French Road Connections

Michigan Water - Public Trust or Product?

2008-05-26T21:30:00.004-04:00

The Sunday Record-Eagle had more background information on the water bills before the Michigan Legislature. George Weeks summed up the situation like this:

In Lansing, there's debate about whether Michigan can say "no" to large water withdrawals, including by those who export huge amounts in small containers.

Yes, we can say no, insists Michigan Director Cyndi Roper of East Lansing-based Clean Water Action, who is among those whose voices under the dome are politically faint compared to well-funded interests pushing for commercialization and privatization of our water.

At issue: The state Senate passed legislation related to the Great Lakes Compact that is weaker on withdrawal of groundwater for bottling than action by the House. Said Roper in a Detroit Free Press commentary:

"The Senate legislation requires only those pumping more than 2,000,000 gallons per day to ask permission on that water use. Compare this to Minnesota's permission trigger, which is 10,000 gallons per day, or Wisconsin's, at a million gallons. Both states have created a system to allow public input and oversight at levels up to 200 times more protective than the Michigan Senate approved. Michigan's senators thumbed their noses at the public's rights to have a meaningful voice in decisions about massive water withdrawals."

Late last week, with further legislation pending in the House, Roper sent e-mail missives to environmentalists urging them to "inundate lawmaker offices demanding they fight for our water and stand up to the corporate interests wishing to seize control of our water."

Traverse City attorney Jim Olson, advocate of the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation's long legal fight against Nestle's bottling operation in Mecosta County, called the Senate action "the great give-away of Michigan's water -- 25 percent of it! Other countries, private investors, will be thirsting to get their taps into Michigan. It'll be like the Oklahoma Gold Rush, only this time it's the Michigan Water Rush."

Olson says MCWC and others are "holding fast to the principle that water in Michigan, because it is the source of all streams, lakes, and most of inflow into the Great Lakes, is subject to a public trust. This means the state owns the water and must protect and manage it for citizens, not privatize or hand over control to private interests for profit as the primary purpose of a water project."

Water -- a public trust, not a product. A quaint, but correct, notion.

I usually don't use those boilerplate messages when writing to my legislators; I think a more personalized message is more effective. But time is of the essence in this case, so I broke down and used the message at Progress Michigan:

The time to stand up for Michigan's waters is now. Unfortunately, the State Senate voted last week to allow up to 25% of some of our precious lakes and rivers to be open for withdrawal.
If that wasn't bad enough, the Senate also allowed proposals that undermine public control over our water. Without strong laws that support public control of the Great Lakes, our state is vulnerable to corporations and special interests that seek to export and misuse our water.

That's why I urge you reject the Senate Bill 860. Don't allow our inland lakes, rivers and aquifers to be available to the highest bidder. As Michiganders, we have a special duty to protect our lakes, rivers and aquifers - our drinking water sources.

Instead please take action now and support legislation that will protect our precious Great Lakes. Please support a bipartisan legislative package, House Bills 5065-5073, that will safeguard our freshwater supplies. HB 5065-5073 gives citizens a voice in decisions affecting the withdrawal, shipment and misuse of Michigan
waters. This bipartisan package protects Michigan's water users - boaters, property owners, farmers, industry, tourism, fishers - from outside water takers.
We urge you to send a clear signal that Michigan's Water is NOT FOR
SALE!

There is a short window of opportunity to make your opinions on this issue known. I know I want to keep the water in our lakes.

Michigan's Great Lakes Threatened By Michigan Legislature

2008-05-24T12:25:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post today, about Michigan Senate Bill 860, recently passed by the State Senate and under consideration by the State House. While we hear noise about building a pipeline to divert Great Lakes water to thirstier states, the real danger is massive bottled water operations like the ones that would be permitted under SB 860.

The legislators characterize the bill as a "a fair and common sense plan in which science is the measuring stick":

An automated point-and-click computer tool will allow users to determine if a proposed withdrawal will be within legal limits. The user will enter key data into the computer, including location, proposed pumping rate, and depth of well, and the computer based model will automatically assess whether or not the proposed use is within the legal limit. The computer will also generate a certificate that the withdrawal is in a safe limit and that certificate will help to provide the user with the assurance that they are OK to move forward.

Environmental groups note that the bill allows for a diversion of a heck of a lot of water:

By contrast, SB 860 relies solely on the newly developed ‘Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool’ for decisions about new or expanded water withdrawals. Consequently, SB 860 would not require permits for large water withdrawals even if the proposed withdrawal is in an area with marginal water availability. Without permits, there is no opportunity for local input into water withdrawal decisions. Further, as written, SB 860 designates from 22-40 % of stretches of natural wonders like the Jordan and Au Sable Rivers as available for withdrawal; in stretches of other water waterways, withdrawals as could be allowed for as much as 46% of the flow.

Somehow, I'm reminded of the birthing scene in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life", in which the doctors are so transfixed with their technology ("The machine that goes "beep!") that they leave the laboring mother alone out in the hall.

What Else is Happening

2008-05-22T12:14:00.004-04:00

As predicted, I am tripping over tomato and basil plants while we wait for weather warm enough for planting. I am trying peanuts this year; my first attempts at starting them inside resulted in rotting seeds that smelled awful. I was advised to try again, with charcoal in the soil to lighten it up. I had a spot in the warmer part of the garden where I had burned before, so I tried some outside with wall-o-water cylinders to warm the soil. No news on that, yet.

The potatoes are in, the peas are up, and we've been eating greens from the garden. I also tried dandelions from the yard this year. They were good, parboiled for a few minutes and then sauteed with a little garlic. You just need to clean them very well because the stray blade of grass is like trying to chew dental floss. Rhubarb is up and very vigorous. I've been selling a lot to passersby and to the Covered Wagon Farm for pies. Rhubarb traffic is a constant interruption, but rhubarb lovers are such nice people that I don't mind.

There is one more bake sale, this Saturday, in front of the Leland Mercantile, for the Odyssey of the Mind teams that are going to world competition. They have managed to raise over $1o,000 in a about six weeks, though bake sales, car washes, a movie premier, large and small donations, and grants from the Leland Educational Foundation and the Oleson Foundation.

I will be baking again for this sale, but I have to go to work earlier and attend a noon meeting so my output will be less than the 20 loaves I baked last time. Maybe some Rhubarb Crumb Cake would be in order.

All this happens, but we still stop to admire the orioles, indigo buntings, and hummingbirds. And to hunt for morels. I never find any, but all that hunting gives me opportunity to note the locations of raspberries and gooseberries so I can go back later in the summer. I came home from work late one night and found a Cool Whip container of morels on my kitchen table. It seems the neighbor was weed whacking when he found the mother lode of morels on the site where the former neighbor cut down an apple tree 12 years ago. Not many people will share morels, but I have wonderful neighbors.

Leland Township Trustee

2008-05-22T11:34:00.003-04:00

I think it was Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason, that got me thinking about rejecting the default role of consumer and more fully embracing the role of citizen. This was the underlying subtext of my decision last week to file as a candidate for Leland Township Trustee.

But the more direct reason is that friends were asking me to run. I, in turn, kept asking other people to think about running, but in the end, at the deadline, there were two candidates filed for two trustee offices. I filed as a Democrat, so we will all be unopposed in the primary, but three wil vie for two seats in November. (An independent candidate has until July to file for the November election.)

When I was trying to recruit other people to run, I did some thinking about what makes a good candidate. I came up with a list of three themes:

Stewardship: We think of land stewardship, but in the older sense, stewardship is a word that means "caring for the things that belong to the community." The community assets could be tax dollars or dark skies or a volunteer's hours. Stewardship is the opposite of using an elected office to enrich one self or one's cronies. Efficiency in government is a form of stewardship, making sure that tax dollars are not wasted. Respect for volunteer efforts is also a form of stewardship; you don't waste the many volunteer hours that went into developing a Master Plan by treating it as a nuisance or a joke.
Good Government: We follow the law to ensure that decisions are made fairly, with all parties having meaningful input, and avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. Good government values transparency, avoidsconflicts of interest, followsprocedures, and operaties under the rule of law, especially in regards to the open meetings act, FIA, etc.
21st Century Vision This was a hard one to articulate last winter, but events have caught up to us. Far-off goals like vibrant villages, universal broadband access and a local food chain are suddenly very much on everyone's minds as we confront ever-rising fuel prices and wonder how to rework our lives for greenhouse gas reduction. Today's entrepreneurs would love to locate their businesses in our area, but they simply can not do so without up-to-date internet access. We have alternative energy entrepreneurs here already --if we help them with zoning and utility decisions that support their work, they will support us in crafting new, energy efficient ways of living. We have family farmers, some who have been here for generations and some brand new farmers. We value them, not just as scenery, but a source of food security and an economic driver of our community. Another economic driver is tourism. We cannot afford to take tourism for granted and mindlessly remake our community to look like everyplace else. The future of our community depends on forward thinking and flexible government and citizenry.

I'm not sure if these are values, personal attributes, or overarching themes. I just know we need more of this in government on all levels.

Climate Change: No More "Belief" Debate

2008-05-13T09:17:00.003-04:00

It was nice to see the headline "McCain Differs With Bush on Climate Change". Suddenly, finally, we are not debating whether we believe in climate change, we are beginning the debate on how to best address climate change.

I've said all along that my two big issues in this presidential election are climate change and restoring our constitution. It looks like we might see an actual discussion of one of my issues between now and November. I'm getting ready by studying Obama's energy policy and McCain's Cap and Trade proposal and climate change page.

Obama is talking cap-and-trade, too, but it is only one part of his comprehensive plan. Obama specifies a 100% auction cap and trade system; McCain is not very specific, so it would appear that he intends to "grandfather in" some current carbon emitters. Doing so has been criticised as amounting to a windfall for existing polluters.

Of course, making a serious effort at combating climate change will take a whole host of plans, not just a cap and trade plan. Obama is ahead of the pack on this, addressing everything from conservation to reinventing the electrical grid. I think that we will see more ideas from McCain, and I'm welcoming the chance for a healthy debate.

Leelanau Grand Vision

2008-05-09T11:25:00.005-04:00

Anna, a few years ago, in the garden, eating peas and offering them to her dog

I participated in the Leelanau Grand Vision workshop at Suttons Bay School last night. A lot of other people participated as well; the venue was packed and the presenters seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowd. The idea was to gather input from the community our how we would prefer to see our area grow, and then use that to formulate a coordinated plan for the Grand Traverse area. Our elected officials can then refer to this plan when they are making decisions about zoning, transportation, energy, and other infrastructure.

I found out that I'm not that much into scenery. Or maybe that my idea of scenery is a lot broader than other people's idea of scenery. They started out by giving us a score sheet and asking us to give our first reactions to a series of outdoor scenes. Much of the audience was murmuring in approval or tsking in disapproval at various pictures. I was in the back, and couldn't see that well, but all I saw was buildings, grass, and trees. Or sometimes grass, trees, and buildings. My responses were all in the middle range. There was one picture of a vineyard, but no gardens, no playgrounds, no livestock, no orchards, none of the scenes that I find pretty or restful. It was like they looked at Leelanau through the eyes of a suburbanite and couldn't see anything else. (The photo above is closer to my idea of nice looking scenery.)

But that was that. The next part was the part where we got together with the people at our table and plotted the next 50 year's growth on a giant map of the county. Or a giant map of most of the county, as our map did not have Peshawbestown, the National Lakeshore, or the gravel pits in Kasson denoted. The group at my table included three younger people, one full time farmer, one part time farmer, three people from Northport, two from Suttons Bay, two people who worked with the Leelanau Conservancy, and a master gardener. Our group spent a good deal of time plotting out the best farmland in the county, then plotting out the Lakeshore and Pere Marquette Forest, then the critical bird habitat on the tip of the penninsula. After that, we were supposed to figure out where 20,000 more people were going to live, and how to get them the goods, jobs and services they would need.

We started out brainstorming a list of what we wanted for the future. We wanted everything --a protected environment, vibrant villages, open shorelines, broadband access, local food chains. The younger people wanted to walk everywhere -- to work, to shop -- or they wanted to ride bikes. The lady next to me kept saying "Ban Cars! No Motorized Traffic!" and I couldn't tell if she was serious or sarcastic. I threw out my own far-fetched idea, calling for small scale alternative energy -- wind and solar -- with a smart grid so that households could sell excess power back and local electricity storage so that our county could be self sufficient in electricity.

The people of our future were at least going to eat. We were given stickers that represented one household for every five acres, and we could trade stickers in to get fewer stickers representing higher densities. It was clear that if we let everyone have the 5 acre mini-estate, we would end up cutting up farmland and crowding out critical habitats. We would also end up with a scattered population that would be far from the village centers and harder to serve. But it was hard to envision any of our current villages absorbing even one whole sticker's worth of people, so we took the higher density stickers, cut them up, and shoehorned them in around the existing villages. That all took a lot of time, especially the part where we debated the exact size of an economically viable farm. So we quickly sketched in some light rail transit lines to connect the villages and drew in a few (not enough) bikes trails and Table 19's contribution was complete.

I had to be the presenter. (I always have to be the presenter.) The various tables had a host of different problems that they were trying to solve. Some groups were trying to move cars -- several groups proposed a bridge across South Lake Leelanau from Hohnke Road to Bingham; one group wanted to make M-22 one way north and Center Highway one way south. Several groups were trying to move people, and were plotting ferry routes. One guy said that he had already located some vintage ferry boats in good condition and made an appeal for investors in a new ferry business. One group made a vastly expanded Suttons Bay village the focus of their planning. One group presented their map with a bunch of population stickers out in the Bay. When asked for an explanation, they said "We didn't know where to put them." A guy in the crowd said, "I guess they just have to sink or swim."

Since we were last (I wasn't going to wait in line) I talked about the things that the other groups hadn't mentioned. I said that we were interested in food first so we had plotted out farmland first and shoehorned the populations around that. I got applause by saying, "We need broadband access everywhere." and more applause talking about small scale alternative energy. So I went out on a limb and spoke about dark skies, my own favorite sort of scenery. Finally I said, "Our table, like everyone here, likes the county the way it is, but we're willing to be flexible, so that others can enjoy what we have."

I'm not sure if that last statement was exactly true, exactly yet, but it can't hurt to portray ourselves as less selfish and more interested in the common good. Sometimes people learn to live up to their reputations.

National Train Day

2008-05-07T13:38:00.003-04:00

Yup. This Saturday is National Train Day, with events at train stations across the country. This is the 139th anniversary of the laying in 1869 of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, which completed America’s first transcontinental railroad. Amtrak is using National Train Day to highlight the growing popularity of trains as convenient, energy efficient, environmentally sound ways to travel.

The National Association of Rail Passengers puts it this way:

This year’s festivities come at a time when sticker shock at the gas pump is creating greater public interest in more passenger train service. What’s more, this interest was well established even before the current rise in gasoline prices, as reflected in polls, referenda, and ridership data on train systems across the country all point to one clear conclusion and that is we need more trains.

My congressman doesn't agree. Here is part of his response to my recent letter about the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement bill

:....policymakers have long debated the extent to which the federal government should fund rail transportation. This issue has its roots in a 1997 agreement between Amtrak and the federal government, which authorized $2 billion for Amtrak in exchange for the company's promise of self-sufficiency by the year 2003. While Amtrak has made progress in fulfilling the terms of the 1997 agreement, it is still far from being self-sufficient and its future remains unclear.

I remember 1997. Anna was a babe in my arms. Climate change was barely heard of. Gas was about $1.29 a gallon. Terrorism was something that happened in other countries, and it certainly wasn't funded with our gas money. It was still fun to fly back then, when you didn't have to stand in line and take off half your clothes to get on a plane.

It's not as if we could drive anywhere without federal investment in roads and bridges. Airlines also enjoy support from the federal government, as Jim Loomis points out at Travel and Trains and Other Things:

Here's another mind-boggler for you: One of our speakers this morning was Congressman John Mica (R-Florida) who is a key member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He told us, among other things, that the federal government is going to spend five billion dollars -- that's billion, with a "B" -- to build one new runway for the Miami International Airport. Yes, I said "ONE new runway". Amtrak's funding request for a full year is one-third that amount.
It is -- I must tell you -- a frustrating and maddening situation. Fortunately, I do think there is a new awareness of the importance of rail transportation and of the benefits it brings to the country. Most of the Members of Congress now "get it." Bush and his people don't, won't and never will.

I'm glad to hear that most members of Congress are more on the ball than my guy.

Support Leland School -- Vote!

2008-05-05T14:45:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow, May 6th, we have the opportunity to vote YES on two millage renewals to support Leland School.

The first is our regular renewal of the 18 mil tax on non-homestead properties. We pass this every year, and it is a provision of Proposal A that if we don't pass this, we won't get enough state funds to have school next year.

The second is a bond proposal to replenish our bus fleet and maintain our technology package. We are asking voters to approve .25 mils, which works out to $37.50 per year on a $150,000 home.

After writing those last two posts about Proposal A, it's nice to be able to talk about a simple way to support our excellent school. Polls will be open from 7 AM to 8 PM at your local township polling place.

Small Victories

2008-05-05T11:06:00.005-04:00

That's Richard, with one of the biggest walleyes he has ever caught. He got up early this morning and went down to the dock as the sun was just rising. He nailed this one on the first cast, then struggled to land it as it was surely going to break the line if he tried to haul it up conventionally. It weighed in over 6 pounds and yielded some beautiful fillets.

I woke up early (by my standards, but hours after Richard) to drive Anna to her dog sitting job. I was able to snap that picture because over the weekend I took my old broken camera to work and spent my breaks disassembling it and trying to figure out why the batteries drained within ten seconds of turning it on. I was looking for bad contacts or a short, but once I took the case off and tested it, it started working almost fine again. I say almost fine because it makes a strange new noise when the lens extends. Before I took the case off, the lens was totally stuck and the camera was wasting all of the battery energy trying to move the lens. Once it started working, I put it all back together, testing it at each step, and now I have a working camera again.

The camera is going on four years old, which is ancient in the world of digital cameras. Richard has his eyes shut in the picture, just like he had his eyes shut in Shelagh's graduation picture. I'm still wishing I had a camera with a screen that I could see without my glasses. But my wishes and my budget just don't coincide. It's good to have any camera again.

