Call to Action: Contact your representatives. Tell them to vote NO on the National Popular vote and the state voting rights act. Stop supporting bad, pork-loaded bills and bills that strip away election integrity.
By Elizabeth Dallam-Ayoub | August 8, 2023
Image adapted from http://kdtli.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-irrationality-of-pork-barrel.html
As the Biden administration spends billions of taxpayer dollars to help the Ukrainians defend their country, Michigan's Whitmer administration is shunting millions of state taxpayer dollars to a Swedish business that will create NO new jobs.
Can you say, “oink?”
When the Michigan legislature passed Senate Bill 0007 and Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed it into law, $200 million of Michigan taxpayer dollars were taken from the public coffers and put into the trough to feed a Swedish-owned paper mill in Escanaba, in Senator Ed McBroom's 38th District. (See In Escanaba $200 million for a Paper Mill But No New Jobs required.)
Source: Michigan Capitol Confidential,
What did Billerud, a Swedish company, have to do to eat from the public trough? It had to promise to retain its 1,200 jobs. It doesn’t have to clean up waterways, fix roads, or so much as provide public playground equipment--let alone create more jobs.
Of Michigan’s 7.6 million citizen voting aged population (CVAP), about 4.5 million (52%) voted and put the legislature into office that created this bill. About 2.4 million voters (32% of CVAP) elected the governor who signed the bill into law.
All the House and Senate Democrats voted for the bill to award $200 million to the Swedish-company. Eight Republicans also voted in favor of the feeding frenzy. House Republicans who voted in favor were Cam Cavitt, Cheboygan; Gregory Markkanen, Hancock; Mike Mueller, Linden; and Curtis VanderWall, Ludington. Four Senate Republicans voted in favor, and they were John Damoose, Harbor Springs; Mark Huizenga, Walker; Dan Lauwers, Brockway Township, and, of course, Ed McBroom, author of the McBroom report that put the kibosh on authentic audits of the 2020 election.
Republicans voting in favor of $200 million to fund Swedish paper mill that agreed to create no new jobs.
Work hard. Pay taxes. Elect people to spend your money on pork projects. Work hard. Pay more taxes. Elect people to spend your money on pork projects. Work hard. Pay even more taxes. Elect people to spend your money on pork projects.
2023: Work hard. Pay taxes. Become involved in politics. Take action.
2024: Work hard. Pay taxes. Elect responsible representatives.
Elizabeth Ayoub a Michigan attorney, serves as MFE's volunteer Director of Communications. She started her career working for an international company and transitioned into teaching French and Latin while her children were young. She resides in St. Johns.
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