Keweenomics
Posted Under: Uncategorized
Last Friday, I caught the tail end of the Children’s Issues Forum Q&A session for state rep. candidates Scott Dianda and Matt Huuki. Huuki used his closing statement to denounce government spending, as so many pols are doing this election season. Government spending is bad. Taxes are bad. Government destroys the private sector. Get government out of our lives.
Thursday I got a big glossy flier courtesy of the Michigan Republican Party, in ominous gray and green tones, that featured a crumpled dollar bill and a warning: Scott Dianda will vote for stimulus. And another flier today, with a really catchy slogan: “From the production line… To the unemployment line…”
Clearly, these people have money to burn.
Huuki is appealing to voter anger. It also doesn’t hurt that he can sum up his entire platform in a simple sentence: Government is bad. Any counter is verbose by comparison. But his position should be easy to paint as extreme, even in this climate, given how much poverty exists in the UP, and how much of our economy consists of government spending.
Maybe this is a harder case to make throughout the 38th, but I looked up some stats on Wikipedia: The 2000 census shows that Houghton County’s per capita income is $15,078, and its poverty rate is 16.8%. Keweenaw County’s per capita income is $16,769 and its poverty rate is 12.70%. Guess what the national average per capita income is? In 2007, it was $38,611.
Of course, these are old numbers, and yoopers are surely worse off now than when they came out. We know now that 1 in 7 Americans lives in poverty, so it is very probably worse.
We get more tax dollars than we send out–and I’d love to know exactly how few pay federal taxes at all. I can see that if you’re running downstate, in a wealthy county like Oakland, you have to deal with angry wealthy people. But who’s wealthy here? A very tiny minority. I’ve met so many people who could not feed their families without Bridge Cards, keep a roof over their heads without MISHDA, or take their children to the doctor without MIChild. And unemployment benefits? C’mon!
Aside from government aid, we benefit from MTU, a publicly funded university that directly and indirectly puts thousands to work. What about those Pure Michigan ads that bring tourist dollars to the UP? And the State and National Park Service? These things surely directly affect the lives of many.
If Huuki claims that government spending is bad and taxes are bad, Dianda needs to call him on it and point out specific examples. He also needs to remind voters that most yoopers have a minimal tax burden.
And we as Democrats need to get the word out that Republican policies are a path to joblessness and bankruptcy.
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Reader Comments
Someone should ask the candidates where they stand on the proposed HoCo Jail (masquerading as the “Justice Center” Bond) on the Nov 2 ballot. While many HoCo residents recognize the need to upgrade the HoCo Jail and district court, most do not approve of the proposal on the Nov 2 ballot (survey the letters to the editor of the Gazette). The 110 bed $15 million proposed jail has been intentionally oversized to allow the renting of space for inmates from other counties to cover the increased operating costs. Asking HoCo taxpayers to pay for a regional jail is wrong. Also siting it in the center of town is terrible urban planning. The Justice Center committee says they looked at all the alternatives but offer no evidence to support their conclusion that a regional jail in central Houghton is the best or most cost effective solution. Their own consultant extimated it would cost 1/3 as much to convert Camp Kitwen to a regional jail. Vote No on November 2. Someone should ask the candidates where they stand on this important issue.
I doubt the state or congressional candidates would address this issue, being that it is a Houghton County matter to hopefully be resolved before the State House, State Senate, or the U.S. Congress gets involved.
The perilous liability with which the Houghton County Jail currently burdens the citizens of Houghton County is huge. The risk is related to its limited size and insecure design. Voters are nearly out of time to take responsible action before being burdened by a lawsuit, a case dismissal of a dangerous criminal who can prove a civil rights failure, and/or state receivership as a result of something worse.
Ideally, the justice center would include all court and jail operations and be designed for growth and security and efficiency. It would almost certainly need to be built outside of Houghton, meaning the county seat would also need to be relocated.
Voters are understandably reluctant to buy 15 million dollars of building for something most do not directly use. I can’t fathom voters willing to pay for many times that cost for such idealistic plans as relocating the entire jail and court activities. Consider some realities.
Fact: Our current jail is a serious risk for Houghton County.
Fact: This 97th District Court design and size is a risk to victims, families, jurors, and witnesses who much share tight quarters with defendants.
Fact: The courts and the jail must by law be located in the county seat (Houghton).
Fact: The County already owns vacant land adjacent to the current courthouse that would provide a solution without also needing to move the Circuit Court, Family Court, and other county offices such as the Clerk – all of whom need the proposed vacated space left by District Court.
Despite the understandable impulse by ordinary citizens to lack enthusiasm for spending money on jails and courts, Houghton County voters must be responsible, manage the serious risk to our county, and vote yes on our only solution supported by research, study, and law.
Voters opposing the proposal can do us all more good if they temper their angry tone. They could conduct research and analysis then offer a doable, timely, counter-proposal. To not offer similar effort taken by the committee when they offer arguments may just encourages voter frustration and may demolish Houghton County’s last chance to act responsibly about a problem ignored for more than a decade.
I support this proposal not because it is ideal or I like spending $15 million dollars or that I want the neighbors to experience more concrete in their hood. I support this proposal because nobody has offered a well-researched, viable, and legal alternative to deal with our serious problem.
If approved, I challenge our commissioners to ensure the architect firm they select to design the project not only has experience designing good, safe, efficient jails, but also provides us a list of happy counties who will tell us so.
Mr. Dewey keeps insisting that the new Justice Center is intended as a regional jail. This is not true. This is not remotely true. I do not understand why Mr. Dewey keeps saying this. Mr. Dewey has also impled that the Justice Center will include guard towers. (See his blog gardensnotguardtowers.) This is also not true. The Justice Center will not include guard towers.
I do recognize the need to deal with the inadequacy of the Houghton County Jail, Sheriff’s Office and District Court. I disagree strongly with the proposal presented by the “Justice Center” Committee for an oversized jail built for efficient expansion in the center of town. It is just bad urban planning. Very bad urban planning! To assume that because there has always been a small jail in this location that our only option now is build a very large (50,000 ft2)jail in the center of town is just wrong. There are other options.
In response to Brain Rendel’s assertion that it is a fact that the County Jail needs to be in the County Seat, I also disagree. From the “Sourcebook” it states “Act No. 156 of the Public Acts of 1851, as amended, being section 46.11 of the Compiled Laws
of 1948, a jail may be located anywhere in the county.” That would include the current airport work camp location and the now empty Camp Kitwen!
In response to Mark Wisti’s comment about the title of the blog “gardensnotguardtowers”, I would not claim ownership of it nor did I create it. I have posted to it and I do wish it was updated. Maybe, I will work on that too. But as far as the tile goes, it is about as misleading as the title “Justice Center”. Why not be clear in the ballot language on what is being voted on? and where it is located?
Why do I think the so called “Justice Center” is a Trogan Horse for a Regional Jail in the center of Houghton? My belief is based on statements made in a UP Regional Jail Study called “Regional Jail Study Reports – January 2010″ (http://www.upcap.org/programs_services/jail.html) and the “Justice Center” Sourcebook.
Quotes taken directly from the Regional Jail report referenced above. In the Keweenaw Co section (appx I) “Keweenaw County officials should consider approaching Houghton County to explore long-term agreements that would benefit both parties”. In the Ontonagon Co section (appx N) “Ontonagon County officials may want to approach their Houghton County counterparts to discuss potential long-term arrangements to house inmates”.
And from the HoCo “Sourcebook” Houghton County officials are quoted as saying “Baraga County is committed to maintaining a jail and expanding it when they are able to afford it. It is possible, if not likely, that they will have difficulty keeping up with demand, making them a possible partner in the future for a portion of their inmate population.” and “The proposed Justice Center is planned and sited to provide a range of future options for regional partnerships, with Houghton County as the lead partner ..” and “It is possible, if not likely, that other counties would be interested in boarding inmates in the new jail as space is available. The proposed Justice Center is sited and designed to facilitate efficient future expansion, if needed.”
Sure looks like a regional jail to me, with plans for expansion if business is good.
