To Sign or Not to Sign...

For years I have said that people get the government they deserve.  Make uninformed decisions and the results may come back to haunt you.  Voting for someone based on their political party affiliation or because they are 'Nice' is not making an informed decision.  Who cares about 'nice' if they can't perform their duties?

Of course, make a stupid decision in the voting booth, along with a majority of other voters and six months later, or sooner, and you can all yell 'RECALL'.  Now, in defense of those who voted for Rick Snyder, the choice in the general election was not one between quality candidates, IMHO.

Let's go back to the Republican and Democratic primaries.  Neither of the candidates I preferred made it past that point.  I liked Andy Dillon, but Democrats obviously did not.  The rumor was that he was really a 'republican'.  So Virg Bernero became the 'D' candidate. 

On the Republican side, Snyder only got 36% of the vote, and he did not get mine or that of many of my friends who voted on the 'R' side of the ballot.  If Cox or Bouchard had dropped out of the race, I think those votes would have gone to Pete Hoekstra and not Snyder.  How do you vote for a candidate who will not tell you what he plans to do?  Do you really just 'trust him'?  If he had thrown out his ideas before he got elected, he would be sitting in Ann Arbor watching the news instead of being in Lansing making it.

This man cannot in any way, shape, or form relate to the blue-collar workers in Michigan.  He was willing to throw $6 million of money in the race, more money than most of us will earn in a lifetime, or two.  He plans to take money away from the education of our children.  He wants to tax the pensions of our seniors who he claims use government services without paying for them, yet no one has been able to tell me which state services I am receiving.

The recall effort against him cites the passage of the new Emergency Manager legislation.  While I was the Chair of the MGFOA Legislative Committee, we re-wrote Public Act 72 to address early warning signals for communities in trouble.  We could not get a hearing on it, though Rep. Shelley Taub did get it drafted for us.  I am in favor of the new legislation.  If we elected more qualified individuals to public office and then hired competent employees, we would not have to deal with communities in fiscal stress.

On the issue of taxing pensions, well... Nuf' said for now.

If the language is approved, people will be out circulating petitions for a recall.  Everyone needs to make a decision of whether or not to sign and also know the consequences of going down the path of actual recall.

While I do not like Gov. Snyder, I do not see where he has committed misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance in office.  He is just out-of-touch with the electorate.  We are not just numbers in a budget.  We are real live individuals trying to get by in very difficult times.  Very few of us have money to waste, Mr. Governor.  Listen to the voters before we waste money on another election.