I am frequently asked why recall is necessary when our elected state officials are term limited and will be up for re-election or moving on. The most important thing I could say is that a lot can happen in six months. It did not take them six months to raise our income tax 12%. It did not take them six months to enact a 22% surtax on business. ( May I remind you that the tax gets passed on to the consumer.) It took them less than six months to increase General Fund spending more than 8% for 2008. They succeeded in increasing the legislative budget by over 7% for 2008 in less than six months. Now add to that the cost of borrowing money at 40 cents on the dollar for the failed 20th Century Jobs Fund in 2005, which was a flop, and will take a long time to pay back with future revenue.
The next question is always ," What about the cost of the election?" It is minor compared to the damage they can do. We need to set a few examples to deter others from making those kind of mistakes again. In my case, my legislator is the ring leader, Speaker of the House Andy Dillon. You remember him. He is the one who wanted to give every sixth grader and iPod. Rumor has it that should he be re-elected that he will be working on a gas tax hike soon after the election. Since things do not seem to be getting any better and they don't seem to be able to cut spending, then their only solution will be to use our money - thus another tax increase. Speaking of money, it will cost money for legislators to defend themselves against recall. They already use tax dollars to send out literature about how wonderful they are and how hard they work for us in their newsletters. Now they must spend more of their own to defend themselves and or to run for reelection.
If you are looking to get involved in a recall in Wayne County send me an email at bogaert@comcast.net . MichiganRecalls.com will be having a Recall Boot Camp soon. Taxpayers to Recall Andy Dillon will have petitions there or I can send you petitions if you live in Redford or Dearborn Heights. You can get other information at MichiganRecalls.com.
3 comments:
When did Dillon say he wanted to give every student an iPod?
Andy Dillon made the statement after returning from an all expense paid trip to California by Apple Corp. After his press conference hit the national news and made a laughing stock of him, he denied ever making the statement. We know he was just trying to cover himself.
Everyone hopefully will get involved in this recall either one way or the other. Its just about the last resort that citizens have to keep the playing field level and also keep our politicians honest and using their brains.
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