Bloated Budgets in Detroit Questioned

Boy, the city of Detroit just can't stay out of the limelight these days. This time they are making headlines for their city council requesting almost $3 million more than last year for their annual budget. The $15.7 million breaks down to $1.7 million per council member. That goes to pay for salaries and benefits for the council members and their staff. Detroit's spending is stuck in the days when the city had a lot more people and businesses creating a much larger and richer tax base. I will say that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick did cut his budget by 40% and that should be an example for the city council to follow. This just smells of people in positions to take what they can get while the getting is good. If it helps to bankrupt the city of Detroit then so be it. At least they got what they could, right?

Read all about it in the Detroit News

In relation to this, you might want to read the Detroit News article - Detroit Needs to Borrow $130 million or it Will be Broke by June

MiPC Program Gives Michigan Residents Computer Deals

The MiPC (pronounced My-PC, how cute) program is intended to get more Michigan residents up to speed in computer usage. The program is accepting bids and will announce the pricing and packages in May or June. No state funding is involved in creating the reduced prices. As Michigan struggles to become technology focused, Governor Granholm's administration has created MiPC to make it possible to place computers in more Michigan households. Most jobs in the future will require some form of computer knowledge and Michigan residents need to develop an edge in that arena. I like the theory behind this program and especially the fact that taxpayer dollars are not being used to finance the computer discounts. The discounts depend on the bids that the state has sent out.

Spotlight on Michigan Inventors

Neat article in today's Free Press that gives notice to some inventors from Michigan that are some of the subjects in a book about inventors. The book Makers : All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Their Backyard, Basement or Garage has a handful of Michigan inventors featured within it's pages. A solar-powered scooter and bagpipes made from PVC and some upholstery are just a couple of the inventions from Michigan. There is a blog published by the same folks as the above book and if you like to tinker and create this is one you should not pass by. I subscribe to the feed and have bookmarked tons of fun projects. Check it out here www.makezine.com/blog

MAKE Magazine: The First Year : 4 Volume Collector's Set is the magazine also published by the same folks. The link points to the first four volume set. It is a quarterly publication that is loaded with do-it-yourself projects ranging from how to use a kite for aerial photography to decoding the magnetic strip on your credit card to see what information the credit card companies are keeping track of.

I could have used DIY information like that when I was a kid. I can't even tell you the number of electronic toys and games I ruined. I was forever taking stuff apart to see how it worked and what I could make out of it. After my little sister stole some money out of my bank I contstructed a homemade burglar alarm from a toy police bullhorn that emitted a siren when the door opened. Oh the many more things I could have done if only my folks would have let me have a soldering iron. ;)

Michigan's House Approves Minimum Wage Hike

The minimum wage hike that the state Senate passed last week is now on its way to Governor Granholm's desk waiting for a signature. The bill was approved with about half of the votes against it coming from Republicans. The votes against it were most likely those who were speaking out against the bill for small businesses. Small businesses are those who have been the most vocal agains the $1.80 hike in the minimum wage that will go into effect October 1, 2006. This wage hike is long overdue and in the end, the pluses will far outweigh any negatives that are currently being perceived.

Read the full story in the Lansing State Journal.

So Long to the Old Blue License Plates?

There is a bill currently in the State House that would effectively replace our familiar "Old Blue" license plates with lighter-colored plates similar to the other plates currently being sold. The new plates would have a reflective background which makes it easier to see the plate numbers at night. The frontrunner design for the replacement plate would have the white/light-colored reflective background with blue lettering. If the bill were to go into effect, the next time you had to renew your license tabs you would be issued the new plate at no charge. Another benefit to switching plates is to make those with expired or forged blue plates to purchase the new plate and get their vehicles registered. This could mean approximately $15 million in additional revenue.

My wife would be happy if we were forced to switch to a new plate. I kept my first ever license plate and had it transferred to our new vehicle a few years ago. The plate has some chips and rust which, according to my wife, just looks junky. I am not partial to the old style, I just liked knowing one of our vehicles license plate numbers. I still don't have my truck's license plate number memorized and I have had it for five years. :)

For a neat photo that shows what our state's license plates have looked like over the years, view this past post - Wall of Michigan License Plates.

TVs at Secretary of State Broadcasting Ads

A pilot program has begun at 11 Secretary of State branches across the state using 42-inch flat screen tvs to keep waiting customers from becoming bored. Hey! That sounds great! Unfortunately, when I looked into this a bit further it did not look so great. Instead of getting to watch CNN, I Love Lucy reruns, or ESPN, the televisions are broadcasting some artwork from a Detroit artist (cool) and messages from the Secretary of State that tout their various services (ads?).

Wait a minute. You know, this smells like advertising here. Messages from Secretary of State = ads for their services. Who are they kidding? Luckily for us taxpayers, the screens are courtesy of an Ann Arbor company called Digital 10 and we are not footing the bill. Nothing comes free of course. For “allowing” the Secretary of State offices to use the tvs Digital 10 can sell advertising that is then broadcast on these “free” tvs.

I don't understand the claims that this is not advertising. There is talk of national sponsors (sounds like advertising) who will show information on the services they offer (again, this sounds like ads to me). They are calling it “narrowcasting” (narrowed and targeted advertising) because the “data” (this is what they are calling these ads – unbelievable) is shown to a narrow audience.

The thing they are not mentioning is that this “data” is not only being shown to a narrow audience, but to a captive audience as well. To me this is no different than sitting through commercials when you go to the movies. It is not right and it is not fair.

Even worse, you are subjecting paying customers to crummy ads when they are already not happy to be at the Secretary of State and have to wait for so long. Personally, I handle everything I can with the Secretary of State through the internet. When I do have to go (grudgingly) I bring a book.

So, the state had closed numerous branches of the Secretary of State to save money. This means longer lines and wait times for customers. To “help” the customers not get bored they have now decided that subjecting them to ads while they wait would be a real treat.

What do you think? Does this sound good to you? Read the article from the Lansing State Journal.