FedUpUSA

Archive for the ‘Michigan’ Category

Liberty Fest 2012* A Celebration of Liberty

Saturday, March 10, 2012 – Delhi Cafe

PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT BILL STILL IN THE STRAW POLL!

4625 Willoughby Road

Holt, MI  48842-7402

4:30 pm to 9:00 pm

Online Registration:  http://michiganlp.org/Webpages_Aux/2012/Libfest_Payments.html

More Information:  http://www.michiganlp.org/Webpages_Aux/2012/2012_LibertyFest.html

Please come to help Bill in the straw poll.  Bill will be a featured speaker, along with Gary Johnson.   Make a difference.  It’s time to stop choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Please contact me if you have questions or you would like to help organize a group to attend.   Steph@FedUpUSA.org

Governor Granholm’s “legacy” in Michigan strikes again….

After the Troy City Council turned down $8.4 million in federal funding to construct a transit center, a lawmaker urged the governor and transportation officials to keep the funds in Southeast Michigan, and a business leader called a halt to further expansion in the company’s Troy facilities.

What do these two have in common, if I may ask?

The Troy City Council rejected the funding and transit center plans in a 4-3 vote at a Dec. 19 meeting. Mayor Janice Daniels, and councilmen Wade Fleming, Doug Tietz and Dave Henderson nixed the plan, citing ongoing operation expenses, use of federal funding on principle and the cost of the center in light of current mass transit use. The federal funds cannot be transferred to other Troy projects.

Good.  Light rail has never shown that it has a payoff.  The line in question supposedly runs from Troy to Pontiac, a pretty-much dead city at this point.  There is also an apparent problem with current mass transit utilization — why put in something for which there is no demand and which will be a permanent suck on the taxpayers (other than the big megacorp, of course) — like, for instance, the residents who own houses there.

On Dec. 20, Troy Chamber of Commerce President Michele Hodges received an email letter from Frank Ervin, manager of governmental affairs at Magna Corp., an auto parts manufacturer with 300 facilities worldwide, more than 100,000 employees and more than $24 billion in sales in 2010.

Ah, here it comes….

“After watching the disappointing behavior of City Council and being exposed to some of the individual actions such as those of the mayor and Councilman (Wade) Fleming this morning, I am drafting a memo to all Magna group presidents and our Magna corporate executives strongly recommending that Magna International no longer consider the city of Troy for future site considerations, expansions or new job creation,” the letter states.

And why is that, exactly?  Specifically, would you mind explaining exactly why the city’s unwillingness to stuff money down a rathole when there appears to be no justification on a usage basis with existing mass transit is something that makes you uncomfortable Frank?

I would think you’d want a city government that is a good steward of tax dollars and uses them wisely; after all, that’s what an entity should be doing with its resources…. right?

This past April, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a three-year $1.5 million state tax credit for Magna in support of plans to invest $765,000 in its Troy facility for a new division, which was estimated to create 200 new jobs.

Oh that’s nice.  The state paid twice for the investment that the company made?  As for the number of new jobs, can we have an actual headcount instead of “estimates”?  Exactly how many actual long-term jobs were created, if I might inquire, and at what rate of pay?  What’s the net benefit to the State from this handout?  That should be trivially able to be provided since the firm does remit payroll taxes and knows what its headcount and wage base is….

The company, which is based in Aurora, Ontario, leased 9,738 square feet at the Troy Technological Park, off John R, between 14 Mile and Maple, for powertrain operations. General Motors had previously occupied that space, which had since been empty.

9,700 square feet is not much.  That’s less than a 100×100′ box, basically.  I had 8,300 square feet in Two Prudential and it was about 1/3rd of a floor; we supported thirty employees in that space, more or less.  We could have probably added another five, maybe ten if I reconfigured a bunch of stuff — but that’s all.

