| Please call the representatives on the “Calls to Make” list, below. (Feel free to call them all, if you have the time!) We need to inform these elected representatives that WE matter at least as much as they do, and that their selfish and callous behavior will be remembered at the ballot box!
Calls to Make for This Week’s Action:
Sen. Mike Shirkey, D16 – (517) 373-5932 Amt: $3,565,865 (Senate Majority Leader)
Sen. Jim Stamas, D36 – (517) 373-7946 Amt: $123,900 (Senate Appropriations Chair)
Sen. Roger Victory, D30 – (517) 373-6920 Amt: $1,094,407 (Assistant Majority Caucus Whip)
Rep. Tommy Brann, D77 – (517) 373-2277 Amt: $2,837,436 (5 Appropriations Subcoms)
Rep. Andrew Fink, Dist. 58 – (517) 373-1794 Amt: $316,698 (3 Appropriations Subcoms)
Rep. Matt Maddock, Dist 44 – (517) 373-2616 Amt: $76,300 (on 4 Appropriations Subcoms)
Suggested script for calling legislators:
I’m calling because I was appalled to learn that Rep/Sen ___ has taken $___ in PPP loans or grants from taxpayers for his/her own business/es while fighting for months to withhold $5.6 billion in aid for the people you serve. It’s time to release the remaining $2.6 Billion without extortion attempts or bullying. You were NOT elected to serve yourself first – but to serve the citizens!
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
While playing legislative games designed to push the Governor to relinquish her right to enact emergency orders in a pandemic, GOP legislators continue to withhold $2.6 Billion of federal funds from the growing number of Michiganders who need help with earned unemployment benefits, housing, and food assistance. Some of these withheld funds could also be used for school funding and preparation for a safe return to in-person learning. From the outset of the pandemic, Republican legislators have wanted everything fully re-opened, so that they (and their big business donors) could go back to business-as-usual. But they haven’t wanted to help citizens by allocating our tax dollars or enacting legislation that would support our common welfare or sensible public health safeguards.
We elect representatives to protect the commons and to ensure the welfare of the citizenry – and we expect them to put OUR collective needs, not their private interests, first. Elected representatives are expected to focus on the collective welfare and needs of their charge (the citizenry), and to act like a responsible and loving parent does. Like good parents in a solid marriage devoted to the raising of healthy and happy children, elected representatives must work together with each other and with outside forces (the executive branch in this case) to ensure the welfare of the citizenry. The GOP majority is far less focused on our welfare (and releasing the funds we entrust them with) than it is on playing political games with our money (extortion, anyone?!) in an ongoing attempt to dis-empower the Governor. While hundreds of thousands of Michiganders suffer, Republican legislators continue to deny, posture, and threaten – seemingly unable to stop showing us exactly whose needs they believe come first.
According to our research, Republican legislators have borrowed, collectively, $11,085,321 from the Small Business Administration’s “Paycheck Protection Program” under the 2020 CARES Act. These loans have an interest rate of 1% and up to 40% of the loan is forgivable. Research here is by no means complete, but we have found that some of the PPP relief loans and grants were requested by legislators for their own businesses, while some of the funds were borrowed by family members, or by organizations (i.e. churches and parochial schools) to which the legislator belongs.
At least fourteen members of Michigan’s House of Representatives and six members of the Senate have benefited from the use of our tax dollars for their own business purposes, while they force Michiganders to wait and suffer. Why? Because to them, their political power games come before people (apparently) – and their private profits come before people (assuredly). In their devotion to the Cult of Deceit (lies about the dangers of COVID19 and lies about our elections), Death (promoting policies that lead to death) and Dollars (prioritizing business over life, and their own businesses over the welfare of Michiganders), the GOP legislative majority has been endangering us all!! Twenty-three GOP legislators and the amounts of our tax dollars borrowed by or granted to them are listed below. For more details, see the spreadsheet here.
