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Please take a moment of your time to call your State Representative and State Senator and send a clear message to them that we can't afford to make more cuts in the services relied upon by Michigan residents. The following are some general talking points for your call. If possible, share stories and data about how your community has been affected and will be affect by cuts in the state budget.
Don't Sit Back and Wait for the Cuts. Make Your Voice Heard to Protect Vital Services - Your Legislators Need to Hear from You Now! Find your representatives here! |
| How to get our voices heard? 1. Know your legislators (Representatives and Senators) 2. Know the legislators who are on the Human Services committee. 3. When meeting with legislators go with a group of their constituents and other organizations – not on your own. 4. Use data – important. Michigan League of Human Services has an excellent website with tons of updated information. Go to www.mlhs.org Please note also that fighting against the present recall (10 Reps and Senators targeted for this recall) is important. The recall creates a dangerous precedent. |
Make Your Voice Heard! Take Action |
10 Michigan legislators to face recall efforts
Names of people subject to
Recall Campaign in Michigan
October 11, 2007
By DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU
LANSING — The campaign to punish state lawmakers who backed all or part of last week’s $1.5
billion sales and income tax increase formally began Thursday with the filing of a petition seeking
to recall state Rep. Steve Bieda, D-Warren.
If the petition language is approved and backers can collect about 10,000 petition signatures from
voters in Bieda’s district in a 90-day period days an election would be scheduled at which he
could lose his job.
Bieda was the first of 10 legislators – four other Democrats and five Republicans - targeted by the
main anti-tax group backing the recalls. Petitions aimed at the others should be filed within a
week, said Leon Drolet, a former state representative and head of the Michigan Taxpayers
Alliance.
The other targets are: House Speaker Andy Dillion, D-Redford Township, Reps. Marc Corriveau, D-
Northville, Robert Dean, D-Grand Rapids, Ed Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe Farms, Mary Valentine, D-
Muskegon, Chris Ward, R-Brighton, and Sens. Valde Garcia, R-Brighton, Wayne Kuipers, R-
Holland, and Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Muskegon.
Minutes after the recall against him was launched Thursday afternoon, Bieda said he wasn’t
surprised and remained confident that Warren voters will realize that supporting the tax hikes
“was not a crazy decision…given the alternatives.”
“It got the state’s financial house in order. I did what I thought was right.”
Garcia, one of the most obvious targets as the most high-profile Republican to support raising
taxes, said he too is ready to defend his decision to expand the state’s 6% sales tax to some
services (a move that will raise about $750 million in 2008). The Legislature and governor also
approved an increase in the income tax rate from 3.9% to 4.35% effective Oct. 1.
“I think we have an obligation to govern responsibly,” Garcia said Thursday afternoon. Raising
taxes “wasn’t necessarily a good choice,” but “shutting down
government was worse.”
“I don’t enjoy the heat. I’m still a Republican. I’m still a fiscal conservative,” he said, “but I honestly
believed that we needed to raise taxes.”
Voter backlash against the tax hikes has been intense in some areas, with lawmakers fielding
hundreds of phone calls from angry constituents. That doesn’t necessarily spell success for
recalls, which must meet a many benchmarks and deadlines to force an election. The legislative
recall organizers must collect signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast for governor in the district
in 2006, and within 90 days.
But the first major hurdle comes after the petition is submitted and undergoes
review by the county election commission. Recall backers often run afoul of the election
commissions and end up in court, a course Drolet predicts for some of the campaigns getting
underway now.
The last wave of recall campaigns against state legislators was in 1983 after an income tax
increase proposed by then-Gov. James Blanchard was narrowly approved. At least 18 senators
and representatives were targeted (as was Blanchard).
Only two recall elections were held, however, targeting state senators in Oakland and Macomb
counties. Both were removed.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6604 or dbell@freepress.com
Names of people subject to
Recall Campaign in Michigan
October 11, 2007
By DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU
LANSING — The campaign to punish state lawmakers who backed all or part of last week’s $1.5
billion sales and income tax increase formally began Thursday with the filing of a petition seeking
to recall state Rep. Steve Bieda, D-Warren.
If the petition language is approved and backers can collect about 10,000 petition signatures from
voters in Bieda’s district in a 90-day period days an election would be scheduled at which he
could lose his job.
Bieda was the first of 10 legislators – four other Democrats and five Republicans - targeted by the
main anti-tax group backing the recalls. Petitions aimed at the others should be filed within a
week, said Leon Drolet, a former state representative and head of the Michigan Taxpayers
Alliance.
The other targets are: House Speaker Andy Dillion, D-Redford Township, Reps. Marc Corriveau, D-
Northville, Robert Dean, D-Grand Rapids, Ed Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe Farms, Mary Valentine, D-
Muskegon, Chris Ward, R-Brighton, and Sens. Valde Garcia, R-Brighton, Wayne Kuipers, R-
Holland, and Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Muskegon.
Minutes after the recall against him was launched Thursday afternoon, Bieda said he wasn’t
surprised and remained confident that Warren voters will realize that supporting the tax hikes
“was not a crazy decision…given the alternatives.”
“It got the state’s financial house in order. I did what I thought was right.”
Garcia, one of the most obvious targets as the most high-profile Republican to support raising
taxes, said he too is ready to defend his decision to expand the state’s 6% sales tax to some
services (a move that will raise about $750 million in 2008). The Legislature and governor also
approved an increase in the income tax rate from 3.9% to 4.35% effective Oct. 1.
“I think we have an obligation to govern responsibly,” Garcia said Thursday afternoon. Raising
taxes “wasn’t necessarily a good choice,” but “shutting down
government was worse.”
“I don’t enjoy the heat. I’m still a Republican. I’m still a fiscal conservative,” he said, “but I honestly
believed that we needed to raise taxes.”
Voter backlash against the tax hikes has been intense in some areas, with lawmakers fielding
hundreds of phone calls from angry constituents. That doesn’t necessarily spell success for
recalls, which must meet a many benchmarks and deadlines to force an election. The legislative
recall organizers must collect signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast for governor in the district
in 2006, and within 90 days.
But the first major hurdle comes after the petition is submitted and undergoes
review by the county election commission. Recall backers often run afoul of the election
commissions and end up in court, a course Drolet predicts for some of the campaigns getting
underway now.
The last wave of recall campaigns against state legislators was in 1983 after an income tax
increase proposed by then-Gov. James Blanchard was narrowly approved. At least 18 senators
and representatives were targeted (as was Blanchard).
Only two recall elections were held, however, targeting state senators in Oakland and Macomb
counties. Both were removed.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6604 or dbell@freepress.com
| Join us as we go to Lansing to meet with our representatives and Senators on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 for more information or questions: Call: Dot Wolff 248-652-1237 Karen Donahue, RSM 248-476-8000 ext 221 Rita Mary Olszewski, RSM 313-898-3328 |