I have the pleasure of being able to attend the Illinois Green Party’s State Membership Meeting this weekend (July 15-16) in Rockford, Illinois.
At this meeting, elections will be held for Chair, Secretary, and Membership Steward of the Illinois Green Party, and for delegate seats on the Green National Committee.
Presentations from local anti-nuclear power activist [...]
Green Party Watch
TNDP Chair: Daniels’ record an ‘excellent blueprint’ for harming schools, working class
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester issued the following statement criticizing Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ visit to Tennessee to participate in a state GOP fundraiser to be held later this week:
Tennessee Republicans have a surplus of bad ideas that make it harder for working people to get by or for their kids to get a decent education — there’s no need to steal inspiration from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, the man who wrote the failed economic policies that led us into Bush’s recession.
There’s no doubt tea party Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and Gov. Bill Haslam will be gleefully taking notes and fawning over Daniels’ anti-middle class record.
Daniels is really the perfect dinner guest for the Tennessee G.O.P., after all Indiana’s Republican governor has been slashing funding for public schools, attacking the rights of teachers and workers, and advocating for unfair economic policies his entire political career. In Nashville, he’ll fit right in.
If Tennessee Republicans aspire to do more damage to public schools and further setback working-class Tennesseans, Daniels’ record is an excellent blueprint for destruction.
BACKGROUND:
Engineered the Current National Fiscal Crisis “As [President] Bush’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Daniels presided over a historic turnaround in the nation’s fiscal fortunes, in which the .6 trillion surplus that emerged from the Clinton administration morphed into a 10-year forecast for a .1 trillion deficit by early 2003.” [Guardian, 5/17/11]
Mitch Daniels fought to take away rights from Indiana educators and forced .4B in cuts to public education . Since 2008, Daniels’ disastrous local revenue cap has forced .4 billion worth of cuts to public education that has closed schools, increased class sizes, prompted mass layoffs and frozen teacher salaries. In April he signed into law a bill similar to Tennessee’s law stripping teachers of their collective bargaining powers that was vehemently opposed by Indiana educators. [Courier Press, 5/20/11]
Indiana’s families have suffered under Mitch Daniel’s economic leadership. For the second year in a row, Indiana ranked fifth nationally in personal bankruptcies, at 7.1 people per 1,000 residents. Indiana’s median family income is just 86 percent of that of the rest of the country. Median income is falling — by 15 percent in the last decade. The real unemployment rate, which includes those too discouraged to look for work, stood at 17.4 percent last year. [New York Times, 6/23/11]
MORE BACKGROUND:
Daniels’ believes in Paul Ryan-style cuts to Medicare and endorsed President Bush’s push to privatize Social Security: “[We] have to fundamentally change all the welfare and entitlement programs. What Bush tried to do [in proposing private accounts for Social Security] was mild compared to what needs to be done. You have to have a completely new compact for people under a certain age, for Medicare and Social Security.” [Weekly Standard, 6/14/11]
Refused to Accept Billion in Federal Funding for Women’s Health Care: Signed into law a ban on state funding for Planned Parenthood, even after Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Michael Gargano and the Indiana Legislative Services Agency issued opinions saying it was most likely illegal and the courts would strike it down. The fact is that Indiana stands to lose billion in funding while at the same time ending the ability of at risk women to receive preventive care for cancer screenings, family planning services, and sexually transmitted disease screenings. [Slate, 6/3/11]
Enacted Radical Immigration That Have Cost Hoosiers Expensive Legal Fees: Enacted radical, draconian immigration laws that have been enjoined by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker. Barker concluded the state overstepped its boundaries in the statue. [Indy Star, 6/24/11]
Texas is well known for its harsh handling of criminals given Texas has been the most active in carrying out executions, among the states where the death penalty is permitted. But, in one small Texas town the Mayor has warned residents to “Bolt Your Doors” as they are left to defend their own homes against criminals after State budget cuts passed by the 2011 Legislature forced Alto, Texas to lay off its entire police force:
Alto, Texas is preparing for a crime wave, after the small East Texas town put its entire police force on furlough…
In an effort to save money, the city has laid off its police chief and four police officers for six months — longer if Alto’s finances don’t improve.
Alto residents have every reason to fear a rise in crime will follow the police force’s departure. The town’s per-capita crime rate is already above the state average. There were 66 crimes in Alto last year, compared to 51 the previous year.
