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Posted on Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 4 p.m.

Mark Ouimet shows disregard for future with voting record

By Letters to the Editor

Here in the 52nd Michigan House District we see and hear a lot of advertising from Mark Ouimet, but we don't see or hear him openly defending his voting record. We also don't hear from him who his contributors are — don't big donors perhaps expect favors in return? Who and what might these be?

He has had tightly-controlled informational meetings that he calls "town halls," but has avoided answering these hard questions. Ouimet's voting record can be found at michiganvotes.org. Readers, take a few deep breaths, and then read as much as you can tolerate, including these gems, among many others:

HB 4480 — the pension tax on middle-income people, many of them already retired SB 1040 — the doubling of health premiums for some retirees HB 4361 — abolishing the Homestead Tax Credit
The above three bills are part of his attack on seniors. Other Michiganders also are paying the price for Mr. Ouimet's votes:
HB 5711 — the attack on women's rights and dignity HB 4470 — the denial of same-sex public employee benefits
He also voted to loosen gun restrictions, allow tasers in public places, and expand the time and types of fireworks that can be used and sold. All of these endanger public safety. Ouimet has mastered the art of political framing:
"spirit of compromise" means "we'll ram this bill through, because we can" "shared sacrifice" means "we'll target certain people in order to reward our friends and donors" "friend of educators" means "friend of those who want for-profit schools, not the students" "improved economy" means "I'd like to take credit for President Obama's auto bail-out"

A strong economy depends far more on demand than on tax cuts. Businesses that receive a short-term gain from Ouimet's votes should realize that, as a result, the new reality for Michigan's middle class — seniors in particular! — is much less spending for a time well into the future. How does that bring back our economy or create jobs in the long run? It doesn't. Ouimet continues to vote in a way that harms people and, yes, business too. Please, voters of the 52nd, we can do better than this. Jack and Angelika Lewis

Chelsea

Comments

bobslowson

Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 1:02 p.m.

Mark Ouimet is a liar who only serves his tea party masters!!

PineyWoodsGuy

Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:06 a.m.

Say what you will about Markie! He Will be re-elected because the Chelsea voters are "No Nothing" Republican voters. Romney + Markie = A Big Win on Election Night. Hey Dudes! Markie is not that Bad! He looks after his sheep in Washtenaw County!

SalineTeacher

Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 3:41 a.m.

I hope Driskell reports annarbor.com's in-kind contributions when filing her campaign finance forms.

NoSUVforMe

Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 3:25 a.m.

Bad human. Bad for Ann Arbor. Bad for Michigan. Bad for women. Oust this scoundrel.

A2democrat

Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 1:37 a.m.

Shocker! we get closer to the election and A2.com start to run another negative campaign on Ouimet. Has Mark made tough decisions? yes. Have most people in Michigan been asked to do more with less? Yes. However, a lot of these decisions had to be made because of the in-action of the past administration. I applaud Mark for most of what he has done, I do not agree with all of it but I know I am electing someone who makes informed votes. AS for the votes you list: The pension tax is not tax every senior. In fact, it taxes pensions over $20, 000 per individual or $40,000 per couple. For example of a retired couple has a pension of $48,000 only $8,000 would be taxed. Secondly, there are ONLY 2 other states in the county that do not tax pensions. My advice to those fired up over the pension tax move there. I would like to leave you with this. When this state and country has had it's back against the wall is when we are our greatest. Is Michigan back? No, not even close. However, progress is on the horizon and with bold leadership like Marks we will continue to venture toward prosperity. 4770 is far more than same sex benefits but it was never reported that way be specific news outlets( wink wink). Prior to 4770 if I worked for the state.civil service and had a friend of a non sexual nature live with me, they could have gotten benefits this was not aimed at same sex couples. I have no problem with gay marriage, but lets make it legal so partners can get benefits and not try and spin legislation.

Jay Thomas

Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 7:32 a.m.

Most people with pensions are in unions and support democrats --> the same democrats who believe everyone should pay their "fair share". So how is it that someone whose retirement vehicle is called a pension and makes 100k/year should be exempt and someone who has a 401k, IRA or just a bank account should liable for tax? The only answer is that (like in Animal Farm) everyone is not equal.

jake5950

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 11:54 p.m.

You have no idea how Mark has helped Michigan - you think the pension tax is bad? It does not hurt many of the lower income fixed-income retirees. Now people who are retired and making in excess of $100K start paying some state tax when they paid zero tax in the past. There are cases where a couples have income in excess of $250K and pay no Michigan income tax. Even the greater at the Wal-Mart has to pay tax on his income. And the death of the MIchigan Business Tax has helped Michigan greatly. From almost the worst place to do business to 12th in the nation. Mark did this and should be respected and appreciated. And, no, i am not his mother.

