Title:
Libertarian Party Says State in a Sorry State
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
2/1/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

2/1/01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(313) 562-5778
(248) 591-3733

DEARBORN. “The fact of the matter is that our state is in a pretty sorry state,” said Libertarian Party of Michigan Chair Stacy Van Oast. “And with the kind of leadership we’re getting from Republicans it’s easy to see why.”

Ms. Van Oast was responding to Governor Engler’s State of the State address last night to the people of Michigan.

“What kind of duplicity does it take,” she asked incredulously, “for the same governor who has led efforts to tax e-commerce transactions to now turn around and say that we need to give tax breaks to corporations engaged in e-commerce?

“I guess this is just one more example,” she answered her own question, “of the Republican view of taxes — increase them on consumers, while reducing them on big business.”

And the LPM chair’s ire wasn’t confined to the governor’s economic plans.

“Then he proposes to max out our constitutional limit of 20 cabinet-level agencies by creating a brand, new Department of History, Arts and Culture,” she added. “Since when are these social institutions something to be determined by government?” she asked.

“I certainly hope,” she continued, “that people will finally stop being fooled by the Republicans’ posturing as advocates of individual freedom and limited government and recognize just how socialist they really are. Tax increases on consumers, but tax breaks for multi-national corporations. Even a Ministry of Culture! What more evidence could anyone possibly need?” she wondered.

“It’s not surprising that Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is talking about chasing out the last of the libertarians from the Republican Party. Well,” she concluded, “they will be welcomed with open arms into the Libertarian Party. It ought to be obvious from the governor’s State of the State address that they should have been here all along.”

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Title:
Judges Must be Smoking Something Libertarians Say
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
3/16/2001
Year:
2001
Article:
3/16/01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(313) 562-5778
(248) 591-3733

DEARBORN. “The verdict at least was right,” said Libertarian Party of Michigan executive director Tim O’Brien, referring to the recent court of appeals ruling striking down local government smoking bans. “But those judges must have been smoking something themselves to hold that the only problem is that the wrong level of government was making the law.”

The three judge panel ruled against the City of Marquette, holding that Michigan law prevents localities from passing communitywide bans on smoking in restaurants. “The question of whether there should be a total ban on smoking in restaurants must be left to the legislature,” the court held.

“It apparently never occurred to the learned hands of the Michigan judiciary,” O’Brien observed, “that the question of whether there should be a total ban on smoking in restaurants ought to be left to the restaurant owners. Who is in a better position to determine what restaurant patrons actually want?” he asked.

“We used to have a couple of powerful institutions in this country called ‘private property’ and ‘the free market.’ When you respect those concepts you have a society based on voluntary relationships rather than political muscle. Then you don’t have to try and guess what people want — in order to impose it on them. People vote with their money. If you leave the market free to meet the wishes of consumers, it will do just that. Some restaurants will cater to smokers. Some to nonsmokers. Some to those who don’t care one way or the other. Instead of imposing a single standard which must necessarily exclude wishes of some, all preferences can thus be accommodated.

“And not only will the market show what people want, it will even tell you in exactly what proportion because its natural selection process will replace businesses that do not satisfy the wishes of their customers with ones that do.

“If the citizens of Marquette genuinely prefer nonsmoking restaurants, no local ordinance imposing that rule would be needed. The very fact that a law must be passed to accomplish that goal is proof that this does not represent the wishes of the people there.

“And, of course,” he concluded, “all of these same fundamentals of economics apply irrespective of which level of government short circuits the market process. I guess those judges must have been out finding something to smoke during college — when the rest of us were studying Adam Smith.”

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Title:
Hang Up on Cell Phone Legislation Libertarians Say
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
3/20/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

3/20/01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(313) 562-5778
(248) 591-3733

DEARBORN. “This new proposal to give motorists a second ticket for being on the phone while committing a driving infraction reminds me of that great, old line by Yogi Berra,” said Libertarian Party of Michigan chair Stacy Van Oast, “It’s deja vu all over again!”

According to sponsor Bruce Patterson (R-Canton), House Bill 4158 would impose a secondary $25 fine and one point on the record of any driver whose use of a cell phone “causes” him or her to commit a traffic violation.

“Obviously,” Van Oast continued, “it’s impossible to prove — or, more to the point for accused motorists, disprove — what ’caused’ a traffic offense. So, if this bill passes,” she asked, “how long will it be before the legislature is back wanting to simply make cell phone use while driving a ‘primary’ offense?

“Remember when the seat belt bill was sold to a wary public on the promise that the ticket would only be written if the motorist was stopped for having committed some other violation and also found not to be ‘buckled up’? It took barely a decade for the nanny-state politicians to break their promise and make ‘failure to wear a seat belt’ a primary offense.

“The biggest difference between the seat belt rule and this new cell phone proposal is that they aren’t even bothering to lie about their long-term agenda,” she added. “So, instead of ten years it will probably be more like one or two before they want to outright prohibit motorists from enjoying the convenience and efficiency of cell phone technology.”

She said the LPM will urge its nearly 2,000 members to contact their legislators and oppose HB 4158.

“We’ve seen this trick before,” Van Oast concluded. “And in the words of another great phrase maker: We don’t get fooled again!”

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Title:
Victim’s Finger Should Have Been on Trigger Instead of Telephone Libertarians Say
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
3/27/2001
Year:
2001
Article:
3/27/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(313) 562-5778
(248) 591-3733

HAZEL PARK. “Begging a 911 operator to please have the police hurry is hardly the best use of the few seconds you have when an armed and dangerous person is trying to break in to your home,” observed Libertarian Party of Michigan chair Stacy Van Oast.

She was referring to the tragic incident on Monday in which Detroit resident Stephanie Rice and her brother were murdered by Ms. Rice’s former boyfriend — as she was on the phone calling for help. The killer then took his own life.

“We can’t fault police,” Van Oast continued. “Their response time appeared to be about as good as can be expected. The simple fact is that the police just cannot be everywhere in order to effectively deal with a crime in progress. You need to be able to do that yourself,” she added.

“The ones who do bear some measure of responsibility are the politicians like Prosecutor Duggan and Sheriff Ficano who promote gun control. They disarm and leave helpless good, law-abiding people like Ms. Rice on the bizarre theory that this will somehow deter deranged criminals like the one who killed her.

“When an angry man — already known to authorities as someone with a history of domestic violence — came breaking into her home, instead of a weapon Ms. Rice used the gun-controller defense: call 911. The result is three dead. And two orphans,” she added, referring to Ms. Rice’s two teenage daughters who were at school at the time of the incident. “And a gaping hole in the lives of everyone who knew this decent, loving family.”

“Perhaps Prosecutor Duggan,” the LPM chair concluded, “would like to give the eulogy for Stephanie Rice. It will be good practice. If he succeeds in his efforts to overturn the new ‘shall issue’ law, he will be writing the epitaph for a lot more folks just like her.”

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Title:
Petition Drive Launched to Derail Local “Living Wage” Ordinance
Author:
Diane Barnes
Date:
4/11/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

4/11/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Diane Barnes
(810) 774-1625
(810) 202-5817

EASTPOINTE. “We will overturn this attack on Eastpointe taxpayers, businesses and working people,” said resident and community activist Diane Barnes in announcing an effort to force the city council to get voter approval for its new “Living Wage” ordinance.

Ordinance #901 was adopted unanimously by the Eastpointe city council on April 3 — before an audience intentionally packed with union members, according to Barnes. “This is a transparent attempt to artificially inflate the wage scale for unions,” she observed, “at the expense of young people and the working poor who will be forced into the unemployment lines simply because their skills cannot command the $11-per-hour mandated. The unions are basically trying to give themselves a raise by legally eliminating the competition.”

“It will devastate local businesses,” added Doug Pohl owner of the Grand Riviera Restaurant and a member of the Eastpointe Chamber of Commerce, noting the already increasing number of boarded up buildings and vacant retail space in the city. “And,” he added, “it will raise the cost of city services to taxpayers when contractors have to raise their rates to cover the higher labor costs. And all of this,” he concluded, “with absolutely no reason to believe the people who benefit will even be residents of our city!”

The new requirement that employers provide a “Living Wage” to all employees would apply to all city contractors as well as to any business receiving “financial assistance” in the form of “revenue bond financing, tax increment financing, tax abatement, tax credit, direct grant, or any other form of financial assistance that exceeds $ 5000.00 in any 12 month period.”

Barnes and her committee have 30 days from the date the ordinance was enacted to collect 286 signatures of registered Eastpointe voters. She is shooting to collect 450 signatures to make up for any that prove not to have come from qualified, Eastpointe electors. But having the support of the Eastpointe Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Chamber and the Detroit Regional Chamber, she anticipates no problem reaching her goal.

If the petition drive is successful, the new ordinance will be put on hold until it can be put to a vote at the next regular election.

However, it is also possible that the entire question will be made moot in the meantime. House Bill 4328, currently in committee in the state legislature, would retroactively prohibit Michigan cities from imposing a “Living Wage” higher than the federal minimum wage.