Someone is lying here.  200 employees in 9,700 square feet eh?  That’s a square of about 7′ on a side with no other space involved — no aisles, no cube systems, no bathrooms, no closets, no IT infrastructure, no front desk, no chairs, no hallways, no private offices, well, you get it.

Now maybe there are other facilities involved in the deal, but this much I’m very sure of — there is no way that 200 employees were packed into 9,700 square feet of space.

Peters said that the plans had included transit bus lines connecting the transit center in Troy to Macomb County.

“It doesn’t make any sense to do that now,” he said. “I always believed the rapid bus line should go up to Pontiac.”

He said the evidence is overwhelming that where investments are made in public transit systems, there are huge returns. “It really spurs the economy and is not something we’ve had in the history of Detroit. It (economic development) goes hand in hand. The Troy transit center was a piece of that. I’m certainly disappointed in the council’s decision.”

Really?  Show me the numbers please Mr. Peters, D-Bloomfield.

And make sure that when you do that you count the entire sunk cost of these facilities, plus the operating expense, and put against it the number of actual full-time jobs that are created and stay once the system is complete, including those you steal from the other end of the line, along with number of actual users of these new facilities and per-user cost figures on both a capital and recurring basis.

There are good, solid arguments for transit systems within high-density urban areas.  Between them is a much dicier proposition, in that movement of people between those areas doesn’t necessary do anything other than siphon people from one area to another.

The better question that I have here, however, is over this entire tax subsidy thing.  $1.5 million in subsidies for a $765,000 investment is effectively paying a company twice to spend money.  The claim of 200 jobs in 9,700 square feet is facially bogus and went unchallenged in the source article, so one has to wonder exactly what sort of idiots we have for so-called “reporters” at that paper.

This, in turn, calls into serious question exactly what other hinky deals this company (and others) are getting in Michigan and more importantly, who the costs and taxes are being shifted to in order to support this outrageous and incestuous behavior between these corporations and the state and local governments involved.

Absent more information that changes my mind I applaud Troy for saying NO MORE to this blatant and obvious scam.

A call to the reporter to inquire on the paper’s investigation on these matters was not returned by press time.

November 8, 2011

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FedUpUSA Congratulates Janice Daniels, New Mayor of the City of Troy, Michigan

FedUpUSA is thrilled not just for Janice, but for the residents of Troy, who will finally have a government responsive to their voices.  The City of Troy will finally have a transparent, open and honest government.  There will be no more cronyism with our government servants padding their own pockets and pension shortfalls with taxpayer money while closing our library.  (Election Results)

We are confident that the City of Troy will return to being the City of Tomorrow, instead of the City of Yesterday.

FedUpUSA would also like to congratulate, Doug Tietz and Dave Henderson on their election to City Council.

FedUpUSA is a national organization, which is based in Michigan. Our mission since 2008 has been to educate the public about the economic crisis and the fraud, corruption and cronyism that exists between our financial system and our government.

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From the Traverse City October 22, 2011 Occupy event downtown Traverse City, Michigan.

Not all is as it seems, and there are different components to the OWS movement.  Though I am not comfortable with the fist symbolism often attributed to the OWS movement which seems to relate it well to a redistribution movement, I felt it would be important to let the words of those involved be heard to see if all of them might support that type of political structure.

This one might surprise you.  It is part One of three.

Jason Gillman – Michigan Taxes Too Much

City Council Using Library As Means of Extortion

Over the past 18 months, the City of Troy has attempted to raise citizen’s property taxes with TWO elections and now plans a THIRD on August 2, 2011 for .7 mils – AN 11% TAX INCREASE.  We do not mind paying needed taxes, but oppose tax hikes when THE CITY ALREADY HAS THE MONEY TO KEEP THE LIBRARY OPEN! See the proof for yourself.  The City has $12.3 Million sitting in a ‘slush fund’ – which the council claims is for ‘pension shortfalls.’  PENSIONS?  Why should payment of their pensions come before saving the library?!  Do you, dear taxpayer, have a pension?  Why would you want to provide one for someone else with YOUR money?