Susie Q

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 10:57 p.m.

Mr Ouimet fails to defend his voting record on raiding the School Aid Fund of 1.5 billion dollars for the first time in history. He touts his accomplishments (?), but fails to tout his votes on women's rights, domestic partnership benefits, raising taxes on seniors, voting to restrict voting rights, steering tax dollars to for-profit entities that cut wages and benefits for employees, etc, etc. I am sure businesses love him. But the average citizen.....not so much.

salineresident002

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 10:47 p.m.

"Tightly controlled town hall meetings"?? Yesterday he had the governor at Liberty School in Saline, all I had to do was rsvp for 4 people and my whole family got in. It was a great event. Who is his opponent?? Whoever is writing nasty letters like this is probably from their smear campaign. And some of these comments are just distasteful... He's got the state going in the right direction. I'll be voting for him again in november.

Foote

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 10:13 p.m.

Ever since he was on Ann Arbor city council and sold the city on a 1.2 million dollar loan guarantee (like a co-signature) for an addition to the old YMCA location on E William, I have held Mr. Ouimet in low regard. At that time he was on city council and also a commercial lender with Comerica bank (and of course that was the entity that made the loan). It was a bad loan and it could not be paid, the Y defaulted within the first 5 years, the city was left holding the bag for over $1mm. You can't blame Mark for the following series of events but the city thought - "we are already into this for over $1mm, lets just buy the old YMCA building!". What an exciting endeavor that cost another few million. Now of course it is a surface lot. Anyhow it all goes back to the bad loan sold to the city by Mark (and others). It was 25 years ago but I still can't get over it. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2706&dat=19950404&id=RPFJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1R0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1369,3597190

Rick Stevens

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 9:54 p.m.

When one looks at his record - failed bank, messy finances at Washtenaw County and then looks at his rubberstamp voting for big companies it's clear he's a failed in almost everything he's done. It's time for someone who can actually think and has accomplished something and that's Driskell. We got rid of Olson and Ouimet should be next.

Angry Moderate

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 9:22 p.m.

Nice--leave out the author's last name, after the author of the last anti-Ouimet letter to the editor was revealed as a liar who doesn't even live in Ouimet's district.

Angry Moderate

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 9:23 p.m.

Whoops, ignore that. I read "Chelsea" as the signature!

taxpayer united

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 9:14 p.m.

I like Mark and have voted for and will vote for again. Sorry.................

xmo

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:55 p.m.

After reading this I thought you were talking about a Democrat? "but we don't see or hear him openly defending his voting record. We also don't hear from him who his contributors are — don't big donors perhaps expect favors in return? Who and what might these be? He has had tightly-controlled informational meetings that he calls "town halls," but has avoided answering these hard questions."

Donald A. DeSmith

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:36 p.m.

I have always liked Mark Quimet and still do. He is part of the Michigan turnaround that we so desparately needed. And still need. We are not there yet but we are making progress on making Michigan a business-friendly place. No businesses = no jobs. We are still recovering from decades of auto-industry decline and 8 disastrous years of the Granholm Administration. We needed to take drastic steps to try to fix our enormous problems. These things are not easy or they would have been fixed in the 1970's. We need to increase our overall educational level. The ranking of prosperity across the 50 (or is it 57) states is very much correlated to educational level. Michigan is still the outlier (or upside down, if you want to call it that). We need everyone to graduate high school and all those capable to graduate college. Otherwise Michigan will continue its decline until it settles into its rightful place on the chart. I believe the most important book so far in 2012 is Coming Apart by Charles Murray. If you want to understand the decline in culture more broadly, this is a great book to start with. He doesn't provide a solution, to the great disappointment the all the social engineers out there. But he does describe the problem and the decline over the last 40 years. Very scary.

Balthazar Tarantula

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 9:08 p.m.

Ah, I guess you forget it was Engler who ruined the tax base in this state, not Granholm. And it was not Granholm who made the poor product planning choices that led to the auto industry's woes - that would be the people running the car companies, not Granholm. Charles Murray? He, of the American Enterprise Institute, the right-wing think tank? A man who blames working people for our country's woes, disregarding the changing economic landscape? I'll pass. What is scary is if we are unfortunate enough to have anyone in office who follows Murray's ideas.

Top Cat

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:31 p.m.

So bring back the good ol' days of Granholm with Gretchen Driskell? How about NO!

pseudo

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:30 p.m.

I think you are correct - nicely put!

observer

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:21 p.m.

may he be a bit too conservative for this website.......I think so......

nickcarraweigh

Tue, Oct 16, 2012 : 8:12 p.m.

Mr. Ouimet always has a smile and a shoeshine, except when he's thinking hard or he is in tennis shoes.