Last year in a rare exhibition of bipartisanship, the Michigan state senate voted unanimously and the House voted 89-11 to pass a new rule involving the taxation of a purchased vehicle when someone trades in another vehicle in the transaction. Under a 2013 law, buyers initially could exempt the value of the trade-in vehicle up to $2,000 from the sales […]

In what can only be described as a Hail Mary attempt to use the Jedi Mind Trick on three judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals, Attorney General Bill Schuette’s Assistant Attorney General Nathan Gambill is arguing that Emergency Managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder are not “state officials”: The Michigan Court of Appeals is weighing legal arguments which may […]

“[Republican] Gov. Rick Snyder proposed legislation Monday to offset what he said would amount to an unintended $1.5-billion annual tax increase for Michigan residents resulting from the recent federal tax reform package.” That’s the lead sentence in an article in the Detroit Free Press from yesterday titled “Snyder proposes plan to offset federal tax reform for Michigan taxpayers“. The article […]

In 2013, Michigan governor Rick Snyder imposed an Emergency Manager on the city of Detroit. With that move 49% of the African Americans in Michigan were without a democratically-elected local government. His appointed Emergency Manager was given full control over the city. This past week, Gov. Snyder continued his disenfranchisement of Detroiters when he chose the date of the special […]

There’s one thing you can say about Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder: He has zero #$@&%*!s to give when it comes to how things look or are perceived by the public. Today we have Exhibit A in this regard: Gov. Snyder has appointed Michgan’s chief medical executive Dr. Eden Wells to lead the newly-formed Public Health Advisory Council: Gov. Rick Snyder […]

This is a disgusting story. It’s disgusting because it involves maggots in the food served to human beings. But mostly it’s disgusting because it is further proof that privatizing critical government services to a for-profit company inevitably results in cutting corners and inhumane conditions, this time for prisoners. Officials found maggots in food in three separate incidents at a Jackson-area […]

On April 25th, 2014, with its government run by the latest in a series of Emergency Managers appointed by Republican governor Rick Snyder, the city of Flint, Michigan switched its water system over to the Flint River, ending a decades-long purchase agreement with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) which draws its water from Lake Huron. Within a few […]

Testimony in the first day of the preliminary examination for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, facing felony charges in the Flint Water Crisis, revealed that health experts believe the switch to the Flint River was the cause of the huge increase in cases of Legionnaires’ Disease in the beleaguered city: “My opinion is the most […]

A jointly-authored article from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and State Superintendent of Schools Brian Whiston appeared recently in The Detroit News. The article was supposed to be a defense of the state’s school reform agenda–which has been, shall we say…underwhelming…in terms of actually…you know…uh…reforming our state’s schools. The overarching theme of the article, such as it was, was that greater […]

Dear Gov. Snyder, It’s no secret that I have been highly critical of you and your administration since you took office in 2010. However, I have lauded your decision to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and, because of it, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders now have health insurance that they wouldn’t have otherwise, most of whom […]

After happily signing countless tax breaks for corporations into law in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder finally found one to veto. It’s one that would benefit actual Michiganders and not for-profit corporations: Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed on Tuesday a tax cut recently approved by the Michigan Legislature, saying the measure would put too much strain on the state’s budget. Snyder vetoed […]