Electric School Bus 2: Electric Boogalo and A Little Democrat Corruption Too

Turns out Electric Buses aren't as reliable nor as cost-effective as they are cracked up to be, shocking, I know.

Washington Free Beacon: Biden Spent $1 Billion To Get Schools Electric Buses. This Michigan District Says Theirs Hardly Work. 

During an April 19 presentation to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education, the district's environmental sustainability director, Emile Lauzzana, highlighted a number of issues with the district's electric bus fleet. Those buses, Lauzzana said, have "a lot of downtime and performance issues" and aren't "fully on the road," despite the fact that they are "approximately five times more expensive than regular buses." The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were "originally estimated to be only about $50,000" but "ended up being more like $200,000," according to Lauzzana. "I have a number of colleagues in different states who are facing similar challenges," the district official lamented. "For the school bus market, it's been challenging for us."

Note that this is in solid-Blue Ann Arbor.  When even the enviro-nut, quasi-commies of Ann Arbor are complaining about these electric green busses, you know it's bad.

But, no worries, Democrats still made bank on the deal, and that, after all is what matters along with the "green" virtue signalling at the public' expense:

The Biden administration has faced intense criticism from congressional Republicans over its ties to electric bus maker Proterra. Administration officials repeatedly showcased the company while Biden's energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, held up to $5 million in Proterra stock. Granholm eventually sold her 240,000 Proterra shares in May 2021, with the former Michigan governor earning a cool $1.6 million.

Nice bit of insider trading if you can get it, neh?

The Biden Admin's Latest Bit Of Cringe, Now With An Ex-Michigan Governor

A cringe-worthy propaganda piece from the Biden administration trying to push the bipartisan infrastructure bill (A bill that sis neither bipartisan anor solely about infrastructure), featuring Michigan's 2nd worse governor in recent history and a Chevy Bolt has gone viral, and it's as bad as you think it would be.

The Detroit Free Press: President Biden surprises GM's Barra by using a Bolt in video gone viral

Very cringe-worthy, and I doubt Granholm's solar panels alone are recharging her Bolt.  You can also hear her stumble on a few of her lines, which is hilarious.  The dialogue does tend to be rather stilted and shows Boomers trying to speak Millennial at times like its a foreign dialect.

Also did you notice that our former Governor Granholm doesn't seem to know how to wear a seatbelt?

Does anyone wear a seatbelt like that when they are actually in a front seat of a vehicle? She'd get a ticket if she was in Michigan wearing a seatbelt like that.

Did you hear where they talk about how excited they are at 2:23 when they talk about electric transit buses?

Well Granholm was certainly excited, all the way to the bank:
Granholm questioned about potential conflict of interest with bus company

Report: Biden Energy Secretary Receives Waiver to Dump Massive Amount of Electric Bus Company Stock

Ethics, after all, are for the little people.

So EVs are supposedly it, even as some places like California and New York City are requesting people not charge their cars due to energy shortages from a lack of production facilities.  

Maybe an Energy Secretary should look into that?

Democrats Doling Out Dollars Didn't Drive Development

Who'da thunk it?

Who could possibly have known that Democrats Granholm and Obama's push to pick winners and fund battery development in Michigan to show they were doing something while pushing a green agenda and enriching their donors would have led to wasted money, few jobs developed, and a lot of the technology that was developed being scooped up by the Chinese for pennies on the dollar?

Well, we this was a story back in 2012 with A123s demise, but it takes the in the tank Freep two more years to write about it.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan battery companies fall short of job claims

A quick summary: billions of dollars wasted, few real jobs actually created, lots of ribbon cuttings to make Democrats look like they were doing something and an impressive make-work failure to make any work.

The massive surge of Michigan tax credits and federal stimulus dollars that charged up the state’s nascent battery industry five years ago failed to generate the thousands of jobs that were promised.

Today, Michigan has only a few hundred battery workers in four plants — despite $861 million in Obama administration stimulus grants and $543 million in Michigan tax credits awarded by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration in 2009.

Since the Freep doesn't like to do math and would hate for us to be underwhelmed by exactly how few "a few hundred" workers would be, let's be charitable and say 900.

With a total of 1.4 billion in taxpayer money laid, out that's $1,560,000 per job on the optimistic side, and it's likely an even more lopsided result than that.

Former Michigan Governor Granholm, of course, regrets nothing.

Granholm still doesn’t regard Michigan’s incentives for battery makers as wasted money.

“Just because the jobs haven’t happened ‘yet,’ it doesn’t mean that cracking the code to vehicle batteries was the wrong strategy,” said Granholm, who is teaching at the University of California, Berkeley

When you're playing games with taxpayer's money, it means never having to say you're sorry.