“Everybody’s talking about ‘bolt your doors, buy a gun,’ ” said Monty Collins, Alto’s mayor, who opposed the City Council vote to furlough police officers.
Kelly Curry, the manager of an off-road-vehicle park, now carries two guns for self-defense. “The thought that we could be 35 or 40 minutes from getting the sheriff’s deputy here, depending on where they are in the county, is scary,” she says.
To close a historic billion budget deficit, Gov. Rick Perry (R) and the Republican-controlled legislature have made draconian cuts to state services and have passed the buck to city governments across the state to make impossible decisions about which essential expenditures to cut. Alto, for instances, faces a 5,000 budget deficit.
The Wall Street Journal notes that the closure of small-town police forces “is part of a broader consolidation of services in communities across the U.S.” It’s a problem because like fire departments and other essential services, “keeping the peace is rarely a revenue-making operation.”
Published in Liberty for America, May 2011
In a surprise move without precedent or advance warning, the Libertarian Party of Nevada State Committee disaffiliated its three County/Regional Committees, which cover Las Vegas, Reno, and the Capital District. Readers of this newspaper may recall that the Clark County, Nevada LP group is financially independent of their state party, files separately with the FEC, and raises more money than a large fraction of all LP State Par-ties.
A pair of audio tapes, said to be from the meeting, appear on Youtube at youtube.com/watch?v=O-3UnWQFRZ8 and
youtube.com/watch?v=bzggrxmqjRo .Readers unwilling to type these links may find them on IndependentPoliticalReport.com.
A draft transcript of the tapes appears on IPR.
The Clark County LP has already responded. Debra Dedmon, writing on IPR, reports: The Libertarian Party of Clark County is valid due to the bylaws violation. The remaining members have elected Angela McKinster Chair .
Here is a partial edited transcript. Each paragraph is a different speaker. Your editor was not at the LPNV State Committee meeting and can neither identify most of the voices nor vouch for the validity of the recordings of this public meeting:
Motion #1 I move that we have three Libertarian Party of Nevada membership levels. These levels would also main-tain national sustaining membership status as defined in (inaudible): level 1 annually, level 2 3.12 annually, and level 3 which would be 76 annually.
(Person making motion is invited to speak and does not.)
This is Dave Colborne. Out of curiosity, are we actually al-lowed to do this? Our bylaws leave membership fees to the lo-cal affiliates presently.
I don‘t know. Irv do you want to address this?
Irv: I‘m not aware of any bylaws. It wouldn‘t change our by-laws so it wouldn‘t change our qualifications for membership according to our state bylaws.
This is descriptions of donor levels. We‘re not really changing our state bylaws. That‘s all it is, just establishing three different levels. We can come up with names later. Basic membership, just the fifty to force the uh (unintelligible), the next level equates to .76 per month, and the last level is the 76 for hopefully new members, big bucks ( big deep pockets).
Colborne: So, just as a question, would this override the local membership program or would it be on top of the local mem-bership program? Answer: It just establishes three different names for the three different levels, that‘s all.
Colborne: Well the problem here is that and I hate quoting by-laws here but according to them any affiliated areas under article 3 section A all members of an affiliate party in Nevada are members of the LPN provided that the region has joined the local membership program, which basically requires forward-ing ten dollars to the executive committee for each member registered in the affiliate. I personally have no problem, the 1776 brigade and things like that, accepting membership levels beyond whatever the affiliates currently have. I just want to make sure that those who live in Clark County and Nye County where they don‘t have dues or have dues that are considerably lower than fifty dollars are still members of state. I just want to be sure that is cleared up.
I can answer that. Nothing we do as an executive committee changes our bylaws, and I‘m sure you‘re aware of that. Our Bylaws and our constitution do not create any kind of donor level or membership level. This just establishing a description rather than as establishment who is a member or not. Right we now we have membership as just as you quoted, that‘s what governs our body so I don‘t see this as a conflict. Nothing we do can change our bylaws. We have to do that at a state convention.
Colborne OK. Mostly I wanted to make sure that was clear to the entire body. I‘ve got no problem with raising some extra money and having some extra donation levels. That‘s fine.
[Editor: There is then a vote. The motion appears to pass unanimously. We then reach the next motion, under which all regional affiliates are disaffiliated, meaning that the dues levels just voted cover the entire state.]
I move to consolidate the Libertarian Party of Nevada by revoking the affiliate status of all Nevada county chapters including the Libertarian Party of Clark County, The Capi-tol Libertarian Party, and the Nye County Libertarian Par-ty thereby folding them into one organization until such time as membership levels (?) have reached (?) rechartering of county organizations.
Colborne: I was expecting Irv to speak in favor of his motion before chiming in.
Irv: I really don‘t have anything to say. This thing speaks for itself. I just think it‘s a good time for consolidation.. (short problem with background noise)
Colborne: Why are we doing this? I guess that would be my first question.
Chair: David, are you speaking for this or against this? I guess that could be my first question.
All right, I‘ll go ahead with this and I‘ll speak against it. As-suming we go though we this and assuming that you vote in favor of this, which I have a sneaking suspicion you probably will, you are talking about requiring all perspective candidates from (list of counties) to go down to Clark County to be even considered on their local ballots. I really think this is inappro-priate. I don‘t believe this will help grow the Libertarian Party of Nevada. I fail to see how this will increase activism, increase donations, or otherwise improve the functioning of our state especially since the largest most successful state parties in the country namely the Libertarian Parties of California and Texas have heavily relied on local and county affiliates and the Republicans and Democrats as much as you may dislike their ideologies win elections using local county and even precinct level organizations, so I think it‘s kind of unfortunate that we‘re talking about moving away from that direction.
This is Sandy Darby. I‘m not quite sure, my phone kind of went out. What do you mean moving to consolidate?
Motion is read again.
I would like to speak against that. In Nye County we‘re grow-ing pretty rapidly. I think that if we consolidate you‘ll ruin what we‘re starting here.
(Rowan?) I would like to comment,
Chair: You are not recognized. This is an executive committee meeting.
Joe, we also have two elected libertarian officials in our county.
We meet once a month. We had more people in our region than we‘ve ever had before. That‘s not going to happen if we consolidate.
OK thank you Sandy.
Colborne: I move to allow Rowan to speak for five minutes. Sandy Second
Transcriber: This is a motion to allow someone to speak in defense of her organization, on a motion to revoke (for cause) the affiliate status of the group. Observe that enough people vote against permitting a defense. An Aye vote is a vote to per-mit the defense.
Root Aye; Secretary Nay; Treasurer Aye; David Aye; Darby Aye; Roberts Nay; Hopkins Nay; The Chair votes: I vote no.
Rowan: You realize you‘re shutting out two counties and we have real members here. There‘s fifteen of us.
The Nays have it. This is a tie vote and in event of a tie the motion fails.
Voice: Bylaws Article 7B says you have to put your reasons in writing if you have cause to revoke affiliate status.
Chair: You‘re not an officer.
The vote on the disaffiliation motion was Silvestri – Chair; YES, Root – Vice Chair YES; Kris McKinster – Secretary YES, Michael McAuliffe – Treasurer YES; Irv Hopkins – At Large YES; Chris Roberts – Southern Region YES; Da-vid Colborne – Northern Region NO; Sandra Darby – Cen-tral Region NO
The next motion is to authorize spending of funds. I move to authorize the chair to use up any LPNV funds for certain functions: campaigns, fundraising, and annual convention.
Is there any discussion from any officer? Hearing none we move to a vote
Wayne Aye; Secretary No; Treasurer Aye; Colborne No; Darby No; Roberts Aye; Hopkins Aye; Chair I believe it passes — abstains. Passes 4-3.
From the Kennebec Journal:
AUGUSTA — Republicans, Democrats and the only independent in the Maine House are backing a renewed effort to reject a federal identification program that some consider too invasive.
Independent Rep. Ben Chipman of Portland is sponsoring L.D. 1068, which would prohibit the Secretary of State’s Office from using retinal scans, facial recognition or fingerprint technology to issue driver’s licenses…
Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers supports Chipman’s bill, saying the new driver’s licenses that he introduced recently “satisfy federal requirements and are accepted as valid ID in all states…
Chipman’s focus, and the intent of the MCLU, is to ensure that the secretary of state is barred from disseminating Social Security numbers without legislative authorization, and to prohibit the state from using retinal scans, facial recognition or fingerprint technology to issue licenses, Melnick said.
From the Daily Loaf:
In Florida, there are currently five nuclear reactors in operation in Florida, with two at Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay, two in Port St. Lucie, and one at Crystal River. The Crystal River reactor (CR-3) has been shut down for repairs since September 2009, when [...]
Green Party Watch
Written by state Sen. Lowe Finney and Rep. Craig Fitzhugh
Gov. Bill Haslam’s State of the State address followed the blueprint of responsible spending and tough choices that former Gov. Phil Bredesen laid out over the previous eight years. Thanks to our previous governor’s leadership, we are in better financial shape than most of the country.
But the state’s financial health means little to the nearly 300,000 unemployed Tennesseans who can’t provide for their families, or the hundreds of thousands more who want a full-time job and can’t find one. When presented with proposals to help small-business owners grow and create jobs in Tennessee, lawmakers in the majority party have dismissed them as ”hokey” while claiming that government doesn’t create jobs. They are more focused on printing their own money than helping put more money back into Tennesseans’ pockets.
Yet in Gov. Haslam’s speech, he outlined 2 million in economic development funds and other investments in projects across the state, “as a stimulus for new jobs and new business investment.” It appears the governor has decided, after all, that government has a role to play in creating jobs. Such an investment is a start, but more needs to be done to support our small-business owners and encourage businesses to start, relocate and grow in Tennessee. Major investments like those by Volkswagen and Hemlock required a governor who was all-in for jobs.
Tennessee needs that kind of hands-on approach, now more than ever, through investments like the West Tennessee megasite, which is not funded in the governor’s proposal. We believe that our rural communities should have the same opportunities as Chattanooga and Montgomery County, especially in areas with continued double-digit unemployment rates. Until we see that kind of proactive commitment from the majority party, they cannot truly say that they are working to put Tennesseans back to work.
College cuts are a misstep
In order to attract those jobs to Tennessee, we must also increase the number of Tennesseans with college degrees. A highly trained work force is the top priority for businesses relocating to Tennessee, and that training will come largely through our higher education institutions. Unfortunately, our colleges and universities are facing even more budget cuts, and those shortfalls will be made up almost entirely through tuition increases.
Increased fees are essentially a tax on our Tennessee students, many of whom have returned to school to train for a new career after losing a job. We’re telling low-income students that their scholarships will remain steady, but continued tuition hikes effectively decrease their scholarships. If we’re serious about job creation, we have to also be serious about giving Tennesseans the opportunity to train for those jobs. Cutting their legs out from under them with continued tuition hikes isn’t the answer.
The governor ended his address Monday with a call to avoid partisanship. We remain ready to work with him and the majority in the legislature to help put Tennesseans back to work. Such efforts will require an increased focus on job creation and job training, until everyone who is willing to work is able to find a job. We’re not there yet — and judging by the governor’s speech, we still have a lot of work to do.
State Sen. Lowe Finney of Jackson is the Senate Democratic Caucus chairman. Rep. Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley is the House Democratic leader.
Rancorous dialogue on the Hill from his own party has irked Gov. Bill Haslam. The Commercial Appeal has the story:
Haslam calls for more civil dialogue in education disputes
By Richard Locker
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
NASHVILLE — After days of highly charged rhetoric in and around the State Capitol, Gov. Bill Haslam said today he’s concerned that a “partisan divide” has deepened in Nashville over the last few weeks that will start to hamper solving Tennessee’s problems.
The governor’s remarks to business leaders here came hours after a Republican state senator warned teachers in a Senate floor speech Monday night that legislative “warriors” are going to “change radically… government schools in Tennessee.”
Borrowing from Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” freshman Sen. Jim Summerville, R-Dickson, said, “We will bend public education to our awe — or break it all to pieces.”
Here’s a clip of Summerville’s speech on the Senate floor:
The Center for Public Policy Priorities today released some devastating county-by-county analysis of the state budget cuts proposed by Gov. Perry and the Republican controlled legislature:
Impact By School District
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The public education analysis projects that as many as 189,000+ public education jobs will be eliminated in Texas. Almost 14,000 public education jobs may be eliminated in Collin Co.
The state is short billion, more than one-quarter of the state’s discretionary budget, of which about 91 percent is consumed by public schools, higher education, and health and human services.
Texas already spends less per capita than almost any other state, but Senate Finance Chair Steve Ogden — a Republican who Rick Perry has described as the smartest budget man he knows, and someone he implicitly trusts with the budget — warned today the proposed budge cuts will “decimate public education.“
Texas Republicans would rather put our children’s future at risk than allow corporations to pay their fair share to help build the well educated workforce Texas businesses need to prosper in the future.
Texas Observer: Gov. Rick Perry has repeatedly said Texas’ deficit is “reflective of the national recession’s lingering impact on state revenue.”
