Candidate Questionnaire for Tea Party Activists

Name of candidate, and office sought: ___________________________

Part 1 — These specific measures received votes in the Michigan Legislature. How do you think you would you have voted?

1. Bills to provide substantial tax breaks for ethanol and biodiesel producers. ­_______

2. Bills that would increase unemployment insurance assessments (taxes) on employers by $70 million annually in order to get $139 million in one-time federal “stimulus” money. ______

3. An amendment adding $9.5 million for low-income youth dental programs in Wayne County. _______

4. A bill allowing local convention and tourism bureaus to levy a 2 percent hotel and motel room tax to support regional marketing and promotion programs. ­_______

5. "Revenue enhancment" bills to extend for another six years "temporary" increases passed by the previous Legislature in business incorporation fees, investment advisor license fees, etc. ­_______

6. A bill to spend $60 million raised by borrowing against future tobacco lawsuit proceeds for tourism industry promotion. ­_______

7. A bill to allow local school districts to levy a "sinking fund" property tax millage that could be used for certain operational expenses (2008 vote and 2009 vote). _______

8. A bill to allow teacher union locals to bargain over a school district privatizing non-instructional services. ­_______

9. A bill to require unions to annually seek written permission from each individual worker before using that worker's union dues for political purposes. ­_______

10. A bill to require MESSA (the MEA teacher union's insurance affiliate) to release individual school district claims history data. ­_______

11. A bill to impose renewable energy mandates on electric
utilities. ­_______

12. A bill to scale back Michigan's electricity competition law. ­_______

13. A bill to prohibit drilling for oil and gas underneath the Great Lakes (slant drilling). _______

14. Bills to allow local government borrowing (bonding) to cover the cost of government retiree health care benefits (2006 vote and 2009 vote). ______

15. A bill making state government employee post-retirement health benefits an enforceable obligation on the state. _______

16. Bills voted on in the House and Senate that let local school districts increase property taxes by up to 1 mill to operate swimming pools, recreation centers, auditoriums, conference centers, etc. as a "recreation authority." _______

17. A bill to hand out millions of dollars of cash subsidies to Hollywood producers who shoot films in Michigan. _______

Part 2 — General Candidate Preferences

1. Would you support repealing a 22 percent Michigan Business Tax surcharge passed in 2007, and replacing the $700 million it raises each year with budget cuts? ­_______

2. Will you sign a "no new taxes" pledge? _______

3. Would you support replacing some Michigan prisons with privately managed prisons? _______

4. Would you support "voucherizing" higher education funding so the money follows the students rather than the university? _______

5. Would you support shifting Michigan State Police road patrols to county sheriff deputies if this would save money? (This is strongly opposed by the MSP.) _______

6. Would you support placing all new school employees in defined-contribution pension systems? _______

7. Would you support repealing the "prevailing wage" law that requires union-scale wages to be paid on school and other state construction projects? _______

8. Would you support a "Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights" Constitutional amendment that limits state tax and spending increases to the rate of inflation-plus-population growth? _______

9. Can you name three state government programs that you would introduce legislation to eliminate?

See also "Tea Party Activists Have Attitude" and "Ten-Minute Tea Party Activist."

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