Editor s Note: This piece first appeared in The Detroit News on April 24, 2021.
Just last month, the Whitmer administration was praising the public for its role in driving down the number of COVID-19 cases. At a March 10 press conference, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, said Michigan residents have by and large followed public health recommendations: wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding gatherings.”
But after weeks of rising case counts, the tables have turned, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is now blaming the public’s failure to comply with her pandemic rules for the state’s third wave. But who should be held responsible for this compliance problem?
6 May 2021
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) took a private jet to Florida in March, violating the spirit of her orders for everyone else not to travel.
Deadline Detroit reported Whitmer “asked a group of wealthy Detroit businessmen to provide a private plane they share” so she could travel to Florida. She later said it was so she could visit her “ailing” father.
“We wondered why she reached out to us instead of booking a private charter,” one of the owners said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “You can’t tell a governor no. Who needs that kind of trouble?”
MARQUETTE Voters in Humboldt, Richmond and West Branch townships in Marquette County and Burt Township in Alger County passed all proposals on Tuesday’s b
Ionia Sentinel-Standard
IONIA A proposal to restore Ionia Public Schools’ non-homestead operating millage to its original 18 mills failed in the Tuesday, May 4, special election according to unofficial election results.
The IPS non-homestead operating millage restoration proposal failed with 591 yes votes to 744 no votes, according to unofficial Ionia County election results meaning roughly 56 percent of voters opposed it.
IPS asked voters Tuesday to approve raising the operating millage rate levied on non-homestead property to its original 18 mills, IPS Superintendent Ron Wilson previously said.
The operating millage rate levied on non-homestead property was statutorily reduced by the Headlee Amendment a 1978 amendment to the Michigan Constitution requiring a millage reduction when annual growth on existing property is greater than the rate of inflation, according to Wilson. IPS was affected by Headlee during the 2020 tax year and the operating millage