Royal Oak Properly Drops Firearms Ban from Arts Beats & Eats Event

The Detroit News: Gun ban lifted at Arts, Beats & Eats - Royal Oak yields to state law, OKs carrying in plain sight

Bowing to pressure to conform to state law, the City Commission on Monday night struck down a gun ban in the festival contract to allow holstered guns in plain sight at the event Sept. 3-6.

"The law is the law," said Mayor Jim Ellison. "I don't agree with it, but we have the right to change that law so those gray issues are gone," he added, referring to modifying laws that allow guns in public.

Nice of him to agree that the law is the law, as much as he'd like to change it.

Nor is this some kind of a gray area - open carry on a public street is legal.

Not to be undone by open-carry advocates, city officials passed a resolution calling on state legislators to amend a law so local government can enact ordinances making public buildings gun-free zones.

That would be a bad idea, tried before and it wasn't a successful idea when Ferndale tried it then and it won't be now.

Even Granholm isn't enthusiastic about trying to make such a change:
The Detroit News: Granholm won't fight law that allows open weapons at Arts, Beats and Eats

Gov. Jennifer Granholm sympathized with those who want to restrict the open carrying of weapons at next month's Arts, Beats and Eats festival, but said she had no plans to seek a change to the state law that allows it.

"I could initiate, but I'd get no support in the Legislature," she said at an appearance in Mexicantown to boost a federal housing assistance program.

Probably not, considering there's no real problem with responsible people legally carrying firearms in public. Most likely Governor Granholm isn't interested in such a losing fight - she's not a committed anti-gunner and is generally considered not unreasonable on firearms rights.

Kudos to the City of Royal Oak government for doing the right thing - however reluctantly.

Speaking of Energy - Green Jobs to lay off 140 Michigan workers

Remember Granholm's multiple proclamations that Michigan would be a Green Energy mecca and that Green Energy = jobs for Michiganders?

Not so fast.

Energy Conversion Devices to lay off 140

From the Detroit Free Press:

Energy Conversion Devices said this morning that it plans to layoff 140 employees at one of its solar panel plants in Auburn Hills.

The layoffs are likely to occur in October when the Rochester Hills-based company plans to move some final assembly work to one of its underutilized plants in Tijuana, Mexico.

The affected Auburn Hills plant will not be idled and will employ 140 workers after the layoffs. But to reduce costs, only the first three steps in the thin film solar panel manufacturing process will occur there, said Martha Duggan, ECD’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs.

. . .

ECD is still proceeding with plans to retrofit its manufacturing line at the affected Auburn Hills plant with next-generation technology. In January, ECD had received a federal tax credit for making this investment, which is expected to create 600 jobs over time.

Glad to see those tax credits creating expected jobs while layoffs occur now isn't it. Anyone know the amount of that tax credit? Perhaps those 140 people laid off will be counted as jobs "saved or created" with the credit if they're rehired later.

It is certainly interesting that it is more cost effective for ECD to ship solar panels from Michigan all the way to Mexico for finishing and it still saves them money to do so. It must burn up a lot of carbon credits to ship them so far.

Michigan Governor Seeks To Shift Criminal Costs

From the State to the People of course.

The Detroit Free Press: Can-Michigan Free Up Cash By Freeing Up Prisoners?

Is this a bad time to bring back good time?

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her administration's Department of Corrections have made the reinstatement of time off for good behavior for Michigan prisoners a key reform measure in the state's budget plan for 2010-11.

Under Granholm's proposal, the sentences of about 5,600 prisoners would be recalculated, making them eligible for release within six months. Another 1,900 could be placed in halfway houses, with a combined savings to the prison system of about $130 million in the upcoming fiscal year.

But enacting legislation to bring back good time -- which Michigan phased out from 1978-1998 -- will be daunting.

It begins with getting 75% of the members in both the state House and Senate to agree to repeal an anti-good time ballot proposal overwhelmingly approved by state voters in 1978

The $130 Million in savings to the state of course does not include any setoffs for the costs to be incurred by the citizenry by allowing dangerous prisoners early release so they can get out and commit more crimes. Without a doubt the policy will lead to more crime and more costs on the victims of crime, which is why it was ended by a ballot proposal.

Granholm said her goal is to bring Michigan's overall incarceration rate, still above the national average, in line with that of other states, especially in the upper Midwest. Reinstating good time, and a companion plan to move nearly 2,000 other inmates into halfway houses or tether programs as they near their release dates, would save $130 million in 2011, Granholm said.

