Posted on 10/23/2002 9:50:18 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
State Of Michigan
PROPOSAL 02-1
A REFERENDUM ON PUBLIC ACT 269 OF 2001 AN ACT TO AMEND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF MICHIGAN ELECTION LAW
Public Act 269 of 2001 would:
Eliminate straight party vote option on partisan general election ballots.
Require Secretary of State to obtain training reports from local election officials.
Require registered voters who do not appear on registration list to show picture identification before voting a challenged ballot.
Require expedited canvass if presidential vote differential is under 25,000.
Require ballot counting equipment to screen ballots for voting errors to ensure the accurate tabulation of absentee ballots. Permit voters in polls to correct errors.
Provide penalties for stealing campaign signs or accepting payment for campaign work while being paid as a public employee to perform election duties.
Should this law be approved?
Yes _____ No _____
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State Of Michigan
PROPOSAL 02-2
A PROPOSAL TO AUTHORIZE BONDS FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS PROJECTS, STORM WATER PROJECTS AND WATER POLLUTION PROJECTS
The proposal would:
Authorize the State of Michigan to borrow a sum not to exceed $1 billion to improve the quality of the waters of the state by financing sewage treatment works projects, storm water projects and water pollution projects.
Authorize the state to issue general obligation bonds pledging the full faith and credit of the state for the payment of principal and interest on the bonds.
Provide for repayment of the bonds from the general fund of the state.
Should this proposal be approved?
Yes _____ No _____
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State Of Michigan
PROPOSAL 02-3
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO GRANT STATE CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH BINDING ARBITRATION
The proposed constitutional amendment would:
Grant state classified employees, in appropriate bargaining units determined by the Civil Service Commission, the right to elect bargaining representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining with the state employer.
Require the state to bargain in good faith for the purpose of reaching a binding collective bargaining agreement with any elected bargaining representatives over wages, hours, pensions and other terms and conditions of employment.
Extend the bargaining representatives the right to submit any unresolved disputes over the terms of a collective bargaining agreement to binding arbitration 30 days after the commencement of bargaining.
Should this proposal be approved?
Yes _____ No _____
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State Of Michigan
PROPOSAL 02-4
A PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REALLOCATE THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT REVENUE RECEIVED BY THE STATE FROM CIGARETTE MANUFACTURERS
The proposed constitutional amendment would:
Annually allocate on a permanent basis 90% (approximately $297 million) of tobacco settlement revenue received by state from cigarette manufacturers as follows: $151.8 million to nonprofit hospitals, licensed nursing homes, licensed hospices, nurse practitioners, school-linked health centers and Healthy Michigan Foundation; $102.3 million to fund programs to reduce tobacco use, Health and Aging Research Development Initiative, Tobacco-Free Futures Fund, Council of Michigan Foundations and Nurses Scholarship Program; and $42.9 million to the Elder Prescription Drug Program.
Guarantee recipients funding at 2001 appropriation levels plus additional state funds on an escalating basis for nonprofit hospitals, licensed nursing homes, licensed hospices and nurse practitioners.
Should this proposal be approved?
Yes _____ No _____
A NO vote keeps the system the way it is.
I am voting HELL YES on Prop 1, since it hurts the Democrap Machines in the Cities of Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and East Lansing.
I'm undecided on prop 2. I have to research more on it. The Chamber of Commerce and the unions rarely agree, but both back this.
While I sometimes have union sympathies, I can not back prop 3. State employees already have a ton of perks and I believe don't have to pay into Social Security.
Prop 4 is the worst of all of them. These public health people are the most elitist and arrogant ones around. This bill will take the money that was being used for education. I opposed the tobacco lawsuits anyway, but I'd rather have the money there, than going for these BS "smoking prevention" programs that don't work at all.
On prop 4, no way in hell! I represented tobacco defendants in the suit, which was purportedly to recover monies already spent by the state General Fund on treatment. It is pure BS to say the settlement money was meant for health care - it was to recover tax dollars that had supposedly already been spent. Prop 4 would give these monies to private hospitals and associations, including the Michigan Hospital Association which pays its director $550,000 per year on a contract that limits his hours to less than 40 per week. Prop 4 would also prevent the legislature from reducing Medicare expenditures, leaving education and corrections as the primary discretionary dollars to cut for the budget shortfall. The only way to change this money grab by rich hospital execs would be to amend the constitution again when everything goes to hell in a handbasket if Prop 4 passes.
If this does pass, we're going to need to make constitutional amendments much harder to pass, otherwise any special interest group with enough $ can buy a share of our tax dollars.
Mike
I checked your profile. That's an understatement. I have an apartment(here I "well" not live) on a street where there are 4 Jenny signs in a row.
That's more than my own county unless you count the three on the right-of-ways.
Having seen that you've been active on the CCW issue, can you say where Paul DeWeese stands on this and other gun rights issues? There is no way I would vote for the Dem state Senate candidate (wackball Virg Bernero), but I'm really fed up with DeWeese's anti-Engler and pro-state employee union campaign and thinking about writing someone in. If I could find one issue where DeWeese doesn't seem like a Dem himself, I might reconsider...
DeWeese is liberal on a lot of issues, but he is 100% pro-life and pro-2nd Amendment. As for the hothead VIRG!, he even voted against the Vear Bill. Even Alma Wheeler Smith voted for that. Hopefully VIRG!'s temper will do him in. "Leadership you can trust..."(cough Cough bull#$&t)
I'll give DeWeese some more credit. It was gutsy of him to run in a 58% dem district when he could have moved to Livingston and run against Valde Garcia.
BTW to ALL - Can you make the poll watching event tonight at 7? It's in Lansing.(Freepmail me if you can - goes for anyone.)
As someone who was in the private sector for several years before spending the last five working as a state employee, I know darn well there is still plenty of deadweight in state government - and you do too if you'll only take a look around you and acknowledge it.
The perks of a state job (and btw, I paid more to park when I didn't work for the state) include, among other things, 3 weeks of vacation, not even counting the 12 paid state holidays. Of course, that also excludes the 13 days of sick leave every state worker gets - and some abuse. While 2% may not be great in terms of raises, those percentages are going up next year and are hardly something to sneeze at when people are going without work. And you try to find one company anywhere in the world that pays 4% of wages into a 401(k) and matches up to 3% of employee contributions dollar-for-dollar. That's right, sheeple, state employees who contribute just 3% of their pay get 401(k) contribs of 10% of their salary. Only Wayne County execs could do better than that.
It's not the perks that are even the most embarassing part of being a state worker, it's that nobody can ever really get fired for anything short of killing their boss's children. I know of state workers who keep their cell phones on during the day so they can run their side businesses out of their state offices. I know state workers who are too dumb to spell their own name and too lazy to try to learn. That is not to say most fall into these categories, but it does mean the reason many of us work so damn hard is not because of employee cuts, but because of lazy idiots around us who are sustained only by civil service and the wonderful (retch) UAW. Only in the state will you hear managers say "I can't do" because, heaven forbid, my staff would have to work evenings or weekends. Lord help us if professionals actually had to act professional!
Sorry to get on a rant, but the fact is there are lots of state employees who don't deserve a raise, let alone to paralyze the budget through binding arbitration. A job is not a right, it's a privilege you earn. And if you really don't like your situation, there's an easy solution - LEAVE!
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