Important Petition Drive – your help is needed!

By: American Decency Staff

Help us with our petition drive – see below!

Did you know that Michigan is one of only four states which have a fulltime state legislature?  (The other three are California, New York and Pennsylvania.)  All other 46 states manage quite nicely to conduct their states’ business with a part-time state legislature.

Until 50 years ago, Michigan also had a part-time legislature.  Since that change, the scope and reach of government regulation and legislation has greatly increased.  Now the Committee to Restore Michigan’s Part-time Legislature, a non-profit organization, is seeking the adoption of an amendment to Michigan’s constitution “to restore the citizen-driven, part-time legislature that Michigan once enjoyed.”

Michigan voters may have the opportunity to vote on instituting a part-time legislature – but only with your help!  It’s no easy task to get such a proposal on Michigan’s November ballot.  Over 322,000 valid voter signatures must be obtained on certified petitions. The goal for Newaygo County is to collect 2,000 signatures. 

You are needed to help us reach that goal!  If 200 people in Newaygo would circulate just one petition, gathering only 10 valid signatures from Newaygo County registered voters, we would reach our goal of 2,000.

That is certainly do-able – but only with your help!  Would you be willing to ask 10 friends and family members who are registered voters in Newaygo County to sign this important petition?  If so, please email us as kimberly@americandecency.org or call us at 888-733-2326 or 231-924-4050 and we will send you a petition.  If you would like more than one petition, just let us know!

Petitions must be returned to our office at American Decency Association by June 1^st (earlier would be much preferred). 

If you live outside of Newaygo County and would like to circulate petitions in your county, call us for more information or go to http://parttimemi.com/

Here are a few facts you may not know: 

–          Currently our legislators only works 120 days and are paid $80,000+ per year

–          This proposal will cut legislative sessions to 60 days per year

–          This proposal will cut legislators’ pay to about $35,000 per year

–          It will limit the number of legislative employees to 250 (currently there are more than 700)

With legislators living and working at home in their districts for most of the year, they will be influenced by us, their constituents, rather than the intense pressure brought by professional lobbyists and career bureaucrats.  It will return more of the power to “we, the people”!

Other aspects of this proposed amendment would require the State to post on the internet all compensation and reimbursements paid to legislators, and it requires that before the Legislature can adopt any law, the law has to be posted on the internet for at least five days.

The website, www.parttimemi.com, provides a wealth of information about this petition drive and ballot proposal to limit Michigan’s legislature and their reach.  I encourage you to read their Question and Answer page here. 

Just to give you a taste of the information you’ll find, is this question and answer which shows the waste and potential danger of legislators with too much time on their hands.

Q: Why do you say that the Legislature is doing too much? And why is this happening?

A: There are just too many examples (to fit in this small space) of unnecessary legislation being considered or passed in our full time, “professionalized” Legislature. In 2013, a Democrat senator introduced a bill (SB 259) to make the blueberry the State Fruit. A Republican senator countered with a bill (SB 515) to make the cherry the State Fruit. In the other chamber a Democrat legislator proposed a bill (HR 4007) which would make the “tart” cherry the State Fruit – but not any other kind of cherry, or any kind of blueberry. Meanwhile, another legislator has been pressing to have the monarch butterfly declared the State Bug (HR 4646); and another wants the little tree frog to be the State’s Amphibian (HR 4747). Equally or even more troubling is what legislators have actually agreed on doing, like controlling who, and who cannot, install an in-home thermostat (PA 71 of 2013), or diverting a portion of license plate fees collected to the Michigan Chapter of “Ducks Unlimited” (PA 7 of 2013). But most importantly, there are growing piles of laws that lead to new rules and regulations which encrust our daily lives and discourage would-be entrepreneurs, but add nothing to the prosperity of our citizens – but that do add impetus to growing the State’s bureaucracy.

Why is this happening? First, a full time Legislature becomes increasingly disposed to satisfy the demands of numerous but small and vocal special interest groups (like those who like butterflies or tart cherries or tree frogs) in exchange for future campaign support. Equally important, “professionalized” legislators need to see themselves as always doing something useful since they are supposed to be full time law-makers – and that is what law-makers are supposed to do: pass new laws. In the real world, we call this make-work. In a full time Legislature, it’s called doing the work of the people. We need to bring our representative-legislators home again – as much for our sake as for theirs.

Help us reach that goal of 2,000 signatures from Newaygo County.  Email us as kimberly@americandecency.org or call us at 888-733-2326 or 231-924-4050 for a petition.

To donate time, money or help in other ways go to www.parttimemi.com.

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To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412.   

American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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photo credit: Luigi Crespo via photopin cc

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