The problem is while she may bring the incarceration rate in line with other states that will not reduce the state's crime rate to becoming in line with other states and will likely lead it to increase. Indeed, Michigan has the highest violent crime rate in the midwest. Reducing criminals in prison to the same level as the Midwest overall without reducing the crime rate by the same proportion will by simple logic lead to an increase in crimes. Especially that even now, 48% of those in Michigan's prison system are back in prison within 2 years either for violations of parole or for new offences.

While on paper having the state save $130 Million to drop its prison population to match other states in the Midwest sounds laudable, this completely ignores the costs, which will exceed $130 million to be imposed on the residents of the state at the hands of the early released criminals.

There's a reason crime dropped as prison populations climbed - less criminals had access to their victims as they were locked up.

Granholm wants to end this trend to make the budget look good, to keep liberals happy with their beleif in the failed "root causes of crime" ideology and to increase the felon vote for the Democrats (In Michigan felons can vote, just not while they're incarcerated).

As usual Granholm's budget cuts are designed to hurt the citizens the most to make them more amenable to tax increases - public safety cuts, education cuts, corrections cuts - all key functions of government responsibility, not the softer areas that could be cut without much impact on the citizenry.

A Governor Who Never Met A Tax She Didn't Like

Even on the outs, in her last year of her last term as Governor and as Michigan continues to be blown away, with the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation, Governor Granholm is still proposing raising taxes.

The Detroit Free Press: Granholm's budget plan calls for tax on services

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed new budget calls for lowering the state sales tax from 6% to 5.5%, and expanding it to services.

The additional revenue -- about $550 million in 2011 -- would all go to public schools.

She's truly a one-trick governor, with the only trick repeatedly trying to raise taxes. Oh, and cut vital services and education instead of less vital governmental programs.

And raise more new taxes:

Also, physicians would be taxed on gross receipts to generate $133 million, which would be used to leverage more federal money to pay for treatment of Medicaid patients.

The governor also called for a new tax on rental cars to fund the Pure Michigan national advertising campaign to draw more tourism to the state.

In return for the taxes she'd reduce some business taxes and stick it to non-union state employees. Nice.

There's a reasons she's glad she's not a Democrat on the ballot and she can't run this year:

Granholm's Last Minute Quest For Reform Not Fooling Anyone

Interesting headline from the Detroit Free Press opinion section:
Will Granholm seize renewable power?

Answer - No, thankfully she's term limited, so no renewable power for her.

In summoning up the Granholm legacy, its hard to choose between "Blown Away" or "Fiddling as Michigan burns until the last minute" - Granholm's last chance to retool Michigan

Late doesn't adequately describe the significant state budget reforms she outlined during her eighth and final State of the State address last night in Lansing; they're more accurately pegged as eleventh-hour.

No kidding, finally accepting the need for reform in the last year of her second term-limited term.

To be charitable, one could suppose that Granholm simply didn't have the capability to buck the leftist ideologue Democrat and Unionist stranglehold on the Michigan Democratic party and maybe now she feels she has nothing to lose so can move ahead and get things done. She's pretty smart so perhaps that's why shes moving now. or is it simply a last minute shot at trying to save her reputation from oblivion as an ineffective governor watching as this once-great state collapses?

The blogprof noted the GOP was quick to sum up Granholm's failings to address real reform and deal with Michigan's problems throughout her governorship and now her sudden quest to come up with reforms.

To put it simply: As long as the GOP doesn't totally screw it up, 2010 is going to be a Republican year both in Michigan and across the USA as people have certainly had enough of the Democrats anti-free-market politics of misery.

State response to unsustainable budgets - raise taxes

Tam at View From The Porch comments on the unsustainable budgets states are rapidly accumulating and their proposal to fix them - raise taxes.

Meanwhile, with tax revenues cratering, state budget shortfalls are getting huge, as the towering entitlement edifices of places like California and New York are left with nothing to support their pie in the sky programs:


Of course, this leads to talk about fixing the problem by raising taxes, instead of shutting off the spigot to the trough

She finishes with the question: State legislators have a historic opportunity to slash deadwood here, rather than continuing to try to buy Band-Aids by the bushel.

You all know the answer to that - of course not.

Instead they'll start shooting the hostages first - close schools, reduce police and fire departments, road construction and winter servicing - anything to make the tax payers howl and cough up money for the essential services.

Meanwhile they'll keep plugging along and expand the non-essential but very lucrative (for politicians and their supporters, anyways) services and budget areas of government that caused the budget shortfall in the first place.

That is the Democrat plan so far here in Michigan and it may be working: Polls say Michiganians back higher taxes -

Michiganians are willing to shoulder a little more of the tax burden to spur economic growth and pay for essential state services, according to a new kind of scientific poll released Thursday by Stanford University, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.

Two kinds of public opinion sampling -- a conventional survey of 300 residents and a "deliberative poll" that brought a cross-section of 314 people in Lansing for a weekend in November to hash out the issues -- found people willing to raise sales and income taxes and cut business taxes.

After Governor Granholm's and the Democrats slashing school funding, State Police, road repair and revenue sharing with local units of government for things like police and snow removal services and otherwise balancing the budget with cuts to the essential services, its no wonder the public is crying "Uncle" (or is it "Auntie" in this case?

Look for more of this tactic in a state near you.

Michigan Democrat and Republican Prosecuting Attorneys Agree - Gov Granholm's Early Release Policies Are Increasing Crime In The State

Law enforcement officials lament early release of prisoners
Letting dangerous criminals out as early as possible on parole, in order for the state to save money has consequences:

Choking back tears Tuesday, Tameka Briggs gave her testimonial.

“There’s a chance that my dad would still be with me today,” Briggs said, if the man convicted of causing his murder hadn’t previously been freed from prison at the earliest possible date.

Briggs is the daughter of Willie C. Rice, shot dead at age 69 in his Muskegon home during a robbery last June 20. Derrick Lynell Hewlett, convicted of felony murder for organizing the robbery, had been paroled a year earlier after serving exactly 20 months of a 20-month-to-20-year sentence for cocaine delivery.

Talk about catch and release!

Prosecutors Tony Tague of Muskegon County, Bill Forsyth of Kent County, Chrystal Roach of Newaygo County and Andrea Krause of Montcalm County, as well as Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler, all spoke at the Muskegon presentation. They were flanked by police chiefs and sheriffs’ officials from across West Michigan.

The law enforcers’ message was bipartisan. Tague and Roesler are Democrats, the other prosecutors are Republican. All oppose recent corrections policies of Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration.

Their message was uniform: They said earlier release of prison inmates is hurting public safety.

It harms public safety and transfers more consts onto individuals rather the the state. The state saves money by not having the criminals in jail, but the individual that becomes the released criminal's target in a robbery or worse pays the price, and that's often a higher price than the cost to the state for keeping the criminal locked up.

The article goes on to point out:

CRIME IN MICHIGAN
According to law-enforcement officials opposing earlier paroles:

• Michigan has the highest per-capita violent crime rate in the Great Lakes region.

• Michigan has the region’s fewest police officers per capita.

• Michigan sends the lowest ratio of felons to prison in the region — two of 10, compared to the national average of four in 10.

• Michigan spends $32,817 annually per prisoner, Ohio $25,268 and Texas $15,527.

• Michigan’s prison population has dropped from 51,544 to 45,478, down 11.8 percent in 20 months.

— Sources: 2009 reports by Council of State Governments, Office of Community Corrections, Pew Center on the States and Michigan Department of Corrections

Could there possibly be a correlation between Michigan having the highest rate of violent crime in the region and its failure to keep dangerous felons in prison? One would think so, and it is time Granholm ended the early and easy parole policies for violent criminals and kept them locked up. A government's prime function is the safety and protection of its citizens, and Michigan seems to be doing as badly at that as the other areas where this state continues to fall down on its responsibilities.

Michigan's Lt. Governor Cherry apparently not going to run for Governor

Given that he would have to run on Governor "You'll Be Blown Away" (and we were) Granholm, its not surprising that Lt. Governor Cherry is backing out of the Democrat top spot for the race for Governor.

BREAKING NEWS: Lt. Gov. Cherry won't run for governor

Democratic Lt. Gov. John Cherry has decided against running for Michigan governor, Democratic Party sources said today.

Longtime party fundraiser Faylene Owen confirmed today that Cherry, who had not formally entered the race, won't try to succeed Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, saying the tough economy and Granholm's record have made it difficult for Cherry to raise money.

The Cherry campaign could not be reached to confirm whether or not he was pulling out of the race.

As the report notes, it is still unconfirmed if this is his decision or not.

One can hardly blame Lt. Gov. Cherry for making such a decision, running on Granholm's record and the resultant Depression Michigan is in would make his chance of winning a Sisyphean task at best.

This is unfortunate, because with the exception of Mark Hackel, he's probably the best the Democrats would have to offer for Michigan. The replacement contestants will likely be far worse for Michigan, offering even worse leftist ideas to keep Michigan in its current economic free-fall.

