BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Gov. Jennifer Granholm is not being truthful during her media blitz to state college campuses this week," charged Bill McMaster, state chairman (volunteer), Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation.
"Adoring college administrators and news media continue to allow Gov. Granholm to cheat college students by blaming State Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) for refusing to raise taxes so she could have avoided having to terminate $112 million in deficit spending to keep funding $1,000 to $4,000 Michigan Promise Grant Scholarships to 96,000 currently enrolled college students," McMaster noted.
"Instead of honestly explaining why she switched funding from Promise Grant Scholarships to championing the unnecessary $113 million State Police Headquarters building nearing completion on a Downtown Lansing floodplane, Gov. Granholm is aiding and abetting developers Joel Ferguson (D) and Gary Granger (R) to continue ripping off grassroots taxpayers for unjust enrichment through checkbook influence as leading campaign contributors to Democrats and Republicans in our State Capitol," McMaster added.
Gov. Granholm addressed a large crowd on the campus of Central Michigan University this morning and answered a student's question in front of covering news media...
Q. "Why don't you shift the $113 million you've appropriated for the wasteful State Police Headquarters Building to instead keep funding Michigan Promise Grant Scholarships?" (Ben Lazarus, CMU Junior, Tel. 586.202.0020)
A. "No money is going to the State Police Headquarters Building this year." (Gov. Jennifer Granholm)
TRUTH: In the dark of night, the State Senate and State House of Representatives voted to terminate 96,000 Promise Grant College Scholarships before approving the "appropriations for the Department of State Police for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010" between 12:30 AM and 2 AM October 1, 2009. The no bid sweetheart deal for Ferguson and Granger's new State Police Headquarters Bldg. was included in Senate Bill No. 253, Section 256 (1) on page 24 of 28 pages.
"I, and others from Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation, were watching from the Senate and House galleries and can assure you that copies of SB 253 as it was voted first by the Senate (27 of 38 yea) and then by the House (64 yea of 110) were not available on computer screens or desks on the Chamber floors before the majority of Democrat and Republican legislators voted to adopt SB 253 and send it to Gov. Granholm for signature."
It became Public Act 133 of 2009 when Gov. Granholm signed it October 29, 2009.
Taxpayers United was founded in 1976 by Dick Headlee (deceased 2006) and Bill McMaster to successfully win statewide voter approval of the 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment. It has evolved into a tax deductible 501(c)(3) under the IRS Code as a non-partisan, non-profit educational foundation helping educate grassroots taxpayers how to defend and control their Constitutional Rights despite exploitation by unethical public officials and units of government.
SOURCE Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation