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Title:
Libertarian Party to Convene in Frankenmuth
Author:
Jim Fitzpatrick
Date:
4/30/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

4/30/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jim Fitzpatrick
517-781-7767
248-591-3733

HAZEL PARK. The Libertarian Party of Michigan will hold its 2001 convention the weekend of May 4-6 at the Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth.

Aside from electing an executive committee for the coming year, the most important event at the convention will be the kick-off of the party’s petition drive to restore its ballot status.

“Despite having 115 candidates who received an aggregate of more than 1.5 million votes, we lost our status as a ballot-qualified party last fall,” lamented state chair Stacy Van Oast.

Overall, the Libertarian Party actually did far better than all of the other so-called “third parties” put together — including the Reform and Green parties, both of which retained their place on Michigan’s ballot.

“The problem was the combination of our relatively poor showing in the historically close presidential race and Michigan’s unique ballot access law that puts the fate of an entire party on the success or failure of its ‘Top-of-Ticket’ candidate.”

The convention will also give LP members an opportunity to amend their bylaws and platform.

Among the social events will be a Friday night welcome party, a Saturday luncheon with Mackinac Center for Public Policy president Lawrence Reed, and a Saturday evening banquet featuring Liberty magazine editor (and Michigan ex-patriot) R.W. Bradford.

The party’s petition drive will formally commence on Saturday, May 5, from which date LP members will have 180 days to collect 30,272 signatures of registered voters, according to Ballot Access Restoration Committee chair Nancy O’Brien.

Press credentials for the convention may be obtained by contacting convention chair Jim Fitzpatrick.

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Title:
Petitions Filed to Overturn Eastpointe “Living Wage” Ordinance
Author:
Diane Barnes
Date:
5/3/2001
Year:
2001
Article:
5/3/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Diane Barnes
(810) 202-5817
(810) 774-1625

EASTPOINTE. “Now Eastpointe residents will decide whether or not we want a ‘Living Wage’ ordinance,” said repeal organizer Diane Barnes. “And I don’t think they’re going to like the idea of gouging taxpayers for the sake of special interests,” she added.

On Wednesday the local business owner filed petitions containing 465 signatures — 65% more than required under the city charter — with the Eastpointe City Clerk’s office. Once the signatures are certified, this action will block the ordinance adopted by the city council on April 3. Local officials must then either rescind the ordinance themselves or else put it on hold until it can be put to a vote on the next general election ballot.

If affirmed by voters, the “Living Wage” ordinance would require all companies who contract with the city, or receive public subsidies, grants or tax abatements, to pay employees a minimum wage of $11.00 per hour (or $8.50 per hour with full benefits).

“I oppose the so-called ‘Living Wage’ because it will cost us taxpayers in the end — either through loss of services or higher taxes,” said Vicky Beeman who helped with the petition drive. “Or both,” added her husband Rick who worked with her.
The city clerk now has 10 days to certify that the petition contains the required minimum 286 valid signatures. However, the entire question could be rendered moot if the Michigan legislature passes HB 4328 which would retroactively eliminate the authority of cities to impose minimum wages higher than those mandated under federal law.

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Title:
Libertarians Kickoff Petition Drive to Restore Ballot Status
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
5/7/2001
Year:
2001
Article:
5/7/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(248) 591-3733
(313) 562-5778

HAZEL PARK. “This is the single, most important thing we will do this year,” said Libertarian Party of Michigan Executive Committee member Nancy O’Brien in announcing the official start of the party’s petition drive to restore its ballot status.

As chair of the party’s Ballot Access Restoration Committee she promised the party faithful at the LPM’s annual convention last weekend that she and her committee would do whatever is necessary to collect the 30,272 petition signatures needed because, she stated, “Failure is not an option.”

“It’s a pretty sad commentary on Michigan election law,” added newly elected party chair Michael Corliss, “that after having 115 candidates get a total of more than 1.5 million votes in the last election, we should lose our ballot status anyway and have to petition to get back on.”

“It’s a pretty sad commentary on Michigan election law,” added newly elected party chair Michael Corliss, “that after having 115 candidates get a total of more than 1.5 million votes in the last election, we should lose our ballot status anyway and have to petition to get back on.”

Corliss was referring to Michigan’s unique ‘Top-of-Ticket’ rule that puts the fate of an entire political party on the one race that is highest up on the ballot.

The LP actually fielded a slate of candidates larger than all the other so-called ‘third’ parties combined. And those candidates garnered many times the vote total of all the other ‘third’ parties — added together. But the LP’s presidential candidate, Harry Browne, fell victim to ‘Wasted Vote’ syndrome in the historically tight race between Republican Bush and Democrat Gore. And since Michigan law puts all of the party’s ballot status eggs in that one basket, the LP is off while the Green and Reform parties — far weaker overall — maintained their ballot positions.

