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Yogi's words make a lot of QE2 and Porkulus spending sense. And, the Looter City rejoices with 40% of what the other Looter Cities are handed from Lansing, via The Detroit News
The mayor is welcoming word that the state plans to dedicate $25 million toward blight elimination efforts across Michigan, including $10 million in the city.
....
Legislation passed Wednesday lists how the state will spend its $97 million share of a national settlement with banks over faulty foreclosure processes. According to the state attorney general's office, $10 million of the $25 million for anti-blight efforts would be allocated for use in Detroit.
I've heard of dumb before, but this takes the cake, via mLive
The Michigan Retailers Association is urging the state to send Amazon.com a bill for uncollected sales tax.
The trade association has been pushing for state legislation to make Internet retailers collect Michigan's 6 percent sales tax to make it a level playing field between online and brick-and-mortar retailers.
States can't require out-of-state businesses to collect their sales taxes unless they have a "nexus," or physical presence there.
Amazon has a wholly owned subsidiary, Brilliance Audio, that is located in Grand Haven. The company was acquired in 2007 and produces audio books.
Frilliant! Don't work to lower taxes for yourself, raise them on others. Keep it up jackasses, and you'll have everybody avoiding Michigan like the money grubbing plague to reside and do business in that it is.
Yet another story from upside down world that has become known as the State of Michigan, via mLive
This year is different, with a level of fruit crop devastation not seen since the 1940s. Many growers aren't opening their camps this season, leaving migrants in a difficult situation.
"Many migrants came to Michigan or moved into different areas of Michigan and had work earlier in the summer in strawberries and blueberries and other crops not affected by the freezes," said Mollie Schweppe, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services Office of Migrant Affairs. "Then they normally move on to picking cherries and peaches, but since those crops were destroyed they have a gap in their income of four to six weeks potentially until the late summer crops are ready to be harvested such as squash, pumpkins, I hear there's still some work in pickles, there will be some apples available." An inter-agency migrant services committee worked quickly to come up with a means of assisting these workers. The Michigan State Housing and Development Authority has allocated $172,000 of its revenue for emergency housing assistance for migrant workers.
Through Aug. 31, the program will offer up to $400 to cover one month's rent either at a migrant camp or other rental property. The money should be able to help about 430 families, Schweppe said. Applications for the assistance must come from a household member that is in the country legally.
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Michigan has an estimated 90,700 migrant and seasonal farm workers and dependents, which includes some families that stay in Michigan year round, along with others that come from Texas, Florida or elsewhere for all or part of the harvesting season.
I have to ask, has there been anybody excluded or not invited to belly up to the Michigan taxpayer trough? Anyone? Anyone? Hellooooo? That must mean it's a no. Well, I guess the upside to this is that Lansing is at least requiring a frontman to have proper documentation. Thanks Big Agra for stuffing us with boarding your temp pool.
Ah, apple season. You know what that means? Rep. "known as more of a workhorse than a show pony," it's finally safe to reach into your cellar committee where bills go to die and dust off HB 4024 and HB 4026 to send up for a floor vote. It's OK bub, that little cherry secret is safe with me. Just you, and I will know.
PORTAGE, Ind. - Governor Mitch Daniels joined executives from Fronius USA, LLC, the fourth-largest solar inverter producer in the world, today to announce that the company will relocate its North American headquarters here from Michigan, creating up to 512 new jobs by 2016.
The Austrian company will invest more than $26.64 million to lease and equip 400,000 square-feet of space in Portage to assemble and manufacture its products for the North American market. Through this new facility, Fronius plans to develop its current manufacturing capacities to meet the global demand for solar electronic inverters and welding technology.
"We're excited to bring new jobs anywhere in Indiana, but we're particularly excited Fronius has chosen northwest Indiana," said Daniels. "Fronius is well-established, fast-growing and at the top of their field, exactly the kind of company we've rebuilt the Indiana business climate to attract."
Fronius' relocation marks the 1,000th new business establishment or expansion the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the state's lead economic development agency, has completed since its inception in 2005.
Established in Brighton, Mich. in 2002, the family-owned, international company has been engaged in solar electronics since 1992, in particular the development and production of photovoltaic inverters for both grid-connected and independent power supplies.
"Indiana has a great business climate with a perfect infrastructure for us, including a good network of suppliers and skilled employees," said Wolfgang Niedrist, managing director for U.S. sales at Fronius. "We can't wait to get to know the people of Indiana even better as we move into the community."
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Fronius' establishment in Indiana comes on the heels of two recent announcements from companies also relocating to Indiana from Michigan. Earlier this month, Spartan Motors, Inc. announced its plans to relocate parts of its operations to Wakarusa from Michigan, creating up to 60 jobs by the second half of 2012. In May, Molded Foam, LLC announced its acquisition of a Michigan firm and intentions to relocate operations to Indiana, creating up to 45 jobs in Elkhart County by 2014.
So it goes... Michigan continues to hemorrhage its Private Sector Job Creators flowing into Right-To-Work Indiana. That really should make one question the motive behind Gov Snydholm going "all in" with bypassing the Legislature on his relentless Non-Agreement Agreement campaign for his quasi-government DRIC agenda.
A state fund intended to create 390 Michigan jobs has loaned $7.7 million to 35 companies and created 79 jobs - only 20 percent of the number initially promised.
Ann Arbor SPARK received an $8 million grant in 2006 to create the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, which used $7.7 million of that amount. The grant was awarded as part of the Competitive Edge Technology Grants and Loans program, which exists "to encourage the development of competitive edge technologies to create jobs in the state."
Skip Simms, manager of the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, said in an email, "We saw a need for early stage capital for start-up technology based companies, which the private sector wasn't providing at the time."
Unfortunately, CATO pulled its punches on ObamneyCare much like have the goofy edge-nibbling Health Care Compact proponents. The right way of addressing Federally administered RomneyCare for all?
But contrast the following bills included in the report to what happened in Wisconsin recently, where voters in effect confirmed major reforms enacted there last year:
Senate Bill 1125: Authorize more state government housing subsidy debt: Passed 33 to 5 in the Senate House Bill 5246: Expand corporate research subsidies: Passed 87 to 20 in the House House Bill 5541: Borrow more for university construction projects: Passed 85 to 23 in the House House Bill 5705: Use Detroit utility tax for streetlights instead of police; raise city income tax: Passed 92 to 14 in the House House Bill 5566: Increase school and local "deficit spending" debt: Passed 73 to 34 in the House
None of these bills would have passed without support from a majority of Republicans in either the House or Senate.
Adding to the discomfort, pension bureaucrats and the teachers union appear to have successfully stalled a Senate-passed bill to close the defined-benefit school pension to new hires, a transformational reform that would pay dividends for decades to come (it's not dead but may be delayed until next fall).
So much for that fed up with bloated budgets, big spending and taxing Jenny Granholm form of government that gifted the 2010 vote to the MI-GOP control in Lansing. Every one of them deserves to face a primary challenger.
