Taylor sent a tweet saying she was “doing the people’s business. Power to the PEOPLE.”

As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed “Freedom! Democracy! Unions!” Opponents cheered when a legislative leader announced there were not enough senators present to proceed.

The sergeant-at-arms immediately began looking for the missing lawmakers. If he cannot find them, he’s authorized to seek help, including potentially contacting police.

Senate rules and the state constitution say absent members can be compelled to appear, but it does not say how.

Madison East High School students walk out to support their teachers

“Today they checked out, and I’m not sure where they’re at,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said. “This is the ultimate shutdown, what we’re seeing today.”

STUDENTS WALK OUT TO SUPPORT THEIR TEACHERS; WATCH VIDEO AT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLCFDFWRBk&feature=player_embedded

Elsewhere in the Statehouse, Democrats showed up in the state Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families.

After a routine roll call, Democrats who were leaving the chamber exchanged high-fives with protesters, who cried “thank you” as they walked by. The protesters unleashed venomous boos and screams at Republicans.

Thursday’s events were reminiscent of a 2003 dispute in Texas, where Democrats twice fled the state to prevent adoption of a redistricting bill designed to give Republicans more seats in Congress. The bill passed a few months later.

The drama in Wisconsin unfolded in a jam-packed Capitol. Madison police and the State Department of Public Instruction estimated the crowd at 25,000 protesters, the largest number yet.

NO MORE WALKER!

Demonstrators stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the building’s hallways, sat cross-legged across the floor and made it difficult to move from room to room.

Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Some others even demonstrated outside the lawmakers’ homes.

Hundreds of teachers called in sick, forcing a number of school districts to cancel classes. Madison schools, the state’s second-largest district, with 24,000 students, closed for a second day.

Thousands more people, many of them students from the nearby University of Wisconsin, slept in the rotunda for a second night.

“We are all willing to come to the table, we’ve have all been willing from day one,” said Madison teacher Rita Miller. “But you can’t take A, B, C, D and everything we’ve worked for in one fell swoop.”

In addition to eliminating collective-bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage. Their share of pension and health care costs would go up by an average of 8 percent — increases Walker calls “modest” compared with those in the private sector.

Republican leaders said they expected Wisconsin residents would be pleased with the savings the bill would achieve — $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

“I think the taxpayers will support this idea,” Fitzgerald said.

Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

“We are all willing to come to the table, we’ve have all been willing from day one,” said Madison teacher Rita Miller. “But you can’t take A, B, C, D and everything we’ve worked for in one fell swoop.”

Detroit community leaders come together Feb. 16 to plan fightback

Legislature proposes sweeping powers for EFM’s, to pay off debt to banks

Breaking news: go to http://www.freep.com/article/20110131/NEWS15/110131028/State-tries-head-off-city-school-district-bankruptcies?odyssey=obinsite to read Free Press report that Gov. Snyder’s aide Andy Dillon is busy “training” 45 emergency financial managers with the expectation that they will be needed soon. Dillon said at least three to four cities are on the brink of receivership, but would not name them. 

According to a press release received by the VOD, Robert Bobb participated in a training session for EFM’s held Feb. 10, at the Henry Center for Executive Development at Michigan State University, 3535 Forest Road, Lansing. The release came from the Truscott Rossman Group, headed by former Governor John Engler’s press secretary and top aid John Truscott and newly founded on Dec. 22, 201o.

By Diane Bukowski 

LANSING and DETROIT, Feb. 16—“When are people going to wake up and realize we are in a class war?” asked Cecily McClellan, Vice-President of the city of Detroit’s Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE). “Our government now is nothing but a corporatocracy and it is in a full frontal attack against us.”

She and a dozen others gathered at the Spirit of Detroit statue outside the Coleman A. Young Center Feb. 16 to plan a fightback against multiple attacks on Detroit, including its water department.

Thousands mass in Wisconsin State Capitol Building Feb. 15 to stop war on workers and poor

Mike Mulholland, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME Local 207, representing Detroit Water Department workers, said, “We need to do what they are doing in Wisconsin. The teachers and students in Wisconsin have shut down the schools in response to the governor’s attacks. We do have the power and we can win.”

On Feb. 15, over 30,000 Wisconsin protesters took over the state capitol building, sleeping overnight in the rotunda.

Richard Hairston, a WHPR-TV commentator said, “This is Detroit’s Egyptian moment.”

Tina Person is interviewed by Channel 2's Amy Lange Feb. 16

Tina Person, also known as the Eastside Lady, said, “The bus drivers have said they will shut the buses down. We need to shut the whole city down, instead of Detroit 300 recruiting people to go out in the neighborhoods and attack people and send more of us to prison.”