I am not opposed to a Regional Jail and I think the “Justice Center” committee should have looked at this option in detail. I think Camp Kitwen would be an ideal location for such a facility. Remember the Jail can be located anywhere in the County.
I take extreme offense to mr dewey’s statement that the justice center is a “trojan horse.” I, as well as the majority of people who read this blog, have known many of the members of the committee for over twenty years, and I have known some of them for my entire life. They have spent considerable time and effort trying to devise a solution to a longstanding problem that has faced this community-and we are a community mr. dewey-for many years. They volunteered their time to an endeavor which they knew would be unpopular without any personal gain to themselves. You have gone beyond implication, and to state,as you have by use of the phrase “trojan horse”,that people such as tony pintar, brian mcclean, lee hauswirth, etc are deliberately engaged in an act of subterfuge to foist a regional jail upon the people of houghton county is disgraceful.
the jail is not planned as a regional jail and to interpret the comments in the sourcebook that it is possible if not likely that other counties will house their inmates here as evidence of an insidious conspiracy is disingenuous at best. in addition, the regional jail study is just that, and is not part of the proposal for, to use your quotes “Justice Center.”
The district court security is non existent. While i am not so foolish as to believe that we are going to eliminate the chances of violence by building a safer courtroom and offices, and while i have publicly acknowledged on numerous occassions that courtroom violence is rare, we can, through the physical structure of our facility, reduce the chances of a catastrophe. Safety concerns aside, the district court and offices are too small. We are literally standing room only on approximately 1/3 of the days that the criminal court is in session. There are all sorts of other problems with our facility which are detailed in the sourcebook.
The sheriff department’s facilities are antiquated and completely inadequate.
This is not merely a jail, and the Justice Center is intended to resolve the problems with the sheriff’s department and the district court as well. This is not a marketing tool.
I was not initially a proponent of the Justice Center, but after reading opposing viewpoints and the source book, I now sympathize with Messers Rendel and Wisti. It is not fair that employees, judges, lawyers, police officers, prisoners and ordinary citizens who want just their security deposits back from their landlords should have such cramped quarters.
However, I will say that the language the source book uses to describe both the capacity and condition of neighboring county jails is alarming. So too is the assertion that the jail would be expansion ready. I will probably vote for the justice center, but how do we know that neighboring counties won’t come to rely on the jail in lieu of improving their own facilities? It does seem a very short leap, given that Houghton has relatively more resources to build.
Could you address this concern, Judge Wisti?
Judge Wisti is right, my choice of words was inappropriate. I too know many of the individuals on this committee and appreciate the work they have done highlighting this real need in our community. My intent is not to question their integrity, but I do have real differences with their proposed solution.
I also realize that defeating this bond proposal will not make this issue go away. All voters should realize that we will have to deal with an unsafe jail and district court one way or another. The real question is whether this is the best way to address these needs.
I do have very real concerns with a national consultant (who is also listed as a member of the Justice Center committee), explicitly advising adjacent counties to look to Houghton County to help with their jail needs. Are we also relying on this same consultant to advise Houghton County on the size of our jail?
i can tell you my thoughts on a regional jail, which are based on my experience in court and on speaking with law enforcement. this should be on point. however i was not part of the committee- there are strict rules on political involvement of the judiciary and we were initially advised by our masters at the state court administrators office to stay out of it, which in retrospect may have been the smart thing to do. it turned out after further review that we were permitted to get involved in this particular issue as there is an exception to judicial involvement in public issues which relate to the functioning of the court, and we were given the ok to get involved about 3 months ago or so. i decided to do so as i obviously feel very strongly about this and ive been working here for 24 years and if you dont think we need this-or a fascimile thereof-you just dont understand the issue.
A regional jail is not part of this plan other than the brief comments made in the upcap study-and the upcap study is not part of the plan- and what is found in the sourcebook, which speak for themselves and essentially indicate it might become a regional jail. I dont know that it would be a catastrophe if this did become a regional jail as there may actually be an economic benefit to having a regional jail in our county. Someone told me that Macomb county functions as a regional jail and that they are returning a profit but i have not checked this out myself and am repeating what i heard. i dont think the committee studied the economics of a regional jail as they didnt think it was a likely possibility for reasons which i will now discuss.
1. The practical difficulty with a regional jail is logistics. If this were going to be a regional jail our likely partners are keewenaw, ontonogan, and baraga. Prisoners who do not make bond are either dirt poor or facing serious felony charges. Most of them are facing serious felony charges. If they are awaiting trial or negotiating a plea they have to be brought to court when official court action is taking place. For someone facing a felony charge which results in a felony plea, the bare minimum amout of courts appearances is five. (District court arraignment, preliminary examination,circuit court arraignment,plea, and sentencing) This is the bare minimum, and if the case is contested there may be many more. (motions to suppress evidence, motions to reduce bond,etc. etc.)
Ontonogan is an hour away, Baraga and Keewenaw forty minutes. Obviously if you have to transport prisoners in this fashion you are going to tie up sheriff’s deputies for significant periods of time which will result in increased costs.
This will also create added expense and inconvenience for the judiciary and the attorneys. As an example, the Ontonogan District Court is only in session on tuesdays, and the judge there is also the gogebic county judge. Assuming two hours of transport back and forth along with minimal court time and you’re only going to be able to handle three prisoners a day. if there are involved proceedings-such as a preliminary exam which is kind of a mini-trial to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with the case-you may be looking at one prisoner a day. Baraga District is in session on Tuesday every week and every other Thursday as needed, and Keewenaw is every other Thursday.
The public defender currently handles about 90 percent of the criminal docket in Baraga and Houghton. We could attempt to schedule matters in such a fashion that we have thigns going on while we are waiting for prisoners, but we are undoubtedly going to increase his court time with a regional jail.
As an aside this is also a big problem with Kitwen. It takes about 25 minutes to travel round trip from kitwen to the courthouse. We dont keep statistics on how many prisoners are actually brought back and forth each week from jail but i am guessing that between circuit and district its at least 20, and probably more. Assuming its 20, youre adding a little better than 8 hours a week spent transporting prisoners to houghton. The added time wouldn’t affect the functioning of the judicial work in court all that much if at all, but would increase sheriff’s deputies workload and the time that the public defender spends in court. this is also going to increase costs.
2. My understanding is that the general consenus is that a county generally doesnt want to ship their prisoners to regional jails as in the long run its more expensive but again this is what i am told and i dont have the specifics on that.
i also to mr dewey if i offended himjbut you are bugging me man
last sentence is a typo-i apologize to mr dewey if i offended him but but he is bugging me man.
Mark, My intend to not to bug you but to ask reasonable questions and help educate other voters about something that I think is important to our County. None of your comments have offended me and I appreciate your pointing out when I wrong in tone or inference.
I do think it is unfortunate that the Justice Center committee did not actively engage the public in a meaningful way before making a decision. Maybe some of my (and other citizens) questions (and fears) could have been answered. We might have even felt that we were part of the process rather than asked to just be quiet and vote yes or no.
Yes, part of our fear is there may be economic advantages to housing non-HoCo inmates (say post sentencing). I am not opposed to that in principle, but why then locate it in the center of town. West Branch just built a 125 bed jail for $6million and they do plan to board inmates.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/01/ogemaw_county_officials_are_ba.html
if thats just the jail i assume that figure is probably right. we are also talking about a district court and a sheriff’s office-if you want to the sheriff i am sure would be more than happy to show you their work environment. the place is a dump. the district court is a dump. hence the justice center.
the reason they want to put it in the middle of town is that they own the lot and its convenient for transport. if its just a jail kitwen is more expensive and really does present transport problems. i dont know where else in houghton you can put it. THE JAIL IS ALREADY THERE!!! with due repsect, you guys are acting like were going to be putting stalag 13 in the middle of the town. its going to look a lot like the courthouse. the proposed drawing or whatever you want to call it is onthe website.
For a presentation of more options on the Justice Center go to:
http://www.houghtoncountyjusticecenter.com/2010/10/smart-choice-will-generate-jobs.html