The unfairness of the situation is so self-evident that state representative Leon Drolet (R-33) has taken up the cause of reforming the law and plans to introduce legislation to eliminate the “Principal Candidate” limitation so that any of a party’s candidates can meet the minimum requirement to retain ballot access.

In fact Drolet was at the LP’s convention in Frankenmuth and was among the very first to actually sign the petition to put the party back on the ballot.

“We are hopeful that we can get the law changed,” concluded Corliss. “But in the meantime we have no choice but to go out and collect 30,272 signatures of registered voters if we are to run candidates again in 2002.”

The party has 180 days to complete its task.

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Title:
Eastpointe “Living Wage” Ordinance to Face Voters
Author:
Diane Barnes
Date:
5/11/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

5/11/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Diane Barnes
(810) 202-5817
(810) 774-1625

“Now the taxpayers will decide how to spend their money,” said Diane Barnes who organized a petition drive to force the Eastpointe City Council to put the “Living Wage” ordinance it passed unanimously last month on the ballot this fall.

The signatures of more than the minimum 286 registered voters needed to challenge the city council’s action were certified by the city clerk last Wednesday. The council must now reconsider the “Living Wage” ordinance at its next meeting on May 15. At that time they must either rescind the ordinance or else schedule a vote on the next election ballot (either in September if the city has a primary to narrow a field of local candidates for the November election, or in November if no primary is needed).

The ordinance as passed requires companies that receive $5000.00 or more in local taxpayer money — either through contracts or subsidies — to pay all of their workers a “Living Wage” of at least $8.50 per hour or $11.00 per hour for companies that do not provide health benefits.

“We, the taxpayers, will bear the cost through higher taxes, loss of city services, or city employee job cuts,” Barnes asserted.

She has substantial research and statistical support for her position, including authoritative studies done by credible organizations such as the Employment Policies Institute, the Nebraska Center for Policy Research, and Michigan’s own Mackinac Center. All have concluded that “Living Wage” ordinances cost residents through higher taxes and/or reduced services, cost all affected employers (including those already paying more than the mandated minimum) additional administrative costs, and cost young people and the working poor jobs, for the sake of artificially inflating the wage scales of organized labor unions.

“We need to have clear answers as to why such a policy is good for everyone in the community,” Barnes concluded, “and not just special interests.”

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Title:
Libertarians Fight Expansion of the Sales Tax
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
5/16/2001
Year:
2001
Article:

5/16/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O’Brien
(248) 591-3733
(313) 562-5778

HAZEL PARK. “I don’t think the people of Michigan are eager to start paying a 6% tax every time they go to the doctor or get a haircut,” observed Libertarian Party of Michigan executive director Tim O’Brien. “But that’s exactly what could happen if Senate Bill 433 becomes law.”

The bill, ostensibly intended to make Michigan’s sales tax easier to apply to purchases made on the Internet, has been unanimously voted out of the Senate Finance committee, chaired by Sen. Joanne Emmons (R-23), and is said by insiders to be on a “fast track” to approval. Emmons is also the bill’s lead sponsor.

Currently, states are unable to compel businesses outside their borders to impose and remit their sales taxes because the Interstate Commerce clause of the US Constitution prohibits it. In order to get around this problem SB-433 proposes to have Michigan join a Compact with other states that would permit reciprocal enforcement of sales tax laws and authorize the use of a third party as collection agent. However, a first step in the process is to unify the various state’s sales and use tax codes. This will mean allowing the broadest scope necessary to accommodate all of the member states by eliminating any caps or exemptions (such as Michigan’s exemption for food and medicine) and restrictions on application (such as Michigan’s applying the tax to goods, but not services).

“As a matter of fact,” O’Brien continued, “the drafters of our Constitution even anticipated the very kind of ‘end run’ exemplified by SB-433 and included an additional prohibition against states entering into any Agreement or Compact. However, they allowed an exception if the states can get the consent of congress.”

The LPM has brought its SpeakOutMichigan.org e-mail petitioning web site back online specifically to let the public express opposition to SB-433. Visitors to the site simply type in their name and home address. The system automatically determines the appropriate legislators and sends the message — with any personalized comments the user might care to add.

“It may turn out that the congress won’t allow this anyway,” O’Brien concluded. “But we’re not going wait and see. We are going to do everything we can right here and now to have our state lead the way in a drive to make Cyberspace a free trade zone.”

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