Meanwhile, others from across the state journeyed to Lansing to testify at a hearing of the House Local, Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs Committee on House Bills 4124 through 4218. (Go to HB4214finanacialmanager2102011[1]   to read lead bill).

While fightbacks across the Middle East, Africa and now Wisconsin are taking place, the Michigan Legislature is fast-tracking a bill that could abolish all constitutional and charter rights of local governments and school districts. It would instead give sweeping powers to Emergency Financial Managers (EFM’s) like Robert Bobb, while completely disenfranchising residents. (See summary of H.B. 4124 below. Go to HB4214finanacialmanager2102011[1] to read entire lead bill.)

State Rep. Al Pscholka (R-Stevensville, Berrien County)

State Rep. Al Pscholka, (R-Stevensville), introduced the bills Feb. 9.  Committee Chair Ouimet (R-Scio Township) set them up for a hearing in record time with virtually no notice, and would not postpone discussion of amendments for one week as requested by State Rep. Woodrow Stanley (D-Flint).  Meanwhile, three bills sponsored by State Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit) that would limit EFM powers languish without a hearing. (Go to  HB-4176-2011[1], HB-4177-2011[1], HB-4178-2011[1]   to read those bills.)

Pscholka is a first-time legislator from Berrien County, former vice-president of the Cornerstone Alliance, a pro-privatization foundation, and former secretary to the Southwest Michigan Regional Sanitary Sewer and Water Authority.

He clearly has broad support from Republicans in the legislature and likely from Governor Rick Snyder, who was expected to announce sweeping cuts directed at working and poor Michiganders, including cities and school districts, in his budget address Feb. 17.

Over 50 people from Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and even wealthy Oakland County testified against Pscholka’s legislation Feb. 16. No one testified for it, although several politicians from Wayne County and Flint tried to turn the bills to their advantage.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson was the only Detroit City Council member to make the trip. Mayor Dave Bing did not show his face. He has said he and Snyder are “joined at the hip.”

“I urge the committee to vote down these bills that would harm the city of Detroit, and not subject citizens across Michigan to emergency control managers who are business persons not elected by people we represent,” Watson said.

She blasted the state of Michigan for causing Detroit’s financial problems in large part by legislation that phased down the city’s income tax while promising to increase state revenue sharing. The state never held up its end of the bargain, paying increased payments in only two years from 1999 to  2007.

Snyder, meanwhile, is proposing to cut state revenue-sharing payments to cities by 33 percent according to published reports.

“The state owes Detroit over $322 million in revenue sharing funds,” Watson said. “We would not be in a deficit and subject to receivership under this legislation if Michigan had paid its bill.”

Debra Taylor testifies at committee hearing in Lansing Feb. 16

Debra Taylor of the Southeast Detroit Citizens District Council said, “These bills violate our fundamental right to govern ourselves. This is taxation without representation. They are a direct attack on African-Americans and other people of color, and all low income people. Detroit, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Flint, we are targeted first.  Slavery was legal but it wasn’t right. Hundreds of schools have been closed by our EFM. People are feeling repressed and relating to Egypt. What you’re doing is not democratic or fair.”

State Rep. Shanelle Jackson (D-Detroit), told the committee, “We watched the fall of Mubarak, and the U.S. and nations around the world have said they stand with people of Egypt in their quest for democracy.  Today, I’m asking you to stand with the people of Michigan. These bills are a slap in the face of every voter who elected you.”

Monica Patrick testifies in Lansing Feb. 16

Detroit parent and business owner Monica Patrick said, “I am outraged that these bills are on the table. I am not only a citizen of city of Detroit, but of Michigan and the United States. It is appalling that anyone would think of stripping us of our right to vote while we tout democracy around the world. It is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. I will fight this action with every ounce of my being.”

Officials from school districts and governments currently under state control testified strongly against the bill.

“In 1999, the district did not have a deficit but the state took us over and brought the debt in,” said Detroit School Board member Annie Carter. “In 2008, Detroiters voted to have the state forgive the debt they caused, but that did not happen. When you give control to one czar, you create corruption. My child’s school has gone eight days with no heat because Bobb laid the boiler operators off and Sodexo will not have anyone in place for 30 days. Our children are being educated in the cold and then going home to the cold because their parents cannot afford utility bills. Teachers are being moved in the middle of the semester, and as a result students are not being educated.”

DPS Board Member Annie Carter

Detroit School Board member Terry Catchings called the bills “totally, clearly unconstitutional.”

