Posted on 01/28/2016 1:49:19 PM PST by MichCapCon
A story published by Crain’s Detroit Business joins the legion of media reports giving a sympathetic ear to local government and school officials condemning a new law restricting their ability to use taxpayer resources to electioneer in favor of tax hike proposals during the 60 days before an election.
For example, Crain’s reports: “Michigan law already made it illegal for cities, school districts and other public bodies to advocate a position on a ballot issue. The bill Snyder signed also rules out the sending of factual information. And that’s what has municipal leaders so concerned.â€
The story then quotes one of the law’s critics, Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, complete with a photo of the mayor.
ForTheRecord says: If Crain’s had looked at mailings Barnett’s own city had sent out, the shortcomings of the earlier electioneering limits would have been immediately apparent. Indeed, the editors might have recognized that their “already illegal†assertion was evidence the previous law was not effective at limiting abuses.
In one instance, while promoting a tax increase labeled as being for public safety, Rochester Hills mailed fliers to residents claiming they could die if the measure was not approved.
“There are always trade-offs in life but this one can mean the difference between life and death as seconds matter in fire department response times,†the flier read.
Crain’s observation that “Michigan law already made it illegal†for cities to advocate for tax hikes is undermined by the reality that the Secretary of State’s enforcement has been weak at best, and its powers to do more are limited.
Specifically, the only previous restrictions on taxpayer-funded electioneering applied to “express advocacy,†which only prohibits campaign material that contains the words "Vote Yes" or a near equivalent.
Other than that, before the new law was signed it was almost anything goes. For example, one complaint against a school district was dismissed with this: “The statute, however, does not require that the information disseminated by a public body be accurate or complete … only that it is factual.â€
I thought this was an anti Trump thread.....
LOL! So did I.
It could have been
Read. Pretty sure I’m still gonna die. Some day.
Hello!
I think I can state with pretty close to 100% certainty that all people reading this thread will die, as will the same percentage of people ~not~ reading this thread.
so, the tax suckers object to a law that forbids the use of tax dollars to lobby for more tax dollars. If afflicted by reason or logic how does one support this position?
Whats next for the Trump haters, holding a basket of kittens over a freeway overpass?
“I even heard a story from one of my kids that a teacher ripped into the kids after a levy failure saying that if it wasn’t for their cheap parents at home, they would still have busing in the district. Or something like that.”
—
I cannot tell you how angry I would have been if that happened when my kids were in school.
.
Ultimate clickbait title.
Actually, I expect to die whether I read it or not.
I can’t read the initial post beyond the “school officials” part.
(Odd control characters, I assume)
People who send their kids to the government to be educated are less than human garbage. Utter gutter spew, they are.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Hebrews 9:27-28
It is a surety folks.
our district schedules several meetings to vote and they continue until they wear the crowd down and the last vote which always passes has very little people attending becuase its in the early evening when these same poeple are coming home form work and unable to make it there in time
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