I spent all Friday baking bread for a bake sale to help Leland's Odyssey of the Mind teams go to world competition. Anna didn't do OM this year, but her old team members still have their teeth sunk into structure problems. Her old teammates now are split among two bound-for-worlds teams, and it's going to take the whole community to raise enough money to get them there. I contributed 20 loaves of bread, one of many bakers, and I hear the Saturday morning bake sale raised over $600. Their next fundraiser is dinner at the Steak Haus by Sugarloaf on Thursday May 15th from 5-8 pm. . All tickets are $15.00. You have a choice of either a steak dinner, battered shrimp dinner or a veggie alfredo dinner. Team members are selling tickets and they are also available at Northwoods Kitchens.

I keep getting interrupted by people who saw the rhubarb sign. I take them out to cut some rhubarb, chat a little, and take their dollars. Eggs are selling, too, faster than my hens can lay. I've started giving away my tomato plants, using them to encourage the many people who are starting new gardens this year.

More on School Equity

2008-04-28T22:01:00.005-04:00

There was a long story in the Leelanau Enterprise this week about Leland School's band program and the hard decision not to grant tenure to our band teacher. Tonight I had a long conversation with a school board member as we waited for kids at choir. She confirmed what I had suspected, that the decision came down to a matter of money. Keeping the band teacher on, even part time, would have meant cutting an elementary teacher. We talked of keeping band as a pay-to-play activity or somehow drawing on talented members of the community to provide some sort of band experience. But a full-time tenured band teacher is not something that our school can afford.

As I explained last post, Leland School would be in a different position if we had been spending a little more money in 1994. We would have the option of asking the voters to approve millages for operations, for payroll, utilities, and bus fuel, the biggest hunks of a school's budget and the fastest rising portion of everybody's costs.

But Wait! There's More! If your school was one of those spending more than $6500 per student in 1994, your school gets special "20j money" straight from the state of Michigan because....well... just because.

Leland School's business manager, Sandy Potts, described the situation in a March 2008 paper. Here are some highlights:

PROPOSAL “A” AND SECTION 20j
The promise of Proposal “A” was that both property tax levies and educational dollars for K-12 schools would be equalized throughout the state. The formula created would, over time, narrow the gap between the highest funded and lowest funded K-12 school districts.

Language in Section 380.1211 of the State School Code, as revised, limited the increase in per pupil funding for each district to the lesser of the rate of inflation or the amount determined by the legislature in each year’s budget. This meant that those schools with very high per pupil funding would get enough to cover inflation but the lower paid schools would gradually be given more to bring the funding levels closer together. The gap between the highest and lowest school districts’ per-pupil funding began at $7,532 in 1994 and narrowed to $5,454 in 2000 under this formula.

In 2000, the increase to the Student Foundation Grant Allowance was $238 per pupil but the inflation rate was relatively low at 1.6%. This meant that the schools at the highest end of the funding range would have received less than $238 per pupil. (Remember that these schools were already receiving as much as $5,424 more per pupil than the lowest paid schools.) This was not satisfactory to the schools at the highest end of the scale and therefore the legislature was convinced to add Section 20j of the State Aid Fund which allows them to receive the full foundation increase. This was a direct, purposeful, political change in opposition to the intent of Proposal “A” as passed by the voters of the State of Michigan.

Section 20j payments average $251 per pupil and are given to the 51 highest paid schools in the state. The total paid out under Section 20j has averaged $54,000,000 annually for the last five years, for a total of $270,000,000 paid to the 51 wealthiest districts in the state...

...The 20j schools will insist that they can’t survive without the 20j payments but even you if remove the 20j payments, these schools will still receive a minimum of $1,118 and as much as $5,135 more per pupil than the base foundation grant which is the amount with which than half of Michigan’s schools must operate their programs.

In fiscal year 2000, to qualify for the original 20j monies, a school must have had a base grant of $6500 or greater. Since that time a hold-harmless base grant has been set each year and those above that amount receive the extra monies based on the above mentioned calculation. Fifty one districts qualified in the first year. However, only 50 districts qualified in 2000 based on their foundation grant allowance and only 45 districts qualified in years 2002-2008. Yet each year, all 51 of the original schools have been given 20j payments. To date, the 20j payments made to unqualified schools from 2000-2008 is approximately $84,250,000; money that should have been used elsewhere.

Dan Hanrahan, Director of the State Aid and School Finance Office, states that the legislature has never given him direction to change the funding formula for the 20j schools even though the base grant for those schools has been changed each year. Thus all 51 schools on the original list, whether they meet the new 20j base amount or not, continue to receive additional funding for each of their students.

I can't figure out what the moral of the story is. Schools that always had more money still get more money. The rules are so complicated that I can barely find out what they all are, let alone explain them to you. The Director of the School Aid Fund can't even give a good answer as to why some schools get more.

I keep thinking about last fall when the State of Michigan almost shut down because they couldn't come up with a balanced budget. My brother called some friends in Lansing and asked what the legislators were discussing. His friends said, "Oh the legislators aren't talking, they're just sitting around. The lobbyists are meeting and when they come up with a compromise, they'll tell the legislators what to do."

Meanwhile, there goes the band teacher.

Why I Don't Like Ballot Initiatives

2008-04-25T10:01:00.003-04:00

Graphic from the Citizens for Equity site

In 1995, Michigan voters passed Proposal A, an initiative to lessen the reliance on property taxes as the primary funding source for Michigan's schools, and to provide more stable and more equitable funding of all students throughout the state.

I campaigned for Proposal A, even though my own district, Leland Public Schools, would become a “donor district”, with our property taxes contributing more to the state fund than we got back in school aid. We had a ringside seat when Kalkaska Pubic School ended its school year in April because voters wouldn’t agree to another millage and they ran out of money. It was clear to me that my kids would be much better off living in a state where everyone had access to quality public education, not just the kids in certain districts. The ballot language of Proposal A was pretty straightforward:

A proposal to increase the state sales and use tax rates from 4% to 6%, limit annual increases in property tax assessments, exempt school operating millages from uniform taxation requirement and require 3/4 vote of Legislature to exceed statutorily established school operating millage rates. The proposed constitutional amendment would:

1. Limit annual assessment increase for each property parcel to 5% or inflation rate, whichever is less. When property is sold or transferred, adjust assessment to current value.

2. Increase the sales/use tax. Dedicate additional revenue to schools.

3. Exempt school operating millages from uniform taxation requirement.

4. Require 3/4 vote of Legislature to exceed school operating millage rates.

5. Activate laws raising additional school revenues through taxation including partial restoration of property tax.

6. Nullify alternative laws raising school revenues through taxation, including an increase income tax, personal exemption increase, and partial restoration of property taxes.

Should this proposal be adopted? Yes___ No__.

Everyone would pay slightly higher sales tax, real estate taxes would be more uniform and be insulated from rising too quickly, schools would have a stable source of funding, and school aid would be more evenly distributed.

Proposal A should have worked. It could have worked. But, even as folks like me were campaigning for the idea of equitable funding for Michigan schools, at the expense of our own districts, there were certain districts who were quietly arguing that all that equity was fine for others, just not them.

Sometime around the vote on Proposal A, a little known piece of legislation, the Public Act 283 of 1994, gave the 51 highest funded districts of Michigan the right to ask their homestead taxpayers for “hold-harmless millages” that let them opt out of the equalizing effects of Proposal A. These millages are levied on homestead property first, and the districts are not allowed to levy an amount that would increase their per-pupil spending faster than the rate of inflation. 51 districts (out of about 500) "qualified" for this privilege by spending $6500 or more per student in 1994.

Although it was contrary to the promise of Proposal A, there is nothing inherently wrong with giving communities the choice to support their local districts above the average level. There is something wrong about giving the privilege to some districts and not others. The $6500 cutoff was arbitrary, and some people have described it as rewarding districts who were not so frugal with taxpayer's money.

There was something going on in the background at the time of Proposal A.

Prior to the implementation of Proposal A in 1995, the State of Michigan and public school districts shared in the financing of the employers’ shares of contributions to Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) for public school districts. Those contributions, expressed as a percentage of active employee payrolls, prefunded the actuarial costs of the defined benefit plan provided to public school employees plus the costs of health benefits for retirees on a pay-as-you-go basis. After Proposal A was approved, full responsibility for financing the employers’ contributions passed to the school districts.*

At first glance it seems that the yearly increases in the per-student grant, which keep up with inflation for the most part, ought to be sufficient to keep schools properly funded. In reality, the annual increase is overshadowed by spiraling retirement and health care costs, leaving less each year to actually educate kids.

How did this happen? There was no mention of pension or health care funding in the Proposal A ballot language. And even after Proposal A passed, the stock market was paying off so the schools' contributions were not that onerous. Would we knowingly have approved a system that worked great in good economic times but fell apart when times got tough?

For years, I could get nowhere talking to my state legislators about school funding. legislation by ballot initiative was the perfect cover for them. They would just say "We can't do anything about that, it's an amendment to the state constitution." even though they were happy to pass all sorts of exemptions to the taxes that were supposed to support the school aid fund.

Last Saturday there was a woman standing in front of the Post Office collecting signatures for the Health Care for Michigan ballot iniative. I asked her "Why a ballot initiative?" and she said, "So the legislature can't mess it up." I signed her petition, but I'm really hoping we can elect some state legislators with brains and backbones.

*Quote from the Citizen's Research Council of Michigan's 2004 report, Financing Michigan Retired Teacher Pension and Health Care Benefits)

Pennsylvania Primary

2008-04-23T10:12:00.005-04:00

Richard and I watched the two speeches at the end of the Pennsylvania primary last night. He doesn't like to watch political coverage, so I usually watch the speeches on YouTube, but last night we sat and watched. I hadn't seen Hillary speak in a while. I never know whether I'm going to see the interesting Hillary or the annoying Hillary. She's interesting when she's talking policy, but so annoying when she's touting her vast experience. Last night she seemed to be Hillary playing Obama, right down to the supporters shouting "Yes, we will!"

At the end, the camera panned to Chelsea and Bill. They were standing maybe two arm's lengths apart in the crowd, more like strangers than like father and daughter. At the end of the speech I was waiting for Bill and Hillary to meet each other, to see if they would embrace, but someone intercepted her and they never came together.

Obama was already in Evansville, Indiana when he spoke a few minutes later. he gave a new speech, speaking to the latest talking points of the Democratic Party, highlighting McCain's words and policies and portraying him as just an extension of the Bush presidency. But we could hardly listen to the speech. There were three white guys in the Abercrombie and Fitch shirts who just couldn't sit still, much less pay attention.

First the guy in the black shirt is on the phone. Obama is speaking, and he's on the phone. I'm hoping it's his mother saying, "Hang up! You're on TV!"

But he just keeps talking. Once he finally hangs up, the guy on the other side of Obama, the one with "Fitch 54" on his shirt starts fidgeting. And fidgeting. He looks up, looks down, adjusts his shorts, raises his sign at random moments.

Obama is talking about layoffs and jobs moving overseas, the older couple in front of the Fitch guys reminds me of the couple in American Gothic. They are looking angry and shaking their heads. The cell phone Fitch guy is chatting with the person next to him. Fitch 54 is looking at something behind him.

"What is wrong with that guy?"

"He has to pee. He's wishing this would be over so he can go find a bathroom."

"Nope, he's itching again."

He's scratching his head. Then he's talking to the other guy. He rearranges his underwear again.

"His mother must be so proud."

Obama's speech barely mentions Clinton. He's all about defeating McCain in November. He doesn't even seem to be worried who the Democratic nominee will be.

Mercifully, the speech ends, Obama leaves the podium, and the camera leaves the Abercrombie and Fitch boys to keep scratching and fidgeting without us. Michelle and Obama hug each other and nobody dares get between them.

The speech is not posted on YouTube, or anywhere else online that I can find. The NY Times is calling for the superdelegates to come in and settle the nomination to "avoid a bloodbath." . I disagree. I've dealt enough Hold Em games down to the river, I've lost and won plenty of chess games on the last three moves, The end game is important, so you play to the end in order to better play end games. As much as I admire Obama and his campaign, watching the Abercrombie and Fitch boys (who let them stand behind the candidate, anyway?) tells me that this show needs a little more rehearsal.

The Right to Dry

2008-04-17T16:53:00.002-04:00

Liz sent along an article from the NY Times A Line in the Yard: The Battle Over the Right to Dry Outside :

Tumble dryers, like sport utility vehicles, are verging on an image problem: once symbols of economic success, they have morphed into icons of environmental disregard. The gas guzzlers of household appliances, electric dryers use about as much energy as a refrigerator — consuming more than 6 percent of household energy — even though they are used only intermittently.

And there is a cheap and easy, carbon-free alternative. “A clothesline is not a solar panel or a Prius — it’s something that everyone can afford,” said Alexander Lee, founder of Project Laundry List, which promotes sustainable technology in the home.

At issue are subdivision covenants that prohibit outdoor clotheslines. Some people hang their clothes anyway, as a sort of civil disobedience. It's a nice way of starting the conversation to say "I used to love my dryer, but now I can't load it without thinking about how it's wasting energy and accelerating climate change." Others are taking a more systemic approach, petitioning states and provinces to outlaw clothesline bans.

Project Laundry List combines tips on clothesline advocacy with tips on how to do laundry and save energy. I tried their technique for drying towels hung bag style on a windy day and found that it did produce towels almost as soft as machine dried.

I keep thinking of Brother Tim's account of his recent visit to Shanghai, where he saw lots of spanking new high rise buildings and clotheslines everywhere. Here in the US, we seem to be split between "technology will save us" and "technology is evil". Sometimes old fashioned technology, like clotheslines, is just the right fit.

Aphids

2008-04-15T22:54:00.004-04:00

Unfortunately, the next stage in seed starting is always, at least for me, aphids. It starts with a few seedlings looking poorly, maybe with white mottling on their leaves, maybe with shiny sticky stuff on their leaves. If I look closely and under the leaves, I will see the tiny, soft green aphids, sucking the life out of my plants.

Fortunately, aphids are easily killed using a soap solution that clogs their spiracles (breathing pores) and suffocates them. I use the product made by the Safer company, buying it in bulk and mixing it up in a spray bottle as needed. I last bought an $8 bottle 3 years ago and have yet to use half of it. The year I didn't spray I lost my peppers and basil, but the aphids pretty much left the tomatoes alone.

The aphids hang out on the underside of the leaves, so I spray gently and run my hands over the leaves to make sure all parts get wet. The bottle says not to use the soap on jade plants, but aphids don't seem to like jade plants anyway.

That's not one of my photos above. My camera is acting up again but this time I can't fix it with a pencil eraser. the photo came from Plantedoktoren.

The Grand Vision Comes to Leelanau

2008-04-15T14:04:00.003-04:00

On May 8th, Leelanau County residents will have a chance to participate in the Grand Vision project, an attempt to coordinate the land use, transportation systems, and economic development of our six county area.

A "scenario planning workshop" will be held on May 8, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at Suttons Bay High School, 310 Elm Street, Suttons Bay. You can sign up online or read more about the project here.

I'll be there with my own local/worldview attitude.

Dog Auditions for Annie

2008-04-14T13:03:00.003-04:00

Leland Public School's spring drama project is a no-holds-barred presentation of the musical "Annie". Even the auditions are an event, as you can see from this note in the Morning Announcements:

If you need a good laugh and want to be a part of the Annie Dog auditions check out the fun Saturday @ 1 pm as talented Leelanau Pups vie for the role of Sandy, Annie’s dog. Admission per family is $5. Hosted by Luke Speicher and judged by local celebrities: Kathy Lau, Alanna Toro, & Jeremy Evans They even have doggy clean-up provided by the Doo-Do0Don’ts. If you want to enter your dog contact Bill Robinson.

Bill's phone number was included, let me know if you want to contact him.

More on Amtrak

2008-04-14T10:33:00.002-04:00

Here is my letter to my Congressional rep:

President Bush has only requested $800 million for Amtrak in his Fiscal 2009 budget. Please work to reject this 40% cut and fully fund Amtrak. America needs passenger rail now more than ever as gas prices rise, airlines shut down, and climate change gets closer to the crisis point.

Rail is an efficient, low carbon way to travel. In Europe and Asia, they are investing in high tech trains that can travel over 250 MPH. We should at least maintain a 20th century level train system, and consider eventually catching up with the rest of the world.

I also urge your support for the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, S. 294. The bill provides real, meaningful reform for Amtrak and a federal-state partnership for capital investments, which is enjoyed by the other modes of transportation. Please urge House leadership to pass companion legislation.

Nothing much. It took all of ten minutes to copy a sample letter from the National Association of Rail Passengers, paste it into my congressman's web form. and then add my own paragraph in the middle. I'll let you know what sort of response I get.

Jim Loomis, yesterday's commenter, has a short article about the presidential candidates's stances on Amtrak. Jim is a veteran train traveler; his recent posts give some hard-earned practical advice on train travel.

Which Way Amtrak?

2008-04-13T14:29:00.004-04:00

I've been following the news on Amtrak since Liz started going back and forth to school on the train. Well, sort of on the train....the closest Amtrak comes is to Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo. We usually drive her to Kalamazoo, a still a four hour drive, but closer than going all the way to Chicago. We put her on the train and drive back home; by the time we come in the door, she has come into Chicago, switched to the Metra, walked home from her stop, and is just about walking into her dorm room. We wish that the train came farther north, or that the bus trip to meet the train wasn't so time-consuming. But we're glad that she can take the train at least partway.

If President Bush has his way, Amtrak will be going backwards. The president's proposed 2009 budget includes a 40% cut in Amtrak funding. Amtrak ridership is rising, along with gas prices and airline delays. We need more investment in low-carbon transportation alternatives, not less.

Last October, the US Senate passed the Passenger Rail Improvement and Investment Act, which will provide Amtrak with a stable source of funding through 2011, and provide for expansion of passenger routes using a 80/20 match of federal and state funds. We are still waiting for sponsorship of the corresponding House bill, but it is already the basis of efforts across the country to add or restore intercity rail services.

When Liz first started riding the train in 2006, you almost had to be a broke college student or a climate change visionary to put up with the poor service. Sometimes the train was on time, but once it fell a little behind, it just got later and later as it sat by the side and let freight trains pass it by. It seems that the passenger trains were allotted a certain time slot on the track, and if it fell behind schedule, it had to wait for an open slot instead of going ahead of the freight. So I was interested to read about this study that "describes how delays to Amtrak trains that operate over freight railroad lines cost the company almost $137 million in fiscal year 2006, an amount equal to 30 percent of its federal operating subsidy." It seems that, by law, passenger trains always had priority over freight, but the tracks are owned by the freight companies and nobody did anything about it when they put their own business first.

Liz thinks that the trains have become much more reliable since she started riding. I wonder if the improvement is due to different priorities or because the economy has slowed and so there is less freight moving. I don't think that moving freight is unimportant. The rise in just in time manufacturing depends on moving freight quickly and reliably. Passengers and freight competing for space on the same aging tracks is just another facet of our nation's failure to keep investing in infrastructure. Much made about jobs moving overseas due to cheaper labor, but I wonder if the future belongs to the nation with the more up to date railroads.

If so, we'd better look at Shanghai. Great Lakes Guy posted a story about the high speed mag lev train they're building for passenger service. It's top speed is over 300 miles per hour; normal operating speed is about 268 MPH:

That means, if we were building this sort of advanced transportation technology in the United States, you could get from Detroit to Chicago in just over one hour. It's at least a 4-hour car ride if you're hauling the mail down I-94.
Chicago to Minneapolis, nearly a 7-hour drive, would take less than 2 hours. Cleveland to Pittsburgh? Be there in 30 minutes. No gas fillups, no traffic jams, no exorbitant downtown parking fees.

With that sort of perspective, it just doesn't seem all that extravagant when I wish for the sort of train service that was routine in the US around, say 1950.

Bradley on the Role of Citizen

2008-04-09T13:27:00.006-04:00

From Bill Bradley's The New American Story:

Once you have a desire to make a difference and you've taken steps to be informed, the next step is to get involved, passionately. Socrates captured this spirit of involvement during his trial, when he was faced with the prospect of exile from Athens: "Perhaps someone may say, 'But surely, Socrates, after you have left us you can spend the rest of your life in quietly minding your own business,' this is the hardest thing of all to make some of you understand. If I say that....I cannot 'mind my own business' you will not believe that I am serious." Inherent in the job of being a citizen is the refusal to mind one's own business. As a citizen, you are the caretaker of the public good. You don't see yourself as a representative of a special interest, and you don't think democracy amounts only to a negotiation among special interests. You are disinterested; you act for the whole, not just yourself.

Such engagement will not be easy. It goes against the prevailing idea of how things ought to be done. In Unconscious Civilization, John Ralston Saul writes that being a citizen is "not a particularly pleasant or easy style of life. It is not profitable, efficient, competitive or rewarded. It often consists of being persistently annoying to others as well as being stubborn and repetitive." But when you keep at it, beautiful things can happen. Like Socrates, we need to challenge the public lies that too often pass without comment and explain what it means to be a democracy committed to humanism and globalization simultaneously. Our own philosophers, economists, political scientists, and sociologists should engage on the public issues of the day, not just hole up in their academic sanctuaries. Democracy depends on citizens who make waves. When citizens abdicate their inherent democratic power, they turn the system over to those who often use it for personal enrichment, or worse. A true citizen doesn't retreat to his or her private pleasures when the price of public silence is that society's big decisions are made by fewer and fewer people.

This was just one of many passages in Bradley's book that resonated with me. His method is to look at each of the major issues facing Americans and reiterate the "story" of that issue as we have become used to hearing it, then to retell the story of that issue in a new, more hopeful way.

He addresses world politics, the economy, oil and the environment, pensions, health care, and education. While I don't agree with him on every point of analysis, his perspective is far reaching and thoughtful. This book hit by library shelf in April 2007, but is almost eerily predicts the current meltdown of the housing market, sub prime mortgages, hedge fund market, and the fall of the dollar.

It would seem like he was a lone voice in the wilderness if I didn't hear so much of Bradley's ideas in reflected in this year's competition for the Democratic nomination, in Governor Granholm's alternative energy initiative, in the AARP ads featuring the purple elephant-donkey.

Who Is That Woman?

2008-04-08T22:57:00.011-04:00

This is a photo that Jerry Hawes brought over last summer, part of a large box of Hawes/Ivey family photos that he inherited recently. Jerry, my mom, and I spent the afternoon working on old pictures and family trees, trying to put the pieces together. This was a tantalizing picture; we figured out the identities of three of the ladies quite easily, but the one on the left is a stranger to us. She might actually be a stranger -- something about her reminds me of a neighbor lady who butts into the picture at the last minute as the shutter clicks. Or this might be the only image of someone that we've only ever known as a name on paper.

Jerry's links back to this group go like this:

Son of: Clarence Charles Hawes and Ruth Mary Riopelle Hawes – Ishpeming and Marquette
Grand son of: Herbert Stanley Hawes and Avis Willey Hawes – Cornwall/Ishpeming/Marquette
Great Grand Son of: William Francis Hawes and Sara Drew Peters Hawes – Cornwall/Ishpeming

SO the lady second from the left is his great grandmother and my great great grandmother, Sarah Drew Peters Hawes. We have a few other photos of her, like this one with her husband, William Frances Hawes.

Below is a picture of my great grandmother, Sarah Louisa Hawes, daughter of Sarah and William Frances.

The lady third from the left in the top photo is also Sarah Louisa Hawes, but younger. My mom recognized the lady on the far right from the characteristic tilt of her head. She is Margaret Ann Hawes Ivey, or "Aunt Maggie" as my mom knew her.

But what of the lady on the left? We speculated that it might be Emma Jane Peters Matthews, the younger sister of Sarah Drew Peters Hawes, who married and moved out west with her husband. Could she have come back to visit on the occasion of this photo? But that was only speculation, and I've done enough jigsaw puzzles to know that you're never sure until you have placed the last piece:

My great great grandmother, behind the mystery lady.

What Happened Yesterday

2008-04-06T21:18:00.003-04:00

Richard went outside and found the garage door window broken and a softball laying in the yard. He went and found Anna and asked her "Weren't you even going to tell me that you broke another window?"

Anna said, "What window? I didn't break a window?"

They went and looked at the garage. There were shards of glass from the door all the way to the other end. Laying in the middle of the garage, dead, was a red tail hawk.

It seems that the hawk dove right through the window, killing itself in the process. We can't figure out why. Perhaps it had something to do with the cats, who have been sunning themselves on the roof of the car in the driveway. Or maybe it has something to do with the pair of mourning doves who have been nesting in the pine tree next to the garage.

I will tell the story to Pat Patterson, who keeps racing pigeons just up French Road and who is regularly besieged by hawks. He may or may not have some insight, but it will certainly make his day.

I Don't Have A Grow Light

2008-04-04T11:10:00.004-04:00

I realized that the last time I wrote about my seed starting project, I used the phrase "grow light."

I don't have a grow light. I have a homemade wooden plant stand with two $10 shop lights mounted under the shelves. It works just fine.

For a while, I really wanted a setup like the one in the picture and I was trying to justify spending $150 on one such light. But when I brought the catalog to work, everyone in the break room said, "Oh, you're going into the dope growing business?"

Then I heard that the neighborhood hydroponic lettuce grower had been robbed. They cut through the side of his poly greenhouse and made off with all the lights. They left the lettuce. I decided that I didn't need to own anything that dope growers wanted to steal, and that the $10 shop lights were working just fine.

I mention this because it is easy to get intimidated by the tons of gardening catalogs and home improvement store ads. You start to think that growing a garden requires a huge monetary investment. I like seed catalogs as much as anyone, but I'm not above picking up seeds from the ten cent rack at Walmart. All of the seeds that I started this year were old, some were even marked for 2003. The arugula and lettuce seeds were harvested from plants that went to seed at the end of last season. Most of our sunflowers are transplanted from the seedlings that come up under the bird feeders.

I'm so pleased with the lettuce and arugula that I've resolved to try more seed saving this year.

Vetal Elementary

2008-04-01T20:54:00.007-04:00

I've been watching for news about Vetal Elementary, in the Detroit Public School system, for the past two years, ever since daughter Shelagh joined the America Reads program and started tutoring Vetal second graders in reading. Twice a week, she would join four other students in a University of Michigan car and drive to the school on the west side of Detroit to work with kindersgarteners and third graders. The program helped her find her place at UM and connected her to kids and adults, connections that had been lacking her experience of big classes and dorm living.

But her accounts of life at Vetal were uneven. She said the school had "spirit" despite the surroundings. She was loved the murals in the halls, not so much the locked doors and metal detectors. Many kids came to school dressed, fed and ready to learn, but many others didn't show up for days or weeks at a time, and when they did come back their excuses were things like "My mom didn't feel like getting up." Most of the kids were being raised by single mothers, most were poor, some had firsthand stories of shootings and murders. At one point, the school had no more pencils for the kids to use; the University of Michigan students took up a collection and brought a slew of pencils with them.

Shelagh described teachers who were "awesome," who were making sense and establishing order and teaching despite the neighborhood's chaos and poverty. Her favorite third grade teacher, Mr. Mullane, impressed her in the way he never raised his voice, "He didn't need to," she said, "but he wasn't a softy, he always kept order." He treated all of the kids respectfully, and did whatever it took to make learning happen. He played the guitar and sang to his class, composed songs about history, recorded them on his own time, and all the kids learned their history when they learned the songs.

She also described teachers who were barely there, who spent class time talking on the phone, and hollered at the kids who dared interrupt her conversations. There was a mean kindergarten teacher, hated by her students, who didn't show up and didn't even call on more than one occasion, leaving the class in the care of an aide who was only authorized to let the kids watch TV.

I wanted to write and share these stories as soon as I heard them, as they are an important part of my ongoing look at Michigan school funding. But I didn't tell those stories because I didn't want to give the Detroit bashers or public school bashers any more to work with. I was hoping that other Detroit schools were better than Vetal, but what if they weren't? I was rooting for Vetal Elementary, a school I've never visited, throughout it all.

Today's Detroit Free Press reports that Vetal Elementary, and four high schools, will be "restructured:"

Current administrators will be reassigned to different buildings -- they will not return to their current school. Teachers being transferred away from the schools will have the opportunity to reapply to return.

Principals' contracts end at the end of the school year. If the district wants to keep them, then officials will offer them another contract.

The Turn Around School plan coincides with the governor's small schools initiative. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has asked the Legislature to endorse a plan to create the 21st Century Schools Fund, which would allow schools that enroll more than 800 students and miss federal standards for two years or more to create small high schools of about 400 students.

Shelagh didn't qualify for work study this year, but she is still following the situation at Vetal. "I wish I was graduating this year, I'd apply for a job there." We will be watching to see what happens next.

I wrote a piece on small schools a while back. Here is a Free Press article about the governor's initiative, and the Governor's web page on the Small Schools initiative.

Dibbling Out

2008-04-01T10:48:00.000-04:00

From left: Strawberries, onions. tomatoes, peppers, more tomatoes,and basil.

The next step in seed starting happens when the plants have their first two "true leaves." The first leaves, the cotyledons, were packed inside the seed and popped through the soil. These are plain leaves designed to store energy in the seed and then collect light to convert to energy to feed the growing plant. The next set of leaves are usually more ornate and look like the leaves of the adult plant.

When the true leaves show up it is time to "dibble" the plants out into more spacious pots.

Here we have a row of tomato plants on the left, and a couple of tomatoes already enjoying their new home. Tomatoes are very forgiving of root damage, but you have to take care to pick the plants up by the leaves, not the stems. I water the soil before I start working with it and I water again when I'm done, gently, to make sure there's no air around the roots.

I'm using old pots from years gone by. If I keep them out of the UV light as much as possible they will last four or five seasons. I never buy new pots, I just pick them out of other peoples' trash and wash them well.

My one flat of started seeds is now four-plus flats of seedlings. I'm swapping them out under the grow light and hoping for spring.

I Like Science

2008-03-31T18:05:00.003-04:00

Real Science, not this:

Kathleen calls from Thailand, lamenting that the scientific method, the search for reproducible results, is just not part of life in her small village. She misses the US standard of education, misses people who discuss ideas and share a common knowledge of things like biology and physics, who wonder how things work and expect to find answers.

In the US, we often hear how other nations are surpassing us in numbers of college graduates, in people with advanced degrees, in standardized test scores at various ages. We forget that other nations are not attempting the grand plan that Americans take for granted -- that every last one of us deserves the chance to get an education. India may be blossoming in the technology fields, China may be up and coming on the manufacturing scene, but both countries have vast areas where even a basic grade school education is not available.

So I'm shilling for science education today, not for reasons of money or power, but because science is part of our common American culture.