“I have been on the board for three years, with the last two under the control of the EFM. Since he took over, there is no accountability and no oversight. Our budget deficit went up over $200 million in two years. Confusion, waste, fraud and abuse abound.  These bills will harm not just Detroit but other districts in deficit also.”

Forty-one school districts across the state are in deficit.

 “Our entire educational system is in an abysmal state,” Detroit parent Sharon Kelso said. “There is complete degradation and disregard of parents, students and staff, Bobb has all but destroyed the public education system. My child hasn’t learned jack in the last two years.”

State Rep. David Nathan testifies at earlier hearing Feb. 9 in Lansing

Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit) said. “I sat on the education committee during my first term. Academics from the University of Detroit Mercy, Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan all concluded that an emergency financial manager doesn’t necessarily have the expertise to deal with academics.”

Nathan said the former EFM for Pontiac was removed and lost lawsuits on decisions he had made because there was no oversight.

“These bills will affect more cities and schools in our state than we can ever imagine,” Nathan said. “There are pension systems that could be affected by this. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of aisle to think about the people that elected you and things that could be affected.”

Pontiac City Council President Lee A. Jones

Pontiac Councilman Kermit Williams

The City of Pontiac has been under state receivership since March, 2009. A second EFM is in control after the first was ousted due to successful lawsuits over his illegal actions. Pontiac’s City Council President Lee Jones, and members George Williams, Kerwin Williams, and Patrice Waterman all testified before the committee.

“How many of you on this committee live under an EFM,” President Jones asked. “Our constitutional rights have been violated. There has been union-busting, a total dictatorship. The EFM shut down city council meetings, silencing the voice of the people as his first order of business, but then two days later he had to put them back.”

The council members said the EFM has caused substantial revenue losses to the city. He sold the Silverdome for $500,000, although $7 million was allocated. He privatized Pontiac’s wastewater treatment plant, sold the golf course, and carried out massive lay-offs and cuts, said the council members. They said the EFM has laid of the entire police force, allocating funds for the Oakland County Sheriffs instead.

Jones said the EFM let a contract to a non-Michigan based company and commented, “They done worked for me in the past, I done it, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

He said he sent letters to the EFM protesting lay-offs and was referred to the law firm of Plunkett and Cooney, which told him he was interfering with the powers of the EFM.

“If I pick up phone and contact a law firm, the first thing they do is start billing, and that’s something we can’t afford,” Jones said. “EFM’s are for money to law firms, their friends and themselves.”

The Pontiac council members said they have no staff, and when they asked for money to hire one secretary to answer the phone, the EFM asked them to have the secretary work for nothing.

Councilman Kermit Williams said, “The law is clandestine, undercover, this is not the way to keep cities from being bankrupt. I don’t wish an EFM on anybody. Pontiac lost 25,000 jobs in the last 10 years, and we only have 60,000 residents. If you want

to change the EFM law, look at a financial plan to make sure that the EFM not only cuts but brings revenue in. Our EFM got rid of revenue generators like the Planning and Buildings and Safety Department, so now when businesses want to locate in Pontiac, they have no one to go to.”

Pontiac retiree testifies in Lansing

A Pontiac city retiree who previously was director of public works said, “I worked 42 years for city of Pontiac, and I don’t like waking up and thinking I won’t have retirement or a pension. That is the only thing left in Pontiac that has a little money, and he wants to get to that. He wants to dissolve the pension board. If you allow this to happen, don’t wake up in the morning and think about your own pension or your Social Security.”

Testimony against the bills also came from an area not likely to be affected by them.

“Oakland County has a triple A bond rating,” said Oakland County Commissioner Tim Greimel. “But I have great concerns about the policy implications of this legislation. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Although many communities currently under EFM’s are predominantly Democratic, there are a number of predominantly Republican committees that could be ensnared.”

Oakland Co. Commissioner Tim Greimel

He continued, “The bills leaves far too much authority in the hands of individuals without discretion as to what constitutes financial emergency. They completely and unequivocally disenfranchise voters by taking away all powers from elected officials. They allow EFM’s to unilaterally and directly contradict charters, the will of the people at the ballot box. They burden local governments with consequences of decisions they did not make. They force local governments  to pay the attorney general to defend the EFM against constitutional challenges and would require local governments and their taxpayers to pay for defense of civil and criminal proceedings against EFM. In communities slipping into financial distress, this would actually accelerate the distress.”

Greimel said businesses will be unlikely to locate in affected areas knowing that the EFM can alter or rescind their contracts.

