Political scam

A couple weeks ago I saw a brochure mentioning four proposals that could be on the Michigan ballot in November. At the time two proposals were confirmed. The first is whether to allow recreational marijuana. The brochure did not mention this one, perhaps thinking it was too controversial and they didn’t want to jeopardize more important issues.

The second is whether to create a citizens redistricting commission, which would end gerrymandering. I’m a volunteer for the second one. I took part at an event Thursday night that had a GOP tilt. Several people sat at our table and said straight off I’m against it, you’ll never convince me, but I want to sit here and argue with you. One wasn’t even a registered voter. My colleagues were better at handling this than I was.

The three other proposals mentioned by the brochure were for: establishing voter rights (same day registration, etc.), raising the minimum wage, and (I think) providing for paid sick leave. These last two are not constitutional amendments (as the gerrymandering proposal has to be). That means they have a much lower signature threshold and the legislature has a chance to enact the proposal, thus keep it off the ballot.

And for the minimum wage issue the GOP controlled legislature did exactly that.

When I heard about it I was immediately a skeptic. The GOP approving a minimum wage hike and doing it quickly? Right.

Over the last decade the Michigan legislature has a record of undoing citizen issues in the lame duck session. They did it for the Emergency Manager law that was to put a city’s finances in order, but only got applied to cities with majority black officials. Voters repealed, it. Politicians immediately restored it.

So I figured approving a minimum wage increase in September (with delayed implementation) was a way for the GOP to keep the issue off the ballot but give them a way to rescind the increase right after the election. Yeah, I’m cynical that way.

I’m not the only one. In last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press (yeah, I’m slow writing about it), opinion columnist Brian Dickerson is just as skeptical. He calls what the politicians did a scam.

Alas, our proposal to end gerrymandering won’t have any effect on the Michigan legislature until 2022. But it is sorely needed now.