SENATORS RECEIVING PPP LOANS or GRANTS
Dist 16 – Mike Shirkey, (517) 373-5932: $3,565,865 – Senate Majority Leader
Dist 22 – Lana Theis, (517) 373-2420: $48,036 – (Signed letter to VP Pence to ask for delay of certification of elections)
(Senators Shirkey and Theis are long-time proponents of full “re-opening,” and have worked especially hard to curtail the Governor’s powers to protect us from COVID19.)
Dist 36 – Jim Stamas, (517) 373-7946: $123,900 – Appropriations Committee Chair!
Dist 30 – Roger Victory, (517) 373-6920: $1,094,407 – Signed letter to VP Pence to ask for delay of certification of elections
Dist 17 – Dale Zorn, (517) 373-3543: $28,600 – Signed letter to VP Pence to ask for delay of certification of elections)
Dist 38 – Ed McBroom, (517) 373-7840: $20,833 – Declared that the Governor was out to “emasculate” the legislature
REPRESENTATIVES RECEIVING PPP LOANS or GRANTS
Dist 77 – Tommy Brann, (517) 373-2277 : $2,837,436 – on FIVE Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist 93 – Graham Filler, (517) 373-1778: $100,892
Dist. 30 –Diana Farrington, (517) 373-7768: $741,257
Dist. 107 – John DaMoose, (517) 373-2629: $85,610
Dist. 56 – TC Clements, (517) 373-2617: $24,800
Dist. 58 – Andrew Fink, (517) 373-1794: $316,698 – on THREE Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist. 87 – Julie Calley, (517) 373-0842: $332,500 – Assistant Majority Floor Leader
Dist. 42 – Ann Bollin, (517) 373-1784: $428,300 – Assistant Majority FLoor Leader
Dist. 106 – Sue Allor, (517) 373-0833: $199,300 – on THREE Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist. 96 – Timothy Beson, (517) 373-0158: $27,500 – on FOUR Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist. 44 – Matt Maddock, (517) 373-2616: $76,300 – on FOUR Appropriations Subcommittees; joined suit to invalidate presidential electors; attended rally in D.C. on 1/6/21
Dist. 32 – Pamela Hornberger, (517) 373-8931: $96,770 – on School Aid Fund Subcommittee
Dist. 91 – Greg VanWoerkam, (517) 373-3436: $354,027 – on THREE Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist. 79 – Pauline Wendzel, (517) 373-1403: $56,779
Dist. 80 – Mary Whiteford, (517) 373-0836: $90,642 – on Vice Chair Appropriations (Standing); on TWO Appropriations Subcommittees
Dist. 36 – Doug Wozniak, (517) 373-0843: $307,469 – joined suit to invalidate presidential electors
Dist. 110 – Greg Markkanen, (517) 373-0850: $12,992 – joined suit to invalidate presidential electors
For Further Reading:
https://covidbailouttracker.com/program/paycheck-protection-program
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/10/covid-19-relief-funds-thomas-albert-gretchen-whitmer/6944780002/
https://www.michiganadvance.com/2021/03/11/gop-leader-falsely-claims-whitmer-has-literally-locked-people-in-their-homes-during-pandemic/
https://www.mlive.com/politics/2021/01/more-than-half-of-michigans-gop-senators-air-unfounded-election-concerns-in-letter-to-congress.html
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/12/4-michigan-congressmen-15-state-lawmakers-support-texas-suit-to-invalidate-election-results.html
https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2021/02/03/senate-republicans-reject-gov-whitmers-appointees-to-nmu-and-mtu/
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-gop-says-whitmer-has-emasculated-them-ante-fight-over-covid
https://gophouse.org/
(This is the official website for the MI GOP House Caucus. Many Representatives have made statements here justifying their failure to release funding, about how “unfair” the Governor’s pandemic orders are, how full re-opening of the economy is a priority.)
https://www.misenategop.com/
(This is the official website for the MI GOP Senate Caucus. Many Senators have made statements here justifying budget decisions, maligning the Governor’s pandemic orders while also pushing for school, sports and restaurant re-opening.)
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