The council failed with the first two millages so are now separating the millage requests into smaller amounts, which will add up to at least a 25% operating millage tax increase (another 1 mill is already being discussed for the November 2011 ballot).  All this electioneering has cost taxpayers over $500,000, almost 20% of the current annual library budget!!

Council claims there has been no viable ‘plan’ put forward, but indeed there has been.  Councilman Howrylak’s budget proposal showed that Troy can afford the library without new taxes, yet the majority of the remainder of the council refused to vote for his budget.  Instead they voted for cushy Early Retirement Packages for top employees costing a minimum of $1.3 million!

The truth of the matter is that Council keeps asking for increases in order to maintain the exorbitant salaries of many City employees, 20 of whom make over $128,000, and 13 of whom make over $180,000!   This doesn’t include the lifetime health benefits, pensions or other benefits!  Again, I ask, do YOU want to be paying for these salaries and benefits before you pay to keep the library open?  Well, this is precisely the decision that Troy City Council has made FOR YOU, unless you vote NO!

This is not a question of keeping the library open, it is a question of whether or not Troy citizens will allow the City government to continue to mismanage and misspend your money!  Tell them you will not be a victim of extortion – VOTE NO ON AUGUST 2!  If the library is closed, IT IS BECAUSE THE TROY CITY COUNCIL CHOSE TO DO SO.  Then it will be the voters’ responsibility to get rid of all of those who voted to do so in the next election.

The Bargaining Chip:

 
Looks like at least one person in government is refusing to allow the fraud to continue, from the Washington Independent:

A committee of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a plan to fund an attorney that will be dedicated to helping homeowners battle the growing number of foreclosures based on faulty documents.

In a meeting Tuesday night, the General Services Committee of the Board approved a contract worth up to $60,000 for Legal Services of South Central Michigan. That money will be used to pay an attorney full time to work with county residents caught up in the burgeoning cases of foreclosures based on bad documents.

Those documents have been identified as robo-signed documents from the now defunct company Docx in Georgia. Curtis Hertel, Jr, the county’s register of deeds, discovered the documents after seeing a 60 Minutes report on the company. Those documents, which Hertel says number more than 100, have been referred to both the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and the FBI. In addition, other questionable documents have been found, and Hertel says investigations into the documents are ongoing.

In related news a judge in Washtenaw County ruled on Tuesday that foreclosures involving any title exchanges controlled by Michigan Electronic Recording Systems, Inc. (MERS) were improper. That ruling could void thousands and thousands of foreclosures in the state because it is likely the bank or mortgage company had no legal right to foreclose on the property.

Michigan law requires each mortgage assignment — which means company A sells the mortgage to company B — to be registered with the country register of deeds office. MERS marketed itself as a company that would keep track of the transfers, without all the fees associated with filing assignments. Many of the mortgages were sold over and over again, but the judge ruled that MERS had failed to keep an accurate accounting of the assignments.

In short, no one knew who exactly owned the mortgage, and thus had the right to foreclose. Hertel said his office was contacting those homeowners who were affected by the fraudulent foreclosures.

“In all honesty, this is not just right for the people, it is right for the taxpayers,” Hertel said.

The ultimate goal, Hertel said of the proposal, was to force banks and lenders to the table to work out a new deal on the mortgage to keep the home owner in their home.

Hertel also announced he would be holding public meetings about the foreclosure crisis and the new program through the non-profit legal group in various Ingham county locations.

General Services Committee Chair Debbie DeLeon praised the move by Hertel.

“I am very proud of the fact that we have a register of deeds that is taking such a leading role where no one has led before,” DeLeon said after the meeting. “This is going to save people’s homes. It will be like a miracle.”

The entire County Commission will take up the resolution on Tuesday and is expected to approve it.

Contact Mr. Curtis Hertel, Jr. and tell him thanks for standing up for the rule of law.

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Ingham County Register of Deeds

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