In fact, the recession has little to do with the billion budget shortfall. Back in 2006 the Republican controlled Legislature concocted a Rube Goldberg-style [school funding and business tax reform] measure that simultaneously cut property taxes, implemented a new “margins” tax on business and rejiggered the way public schools are financed.
Problem was, as the state Legislative Budget Board pointed out at the time, the plan’s math didn’t wash because the margins tax wouldn’t bring in as much as the Legislature thought. In fact, the board said, it would leave a billion hole in the state budget every year.The upshot: Perry, who pushed the swap, knew full well he was helping to create today’s “crisis.”
Star-Telegram: A 68-page report released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs on Monday reveals that Texas will give business .2 billion worth of tax exemptions for sales, franchise, and gasoline and motor vehicle sales taxes for the 2011 fiscal year that ends on Aug. 31, 2011.
Exemptions to the state sales tax, the state’s biggest source of revenue, will total .8 billion for the current fiscal year, Combs said, although some items exempted from the sales tax are taxed from other sources. Gasoline tax exemptions will amount to 3 million. Motor vehicle sales tax exemptions will total 5 million.“While sales and use tax collections totaled .6 billion in fiscal 2010,” Combs said, “the tax is limited in scope when compared with the total number and kind of transactions in the economy, because of various exemptions and exclusions,” Combs said.
A number of lawmakers are calling for the elimination of at least some exemptions to boost revenue and help offset deep service reductions proposed in preliminary draft budgets. Others say canceling the breaks amounts to a tax increase, which Gov. Rick Perry and Republican legislative leaders have vowed to oppose.
Read more at the Star-Telegram
NYTimes OpEd “Leaving Children Behind” by Paul Krugman:
Consider, as a case in point, what’s happening in Texas, which more and more seems to be where America’s political future happens first.
Texas likes to portray itself as a model of small government, and indeed it is. Taxes are low, at least if you’re in the upper part of the income distribution (taxes on the bottom 40 percent of the population are actually above the national average). Government spending is also low. And to be fair, low taxes may be one reason for the state’s rapid population growth, although low housing prices are surely much more important.
But here’s the thing: While low spending may sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level.
And in low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average.
But wait — how can graduation rates be so low when Texas had that education miracle back when former President Bush was governor? Well, a couple of years into his presidency the truth about that miracle came out: Texas school administrators achieved low reported dropout rates the old-fashioned way — they, ahem, got the numbers wrong.
It’s not a pretty picture; compassion aside, you have to wonder — and many business people in Texas do — how the state can prosper in the long run with a future work force blighted by childhood poverty, poor health and lack of education.
But things are about to get much worse.
A few months ago another Texas miracle went the way of that education miracle of the 1990s. For months, Gov. Rick Perry had boasted that his “tough conservative decisions” had kept the budget in surplus while allowing the state to weather the recession unscathed. But after Mr. Perry’s re-election, reality intruded — funny how that happens — and the state is now scrambling to close a huge budget gap. (By the way, given the current efforts to blame public-sector unions for state fiscal problems, it’s worth noting that the mess in Texas was achieved with an overwhelmingly nonunion work force.)
So how will that gap be closed? Given the already dire condition of Texas children, you might have expected the state’s leaders to focus the pain elsewhere. In particular, you might have expected high-income Texans, who pay much less in state and local taxes than the national average, to be asked to bear at least some of the burden.
But you’d be wrong. Tax increases have been ruled out of consideration; the gap will be closed solely through spending cuts. Medicaid, a program that is crucial to many of the state’s children, will take the biggest hit, with the Legislature proposing a funding cut of no less than 29 percent, including a reduction in the state’s already low payments to providers — raising fears that doctors will start refusing to see Medicaid patients. And education will also face steep cuts, with school administrators talking about as many as 100,000 layoffs.
The really striking thing about all this isn’t the cruelty — at this point you expect that — but the shortsightedness. What’s supposed to happen when today’s neglected children become tomorrow’s work force?
Anyway, the next time some self-proclaimed deficit hawk tells you how much he worries about the debt we’re leaving our children, remember what’s happening in Texas, a state whose slogan right now might as well be “Lose the future.”
According to the Stamford Times, Rolf Maurer of the Connecticut Green Party failed to get enough signatures to appear as a balloted candidate for the Feb 22 special election to fill a vacant seat on the Connecticut State Senate. He will instead be running as a write in candidate:
Maurer, who ran for Stamford mayor [...]
Green Party Watch