HOWELL -- Like many people on Memorial Day, I took in a Memorial Day parade, and I watched the parade in downtown Howell with some of my grandchildren.
It was uplifting to see people cheering the veterans groups and the color guard. We can only hope that same support materializes Tuesday when the Human Resources Committee of the all-Republican Livingston County Board of Commissioners meets at 7 p.m. May 26 in the commissioners chambers at the courthouse annex, 304 E. Grand River in downtown Howell.
The Livingston County Veterans Committee sent out a mass email to all veterans in the county urging them to attend the meeting, and the plan to ask the committee to meet its obligations and properly fund the depleted Veterans Relief fund.
The committee consists of five members appointed by the Board of Commissioners to oversee operations of the Veterans Affairs Department. The committee says Public Act 214 provides that a county must levy a millage to fund Veterans Relief, but Livingston County has not been levying the required millage like the surrounding counties of Shiawassee, Washtenaw, Oakland, and Ingham do.
The committee is asking the County Commissioners to approve a 1/20th of a mill levy, but so far the County Commission has refused to take a vote on authorizing a Veterans Relief Fund millage.
Veterans Committee Chair John Colone is asking all of the more than 13,000 veterans who live in Livingston County to show up at the meeting and show their support. The Veterans Committee met several weeks ago, and the committee declared an "Emergency" because Veterans Relief Funds have been exhausted for 2009. The downturn in the economy and the war in two countries has increased demand on the fund and for help.
Republicans have a long history of doing little but waving the flag and saying they support the troops, but they refuse to support them where it really counts.
Last January the same Board of Commissioners declined to replace the director and the administrative assistant at the Livingston County Veterans Affairs Department when they retired at the end of February.
For Republicans, support the troops is just a campaign slogan. If the Board of Commissioners fund the Veterans Relief like they are required to, the Livingston County Republican Party may not be able to put billboards up along I-96 that brag the county has the lowest county tax rate among Michigan's 83 counties. Of course, as this illustrates, the county has the least amount of services.
The meeting is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the commissioners chambers at the courthouse annex, 304 E. Grand River in downtown Howell next to the Historic County Courthouse.
4 comments:
Trust you to make this partisan.
This has been a law since 1899. There haven't been many Democrats on the county board during that time, but there have been some.
Name one that has insisted that the county board levy that tax rate for the veterans. Name one Democratic candidate for the county board in 2008 that made this an issue.
If this law is as clear as the email states, then I agree...shame on the county board if they don't immediately abide by the law.
But I'll wait to see the board's reasoning. Anyone with half a brain will not take your posts as the truth.
I made this partisan because it is partisan.
I’m sure the law has been amended many times since 1899, just like the Corrections code of 1953 has been amended numerous times.
There may have been some Democrats on the Board of Commissioners, as well as the Board of Supervisors before that, but Democrats have never been a majority and controlled the board, to my knowledge. There has not been a Democrat on the board since 1996 when he passed away in office. This is just one more case of Republicans using the support the troops saying as just a campaign slogan, and an example of the lack of services we do not have that other counties enjoy.
“Name one that has insisted that the county board levy that tax rate for the veterans. Name one Democratic candidate for the county board in 2008 that made this an issue.” I had no idea they weren’t property funding it.
Well, you can call the veterans liars like you call me one with no proof, but it’s pretty clear to me. Here’s a link. I think the Board will bow to the pressure and do the right thing.
http://post141howellmi.org/content.php?id=17&number=5
“Anyone with half a brain will not take your posts as the truth?” Then why is it you can never prove one of those alleged lies, brett.
I prove them all the time. You have conceded several of them only to deny it later. You will do the same this time; you are as predictable as corruption in Detroit.
I am pleased, however, that you now say that a survey of Lansing insiders proves that Granholm is incompetent. I won't say there is hope for you, but it does show that you can sometimes see the obvious.
According to you we are missing out on all these services that higher taxes would pay for...but the county commissioners who boast about the low tax rates keep getting elected and re-elected. The Democrats usually can't even put up a full slate of candidates. How many did they run last time? 3? 4? Out of 9!
Why would county voters keep electing people who deny them of services they want? Why, why, why?
Could it be that they are just too stupid to know how unhappy and wrong the are? Or, maybe, just maybe, they are electing people because they aren't raising taxes.
I may or may not agree with the voters, but I don't disrespect them the way that you do. The voters have spoken...for Obama in the White House and for the county commissioners. I respect those votes. You don't. But you don't have the balls to call the voters dumb, so you take it out on the people they voted for.
You have proved nothing, brett. On the rare occasion I make a mistake, and I do make them, they are corrected.
You choose to ignore the reason for the Governor’s low rating. Ignoring the facts is a favorite tactic of yours, and I am quite used to it.
The reason the Republicans continue to get elected to the board is because 60 percent of Livingston County residents still call themselves Republicans. When they don’t know a lot about a candidate, like they do the Commissioners, they tend to vote for the R after their name. After working on campaigns, I know how hard it is. Why put yourself out there when the chances are people will refuse to listen to you and simply vote for the party.
The good news is that Livingston County is catching on to what the rest of the country already knows, and that is how bankrupt the GOP really is. It’s just not happening fast enough.
I guess many people are content to live in a bedroom community. I’m not. But I have to admit that now that I no longer work in the county and commute; I can more easily understand that mind set. The fact is most people don’t know what a county commissioner does. We should be thankful that we have some more forward thinking people like the Howell City Council that is supporting things like WALLY and parks.
Give me a break. There is no way you can say that after the way you disrespect the President. I no more “disrespect” the voters than you do.
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