Last week the Chamber announced its positions on several local ballot issues coming before voters in November. As the premiere public policy advocate for business in Washtenaw County, and a significant voice in southeast Michigan, the Chamber has also taken stances on critical ballot issues at the state level, and sent a questionnaire to specific candidates for federal, state and local office. The questionnaire looks for candidates’ views on issues that affect the business community and individual voters. Candidate responses are listed below.
Statewide Proposals
Proposal 12-1 (Prop. 1)
The A2Y Regional Chamber supports Proposal One. Passage of this proposal would reinstate the Public Act (PA) 4 of 2011, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act. Public Act 4, commonly known as the “Emergency Manager Law,” is not without controversy. Proponents believe PA 4 provides needed tools to aide local units of government in dire fiscal situations, while at the same time ensuring the State of Michigan can protect its credit rating. Opponents refer to it as an overreach and an abandonment of the democratic process by, in some cases, eliminating local governmental control. However, the Chamber feels the law was passed through the legislative process in both the Michigan House and Senate. It deserves a chance to be implemented and remain in place long enough to sufficiently judge its effectiveness. A yes vote on Proposal One allows for that chance.
Proposals 2-6
The A2Y Regional Chamber opposes the constitutional amendments appearing on the November 2012 ballot (Proposals 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) because it believes the broad, complex, and critical issues in these proposals are best left to be addressed by the Michigan Legislature. Although arguments can be made for the substance of each proposal, the chamber believes that to enshrine them in the constitution is too permanent a solution because it removes the ability of elected legislators to create, change test, and modify laws of such great importance. The A2Y Chamber calls for these important issues to be addressed through future legislative action.
Candidate Questionnaire Responses
In early October the Chamber sent a questionnaire to candidates for:
U.S. Senate
Pete Hoekstra
Debbie Stabenow
U.S. House of Representatives (District 7 and District 12)
John Dingell
Kurt Richard Haskell
Cynthia J. Kallgren
Tim Walberg
Michigan House of Representatives (Districts 52, 53, 54 and 55)
Gretchen Driskell
Bill Emmerich
Jeff Irwin
Mark Ouimet
David Rutledge
John Spisak
Adam Zemke
Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners (All Districts)
Joe Baublis
Felicia Brabec
John Floyd
Alicia Ping
Rob Turner
Ann Arbor City Council (All Wards)
Stuart Berry
Sally Hart Petersen
Margie Teall
Chuck Warpehoski
Ypsilanti City Council (All Wards)
Lois E. Allen Richardson
Candidates for Supervisor, Clerk and Treasurer in Ann Arbor, Pittsfield, Scio, Superior and Ypsilanti townships
William McFarlane
David Phillips
All responses
Note:
The Chamber is only publicizing responses from candidates who replied to the questionnaire. If a candidate is not listed they did not reply or did not provide sufficient information in their response.
A full listing of candidates can be accessed at the following sites: