Gov. Granholm Must Choose Between Her Gratitude to Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger and Her Promise to 96,000 College Students -- According to the TaxPayers United Michigan Foundation

"GOV. GRANHOLM CAN RECLAIM SOME OF HER LOST TRUST BY HONORING HER $112 MILLION COMMITMENT TO 'MICHIGAN PROMISE COLLEGE GRANT SCHOLARSHIPS' FOR 96,000 STUDENTS.

SHE CAN REVERSE HERSELF BY FINALLY VETOING THE WASTEFUL $113 MILLION SHE WANTS TO USE TO PAY FERGUSON-GRANGER TO BUY THEIR ALMOST COMPLETED BUILDING FOR AN UNNEEDED NEW STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS.

LANSING, Mich., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For seven years, two of the biggest political campaign contributors buying influence in our State Capitol have been trying to rip off grassroots taxpayers with a new five-story State Police Headquarters Building they've built on speculation in a federal floodplane at the intersection of two heavily traveled roads in Downtown Lansing.

Joel Ferguson, Democrat, and Gary Granger, Republican, are relying on a no-bid contract they conditionally obtained from state government under a previous legislature to obligate current legislators and Gov. Granholm to buy their almost complete but never occupied office building.

Ferguson-Granger's political influence as major campaign contributors paid off during the night of September 30 when 27 of 38 State Senators, and 64 of 110 State Representatives, approved spending for the corrupt deal Gov. Jennifer Granholm promised to legitimize by immediately signing into law.

As of today, she hasn't signed the Substitute for Senate Bill 253, the $524 million

Department of State Police budget, which contains separate component parts of the $113 million Ferguson-Granger deal, for the fiscal year normally ending September 30, 2009, but which was extended this year one month to Oct. 31, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010. That state government spending for Michigan State Police alone amounts to more than the half billion dollar value of all the gold found in King Tut's Tomb.

Corruption is evident in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to illegally divert $113 million in State funds to aid and abet windfall profits for political campaign contributor activists Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger who want their new office building to replace the still serviceable $1-a-year State Police Headquarters building in use on the MSU Campus in East Lansing ever since State Police Troopers officially became a State government Department in 1937.

Taxpayers United, a non-profit, non-partisan statewide organization founded in 1976 by Dick Headlee (deceased 2006) and Bill McMaster to successfully support statewide grassroots citizen adoption of the 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment into our Michigan Constitution, filed a 53-page lawsuit in 2002 against then Gov. John Engler (Taxpayers United vs State of Michigan et al, Ingham County Circuit Court File No. 02-1404-AZ) seeking an injunction to keep Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger from building the same State Police Headquarters at issue today on the same downtown Lansing floodplane.

Over four months of court litigation still on permanent record, during which Jennifer Granholm, in her then capacity as Michigan Attorney General, defended Engler, the state legislature and the Michigan Dept. of Management and Budget, Taxpayers United recorded evidence proving the pending 2002 State deal with Ferguson and Granger would violate provisions of the Headlee Amendment and State law.

While still Attorney General responsible for representing Defendants Engler, et al, Granholm was elected Governor in November 2002. In anticipation of taking office on January 1, 2003, Granholm was quoted on the Ferguson-Granger State Police Headquarters issue in a December 24, 2002 Lansing State Journal news story headlined 'Project worries Granholm, Engler hoping to OK lease for $113M offices':

"Whatever happens must take into account the state's bottom line in light of the deficit," Granholm said. "I'm not interested in pursuing endeavors that are going to create even further crisis than already exists.

"The state faces a potential budget deficit of between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 (2003). The Michigan Constitution requires the state to have a balanced budget, which will necessitate budget cuts."

Dick Headlee's failing health after retirement in low-tax state Utah prohibited him from further participation in Taxpayers United after the MI State Administrative Board declined, on the last day of Gov. Engler's term in office in 2002, to finalize a $113 million State bond financing for Ferguson-Granger's proposed new State Police Headquarters building.

After Engler finally killed the 2002 Ferguson-Granger deal, Plaintiff Taxpayers United voluntarily discontinued its fight to defend the Headlee Amendment in court. Judge Thomas L. Brown agreeably dismissed the case on his way out of the courthouse to retirement in early 2003.

By 2006, Taxpayers United had evolved into the current non-profit, non-partisan, statewide 'Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation'. Bill McMaster is still State Chairman (Volunteer). Now a tax deductible educational foundation under IRS Code 501(c)(3), its mission is: 'Helping educate grassroots taxpayers how to defend and control their Constitutional Rights despite exploitation by units of government'.

After steadily increasing political campaign contributions, Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger were confident they had bought enough Democrat and Republican political influence by 2008 to again push the State of Michigan to prioritize appropriation of $113 million to be collected from overtaxed grassroots taxpayers to pay for the same Ferguson-Granger State Police Headquarters building scheme stopped by Taxpayers United's action in 2002.

It's also significant that Ferguson is more powerfully situated after serving as the successful Michigan Campaign Chairman for the 2008 Obama for President Campaign and on the Democratic National Committee.

Opposition to Gov. Granholm's present decision to take $112 million from 'Michigan Promise College Grant Scholarships' in order to give it to Ferguson-Granger for rushed Jan. 1, 2010 State Police occupancy in their building is based on many of the same questions answered on the 2002 court record. They include:

    1- State law and our Michigan Constitution are violated when Gov.
    Granholm enters into a no-competitive bid contract worked out in secret
    to build a $113 million state office building in Downtown Lansing without
    following legal procedures for such a 'Capital Outlay Project'.

    2- Other developers were never given the opportunity to submit bids or
    competing proposals to the State on a Development Fee/Management Fee only
    basis.

    3- Only Ferguson-Granger's property at the busy intersection of Grand and
    Kalamazoo streets two blocks from the State Capitol were allowed to be
    considered as an appropriate location for an if-eventually-needed new
    State Police Headquarters. Existing State Police facilities at MSU, on
    Collins St., at Capitol City Airport, or even logical expansion of that
    section of hundreds of secured acres in Michigan's remote Secondary
    Complex already home to some State Police facilities were NEVER
    considered.

    4- Building a State office building on a floodplane is prohibited by
    Executive Orders from several previous Michigan Governors.

    5- Gov. Granholm is ignoring the Department of Management and Budget Act
    which requires the State to go through the full Capital Outlay process of
    open bidding for design, construction, and cost transparency services
    mandated to hold down costs to taxpayers.

    6- Michigan has long-standing policy prohibiting placement of state
    facilities in a floodplane. According to the Federal Emergency Management
    Agency (FEMA), Federal Home Security operations and State terrorism and
    natural disaster emergency response units cannot be located in a
    floodplane as proposed for Ferguson-Granholm's State Police Headquarters.

    7- High tech equipment and personnel currently functioning well in the
    State Police Headquarters on the Michigan State University campus can't be
    transferred, improved or insured at Ferguson-Granger's site because it's
    on a floodplane.

    8- Compared with the current State Police Headquarters, the Downtown
    Lansing location cannot physically accommodate any helicopters, large
    emergency vehicles, first response units and equipment, or sensitive
    communications facilities including installation, operation, maintenance
    and replacement of a telecommunications tower and equipment as originally
    promoted by Ferguson-Granger. Inadequate on-site parking means the State
    would have to immediately incur additional expense by purchasing or
    leasing more required parking space.

    9- Backpack bombs could be easily lobbed over the new five-foot fence
    next to the sidewalk by pedestrians or drive-by terrorists. Still very
    serviceable State Police facilities at MSU don't have such security
    problems.

    10- The full costs to the State for the Ferguson-Granger project have not
    been publicly disclosed. The real cost to taxpayers to purchase the
    Ferguson-Granger building would surpass $113 million when bond finance
    management costs, moving and new furnishings and equipment costs for 550
    State Police employees, real estate taxes, building management and
    maintenance fees, and payment of interest rate charges by grassroots
    taxpayers to pay back the proposed basic $71 million loan (bond) are
    figured into the deal.

    11- Despite calls last summer by State Representative Rick Jones (R-Grand
    Ledge) for an official State Auditor General audit "to determine how
    developers Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger were profiting from the deal",
    the majority of legislators agreed Oct. 1 with Granholm to implement part
    of the old 'agreement' by adding a $409,100 payment from the State of
    Michigan to Ferguson-Granger for one month's rent on their unfinished,
    vacant building starting this month.

    12- State Attorney General Mike Cox has advised legislators that the
    State is under no contractual obligation to occupy the Ferguson-Granger
    Building if Gov, Granholm simply decides not to pay the first month's
    rent of $409,100 by October 31, 2009.

    13- The State expenditure for the project would by law count against the
    State's bond cap in a period of State budget instability. This takes up
    room under the cap which could be used for deserving education or other
    competitively bid Capital Outlay Projects.

    14- If Granholm signs it, Senate Bill 253 would authorize State Budget
    Director Bob Emerson to again privately negotiate a blank check payment
    to Ferguson-Granger. A section of the bill states: 'This state is also
    authorized to pay any ancillary costs including estimated real estate
    taxes.' As Gov. Granholm's chief Cabinet advisor on fiscal matters and
    State accounting functions, Emerson illogically declared Gov. Granholm
    should appropriate whatever money Ferguson-Granger ask for changing their
    lease/buy deal for their building to an outright purchase 'because buying
    the building with State-issued bonds will save taxpayers $40 million
    compared to the lease/buy', which he advocated for two years up to
    Oct. 1. Taxpayers can't trust Emerson either.

THERE'S MORE TO THE FERGUSON-GRANGER STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS BUILDING STORY OF CORRUPTION

City of Lansing Property Tax Appraiser Maria Irish reports the Ferguson-Granger building has a '2009 True Cash Value of $13 million.' Gov. Granholm and the legislature's appropriation for the proposed new State Police Headquarters building mysteriously increased during the Sept. 30 late night legislative session from a $39 million lease/buy deal valued by Ferguson-Granger to a $52 million price tag for the State to buy it now.

Joel Ferguson, a statewide elected member of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, created a conflict of interest when he used his elected office to publicly suggest to the Lansing State Journal that there would be savings for taxpayers if the State Police Headquarters building on the MSU campus would be razed for a parking lot and the Headquarters moved to a new building (his) in Downtown Lansing.

State legislators know vigilant grassroots citizens from Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation were in the Senate and House galleries in our State Capitol on September 30 and October 1. Democrat and Republican State Senators voted 27 of 38, and State Representatives voted 64 of 110, in the dark of night to approve the $521 million annual appropriation demanded by Gov. Granholm for the Department of State Police

Buried on page 27 of the Substitute for Senate Bill No. 253 passed by 'suspending the rules,' and without disclosure to common taxpayers in attendance at 1:40AM and 2:05AM on October 1, were significant changes in a 'contract obligation' claimed by Joel Ferguson (major contributor since 2002 to Democrats) and Gary Granger (major contributor to Republicans).

Kelly Rossman-McKinney, head of one several Lansing public relations/lobbying firms retained by developers Ferguson and Granger, was permitted the unique privilege of maintaining contact with voting legislators throughout the evening of September 30 and early morning of October 1 by manning free food and non-alcoholic drink tables set up on the second floor of the State Capitol, between Gov. Granholm's office and the Senate and House chambers in session on the same floor.

The Oct. 1 final bill approved in closed legislative caucuses and Gov. Granholm's arm twisting turned out in print two days later to be even more of a sweetheart deal for Ferguson and Granger than their two-year-old deal.

News stories this week quote Gov. Granholm repeatedly saying she doesn't really consider the ($113 million) expense for a new State Police Headquarters Building will count to exceed the limitation on expenses of state government as stated in our Michigan Constitution, Section 28, (part of the 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation). 'We'll issue bonds and the Headlee Amendment doesn't apply to bonds,' Granholm alibis.

Gov. Granholm is not being truthful. She learned in 2002 that the Headlee Amendment does apply to bonds she would attempt to issue this year to pay Ferguson-Granger.

Bonds issued by the State of Michigan, by definition, are loans based on the good faith and credit of grassroots taxpayers who are obligated to pay back the loans with interest and finance charges from law firms, banks and bond brokers over a stated period of years.

Granholm turned hostile to education and 'Michigan Promise Grant Scholarships'

We in Taxpayers United have great concern for the ethics, integrity and motives of Gov. Granholm when she first urges the governing boards of Michigan's 15 state universities to hit enrolled underclassmen this semester with 7% average increases in tuition and fees, and room and board, and then imposes anxiety plagues on campus' statewide by vetoing the entire $112 million State appropriation of $1,000 to $4,000 she previously guaranteed each student in Promise Grant College Scholarships payable last month.

Meanwhile, she arrogantly proceeds with plans to reward two of the biggest political campaign contributors active in the State Capitol with her $113 million appropriation to buy the Ferguson-Granger building with funds previously committed to Promise Grant College Scholarships. Gov. Granholm has confused priorities required for the honest distribution of State appropriations best serving the public interest.

Gov. Granholm has time to do the right thing during her 'extended continuation budget negotiations with legislators' ending this Saturday, October 31.

She must scrap the Ferguson-Granger rip off and shift the $113 million to keeping state government's $112 million obligation to 96,000 students dependent on Michigan Promise Grant College Scholarships.

SOURCE TaxPayers United Michigan Foundation