“Unions will be very unlikely to make concessions because they know can easily get racked up again by the EFM. The bill allows the EFM to essentially bribe local elected officials to buy compliance, by giving the EFM carte blanche to adjust salaries of elected officials. It thus violates their constitutional right to free speech and leaves the state open to lawsuit. It means a massive expansion of government and a new bureaucratic class with no guarantee that it will not overstep legal and ethical bounds.”

Wayne Co. Exec. Robert Ficano listens as Compuware's Peter Karmanos rails against unions in 2007

While ostensibly speaking against the bills, Wayne Co. Executive Robert Ficano’s representative and Flint Mayor Dayne Walling sought amendments to give the draconian powers they accord to EFM’s to local heads of government instead.

“The powers granted to the EFM should be granted directly to elected officials,” Jerry Griffin, Ficano’s director of legislative affairs, said. “If there is a financial emergency and there are powers needed to address it, give us the powers. The challenges out there were not necessarily caused by incompetence or the negligence of local officials. Sixty percent of our revenues come from property taxes, and the decline in the housing market has caused great stresses.”

Walling said, “I appreciate the parts of bill that will allow local officials to have more authority prior to going to an EFM.”

Flint City Councilman Delrico Lloyd and Flint Mayor

He and current Flint Councilman Delrico Lloyd both objected to a provision in the bill that originally prevented elected officials serving under receivership from running for office again for 10 years. Ouimet said that had been changed to 18 months.

The committee continued meeting to discuss numerous proposed amendments to the bills, which at press time had not been published on the state website.

(More coming from Feb. 9 meeting in Lansing, including comments from Helen Moore, Russ Bellant, David Nathan.)

DPS EFM Robert Bobb testifies as Chief Academic Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett listens Feb. 9

By Diane Bukowski

LANSING—Hat in hand, Detroit Public Schools (DPS) czar Robert Bobb and his Chief Academic Accountability Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett begged a Feb. 9 joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees for legislation that would ensure approval of another $219 million deficit bond by the end of March.

The legislation has not yet been presented, but Bobb said it was being drafted.

Several Democratic legislators subjected the two to severe criticism for Bobb’s actions in slashing school services while still not reducing the district’s alleged $327 million deficit. The Committee chairs, Sen. Phil Pavlov and Rep. Paul Scott, and other Republican legislators were skeptical that DPS could repay the debt and said they opposed additional financial burdens being placed on the state.

House and Senate Education Committee chairs (l to r) Paul Scott and Phil Pavlov

 “We are not asking for the school district debt burden to be shifted to the state,” Bobb said. “Enacting this legislation will not cost the state one dime. This legislation is not a request for a cash infusion in any way. And this legislation does not in any way ask for the school district’s debt burden to be shifted to the state.”

He said later, “The state intercepts the district’s foundation allowance [per pupil aid] to ensure debt service.” This was the first time he has publicly acknowledged that a state trustee gets DPS’ entire allowance, then withholds what he considers necessary to pay the district’s debt before turning over the remainder to DPS.

His presentation shed light on the willingness of district officials to submit to draconian proposals by the Republican-dominated legislature expanding the powers of Emergency Financial Managers across the state, while closing schools, laying off workers and privatizing school services.

As minority vice chair of the House Education Committee, Sen. Pavlov wrote a bill last year to give the EFM power over academics, dated January 14, 2010, which died at the end of that session. (Read bill at Pavlov EFM bill 2010-HIB-5747.  (See accompanying story on Senate committee meeting on EFM powers held Feb. 9 in the afternoon, and currently proposed bills.)  

Eighty-seven percent of state DPS per-pupil aid this year, $512 million out of $590.5 million, was already set aside by the state trustee for debt payments, according to documents previously published on the DPS website, but since removed. (See chart below, go to http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=218 to read previous article.)

Bobb said former DPS CEO Kenneth Burnley gave Financial Security Assistance, now Assured Guaranty Municipal Corporation (AGM), the right to sign off on all short term borrowings when Burnley borrowed $210 million in 2005, in order to guarantee repayment of that 15-year loan.

Bobb said if approval of the new loan is not forthcoming, payments on the 2005 debt would rise from $22 million a year to $39.5 million.

He did not say how much interest AGM is charging, but it is likely substantial.

Billionaire Wilbur Ross backs Assured Guaranty

AGM is a subsidiary of the $  billion Bermuda-based Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGL), which is backed by billionaire Wilbur Ross. According to Bloomberg News, Wall Street bond rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) just downgraded AGL’s ratings one tier, leaving AGL in an uproar.

 “Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd., the only active investment-grade rated municipal bond insurer, fell the most in three months . . . .” Bloomberg reported.

It said the two biggest bond insurers, MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc, along with most of the rest of the industry lost their top AAA ratings in 2008 as a result of the mortgage payment meltdown.

 S&P has now proposed changes in its methods for evaluating bond insurers.

 “Among the biggest proposed changes to S&P’s ratings criteria is a new leverage test to assess the amount of risk (ed. italics) a bond insurer is assuming from guaranteeing debt relative to the capital it holds,” Bloomberg said in its Jan. 24, 2011 article.

Rescue schools, not banks

Bobb said, “Because of all the national headlines raising concerns about municipal and school district bankruptcies, Assured is looking to protect the DPS debt it insures from a potential filing even though the district has no plans to engage in such an action.”

Bobb then ticked off numerous attacks on DPS that he has initiated since the beginning of his tenure in March, 2009.

“It is vitally important that the Emergency Financial Manager must remove the rot from the system he is involved in,” Bobb said. He blamed the district’s current alleged deficit of $327 million on previous administrations over the last 11 years.

Chadsey High School, now closed

The “rot,” said Bobb, included 59 schools he has closed, with another 30 to 40 schools on the chopping block. He threatened a total of 70 more schools would be closed if the loan is not approved.

He boasted of concessions made by the Detroit Federation of Teachers under Keith Johnson, including deferment of $500 a month in pay, an assault on the “Holy Grail” of teacher seniority which excludes 52 schools from bumping in the event of lay-offs, and a new teacher evaluation system for all schools.

He boasted of the lay-offs of 232 security officers, 384 transportation workers, and the recent elimination of 823 custodial, maintenance and engineering positions, along with their outsourcing to the notorious union-buster Sodexo and other companies.

Safeway's DPS bus drivers protest outsourcing March, 2010

Despite a ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter last December  which barred Bobb from interfering in academics in his role as EFM, Bobb also boasted that he had developed a “long-term” academic plan for the district. Baxter just re-affirmed that ruling Feb. 12.  

Governor Rick Snyder did not announce the extension of Bobb’s contract beyond two years, through June, 2011, in violation of Public Act 72, until Feb. 14. But members of the committee spoke of it as a done deal, as have Detroit Board of Education President Anthony Adams and a number of union leaders.

“Why should the state keep you on when you have not been able to prevent these deficits and possible bankruptcy?” asked State Sen. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit). “The legacy debt was created beginning with the 1999 state takeover. The state has violated Art. 9, Sec.29 of the state constitution which prohibits the imposition of non-funded mandates.

Sec. 32 says that any citizen can file suit to enforce this provision.”

Young evidently referred to the state’s insistence on the district’s maintenance of a balanced budget while providing no funds to see that it happens. Text of State constitutional citations is below.

“MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION Sec. 29 State financing of activities or services required of local government by state law. The state is hereby prohibited from reducing the state financed proportion of the necessary costs of any existing activity or service required of units of Local Government by state law. A new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service beyond that required by existing law shall not be required by the legislature or any state agency of units of Local Government, unless a state appropriation is made and disbursed to pay the unit.

 Sec. 32. Suit to enforce sections 25 to 31. Any taxpayer of the state shall have standing to bring suit in the Michigan State Court of Appeals to enforce the provisions of Sections 25 through 31, inclusive, of this Article and, if the suit is and, if the suit is sustained, shall receive from the applicable unit of government his costs.” 

State Rep. Tommie Stallworth (D-Detroit)

“You have said repeatedly that you are not asking the state to pick up the debt and intend to close up to 70 schools leaving 62 students in a class,” State Rep. Tommie Stallworth (D-Detroit), said. “This absolutely results in failure, which we cannot afford as a state. During at least nine of the 11 years you cited in which DPS incurred deficits, DPS was under state control.”

State Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) blasted Bobb’s labor and travel policies.

“Why did you contract with Sodexo to save $75 million when according to the Detroit News and Free Press, the unions said they put a $92 million savings proposal on the table? With the number of consultants you’ve hired, why did we hire you? Your budget shows travel expenses of $900,000 in one month, $12,000 to the Sheraton Hotel. The food suppliers you choose are not the cheapest.”

Protest against Sodexo at University of Pittsburgh

Bobb denied the union savings were real and claimed that his use of Sodexo did not disadvantage current DPS workers. He said his consultants will go when he does, although he also said other officers he hired included the district’s auditor general have three year contracts and will remain.

Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover, Russ Bellant, and former DPS music teacher Callie Smith traveled all the way from Detroit to testify at the hearing. Pavlov dismissed the committee meeting without hearing from them or from the president of the Detroit School Board Anthony Adams. They did testify that afternoon at a joint Senate committee session and their testimony is presented in the following article.