Update: as Noted by the blogprof, Obama may have had a hand in this decision. Given the way the Obama administration has interfered in other Governor's races, it would not be surprising.

Update: Lt. Gov Cherry confirmed that he will not be running to suceede Granholm.

Michigan Roads Decline as State fails to obtain Federal funds through Neglect

Not only are Michigan’s roads some of the worst in the United States due to lousy road maintenance and repair practices as well as chronic underfunding, but due to inexcusable neglect in the form of leaving road maintenance funds on the federal table rather than getting those funds to repair the roads.

In Lost road projects cost Michigan plenty, Douglas Buckler of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights points out the blatantly obvious - The State of Michigan royally and inexcusably messed up by not finding matching funds to get $740 million dollars in federal road repair funds. (With Michigan Department of Transportation processes and union work rules and wages that likely averages out to only repairing 740 miles of road, but still that is quite significant).

When 137 transportation projects were recently canceled across Michigan because of the state's economic situation and the inability to find matching funds to support the construction work, about $740 million was lost. And our state and our workers stand to lose plenty as well.
. . .
According to drivemi.org, 28 percent of Michigan's 10,754 roadway bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, while 38 percent of the state's 120,256 miles of roadways are rated in poor or mediocre condition. In May, the Michigan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Michigan's infrastructure a grade of a D. And Thomas Maxwell, president of the state civil engineering group, says more than 90 percent of Michigan's 2,581 dams will reach the end of their design life by 2020.

This is bad news for Michigan. Poor road conditions combined with the abandonment of these crucial projects compromises the safety of all citizens.

Repair and reconstruction of our roads, bridges and freeways is obviously needed. It is time for a serious look at addressing our decaying infrastructure. Updating our roads and other infrastructure will help Michigan attract new business, which results in a stronger economy, more jobs and increased tax revenue.

By abandoning road and bridge repair and reconstruction projects, thousands of jobs are lost, affecting an untold number of Michigan households.

Mr. Buckler is exactly right that leaving this money unused is wasteful. Michigan is a net donor to the Federal government when it comes to transportation funds and this only makes that ratio of funds sent to funds received worse. Not only are jobs lost due to this but roads will decline even more, further harming the economy.

Governor Granholm should be required to explain how it occurred that the state government (mis)managed to pass this money up. Not only does it harm everyday Michigan residents but even her key supporters – union members who work on these projects that aren’t going to be working on them now. It’s good to see union leadership like Buckler take the state government to task and speak up for their members even in the face of the Disastrous Democrat’s decisions.

Obama's cunning plan to balance the budget by appointment only

As noted by RightMichigan, one of the possible reasons Michigan's own Governor Granholm is being considered for a Supreme Court seat is her failure to pay some of her taxes.

Of course, hers is a $20,000 tax lien and an $800 tax lien which is relatively small compared to some of the scofflaws Obama has appointed to high positons such as Secretary of the Treasurer Geitner at $34,000 or Daschle with $120,000.

Of course as these scofflaws are named they end up paying their taxes thereby helping the Treasury and reducing the tax burden on ordinary Americans who do pay their taxes . . . Brilliant! On the other hand, all of these back taxes don't even add up to even a tenth of a percent of all the spending Obama has been doing, but some revenue in is better than none.

it looks like if you get an invite from the Obama administration to join the team, you better be ready to get your checkbook out to payoff your outstanding tax liabiities.

The scary part is we could, and probably will, do a lot worse than having Granholm on the Supreme Court. Let me explain.

Yes for a hot button issue like abortion she will not be on the side of conservatives, as if any Obama nominee would be - they will assuredly not.

Granholm as Attorney General and Governor has at least been decent on the firearms issue, given her AG opinions that read like simply following and honestly interpreting the law rather than allowing liberal preferences to sway and distort her rulings and hose firearms owners, so she's likely better on that issue than most nominees Obama may come up with. Her record as AG was relatively decent, her record as Governor, not so good. Michigan has been sinking into the mire on her watch and her policies have helped it sink further and farther into what is now a one-state deprssion rahter than turingin the state around.

Yes, Granholm is all about big government, big spending and big taxes and without a doubt she'll be a reliable vote on the Court for government expansion regardless of constitutional limits and we'd expect nothing less from any such nominee.

The sad thing is we will probably suffer an even worse pick than Granholm as Obama's choice on the Supreme Court.

My bet is she gets passed over for the Supreme Court seat and Obama slides her into a nice Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judgeship. My prediction, he wants both a woman and minority to fill the slot in twofer-de-force so my bet is he nominates Sonia Sotomayor unless some serious skeletons come rattling out of her closet (unpaid taxes will not count as a skeleton however).