Ouch!

This little gem of an ad was in the Cadillac News today.



Seriously though, The Sweet Shop is a charming area business. Great products, great people!

Enjoy!

Booher has to Stop!

"This structural problem we have is nothing more than overspending - it has to stop," Booher said.
The state must focus on the "big four" departments that account for 82 cents on every dollar: corrections, human service, community health and higher education, Booher said.
"With the big four, the hard looks really need to come," he said.

-Cadillac News

While I agree that we need to look for ways to cut spending I’m not so sure that these departments are the ones to look at first.

Corrections: any cuts to the corrections budget need to be handled delicately. The governor has already stated that three more prisons will be closed, that’s a big cut right there and maybe that’s where we should stop until judges obtain and exercise more flexibility in sentencing. In order to do that, the prisoners residing in those facilities must be moved, either to other prisons, or paroled. If cuts are made to the corrections budget there is a good chance that they will come out of programming. Programming is the means through which offenders learn skills that they can use to be contributing members to society. You know stuff like substance abuse education, GED preparation, anger management skill building. The things that we citizens need them to learn before they return to our neighborhoods.

Human Services: we need human services now more than ever. The counties represented by Rep. Booher, Mecosta, Osceola and Wexford all have unemployment rates higher than the state average of 10.4%. (Mecosta, 11.2%; Osceola, 12.5%; Wexford, 15.1%.) So, what do you propose these jobless people live on, not all of them are receiving unemployment? Contrary to popular belief the unemployment rate does not equal the number of people receiving unemployment benefits from UIA. What will they eat? How will they cover their children’s medical costs? Family Independence Program, Food Assistance Program, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Medicaid…all programs administered by the Department of Human Services, all programs that your constituents NEED right now.

Community Health: when people lose their jobs they typically also lose their health insurance, COBRA is cost prohibitive even if you have a steady income. We should deny our citizens healthcare? That seems particularly heartless, even coming from Rep. Booher.

Higher Education: totally unnecessary. I mean, who needs to have a higher education to work in a factory? Oh, that’s right, the factories don’t have jobs. Where are the jobs? Medical, technology, science…all fields that typically require a little bit more education than a high school diploma or GED.

Rep. Booher doesn’t give a hoot about the people he represents. If he really did he would take a look at his own salary before trying to cut the services that his constituents need to survive right now. Yes the House voted yesterday to recommend a 10% pay cut but if approved it won’t happen until 2011. They need to vote to put the 10% pay cut on the fast track and get it implemented before October 1, 2009.

Booher said he does not support eliminating History, Arts and Libraries, as it provides necessary services that directly affect taxpayers.

-Cadillac News

So, corrections, human service, community health and higher education do not provide necessary services that directly affect taxpayers?

Since when?

14.8%

As of December 2008, Missaukee County's unemployment rate is 14.8%, our neighbor Wexford is a bit worse at 15.1% but, hey, they always try to have more of anything, don't they? Well, at least they have a larger percentage of people in the labor market, how many Missaukee County residents have given up on employment a long time ago. No jobs, no public transportation, no hope...most of our "community resources" are located in Wexford County, so I wonder how are people getting over there to access those resources.

I know most people think of Detroit when they think of Michigan and now Detroit has sort of become a bit of a symbol of our unemployment problems. John Rich even penned a new song for us:



Take care of yourself, and if you have some extra, take care of someone else today also.

Sen. Kuipers Visits Cadillac

Well he was a long way from Ottawa County and the 30th State Senate District but it's never too early to start campaigning for Rep. Pete Hoekstra's Second Congressional District seat in Washington. In all actuality, he's probably been groomed for the seat by his good friend Pete:

"I have had a long friendship with Pete (Hoekstra) over the years. He has represented the district well, but he is moving on to different things," Kuipers said. "You will see a lot of me over the next couple years, as well as the other candidates."

-Cadillac News

I know we've all gotten pretty used to that up here, something I like to call cronyism. Going to the polls to vote is more of a habit than any real statement. Remember last November? There were an awful lot of unopposed seats on my ballot. Competition is good. Competition makes people do a better job.

Anyway, one of the highlights of Sen. Kuipers' visit was his appearance at the Cadillac Area Chamber of Commerce Lecture Luncheon held at Baker College last Friday where he discussed "The Three E’s - Energy, Education and Economy." Three extremely vital topics for the Cadillac area and it seems to me that more emphasis on education could help out with the other two, but I digress, I really want to mention the bad guys; the Department of Environmental Quality.

Here's what Sen. Kuipers had to say:

"Why wouldn’t the DEQ want to work with businesses rather than intimidate them and get them to leave? Until we change that, if businesses have options (to leave the state), they will take them"

-Cadillac News

It's not intimidation to be expected to follow the law. For example, when I'm speeding and a cop pulls me over, I cannot use as my defense, "the police intimidated me, now I'm going to move someplace else (and spend my money there)." That's just ridiculous but apparently not taking responsibility is the way to go these days. Every state has an environmental agency and every state is required to have particular plans and programs under Federal regulations. I'm sure this quote was in reference to the bench trial currently underway between AAR Manufacturing and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. It doesn't look like either side is backing down on this one but that doesn't make anyone a bully either.

If you're interested the trial is scheduled to reconvene January 27th in the 28th Circuit Courtroom.