by P.D. Lesko

The headline at Salon.com says it all: “America’s Corporate Tax Obscenity: A new report about companies’ finances won’t just enrage you it’ll make you run to the nearest protest.”

Salon writer Andrew Leonard writes: “Altogether, according to ‘Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10,’ a blockbuster new report put together by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that will have you reaching for your hypertension medicine before you finish reading the third page, 37 of the United States’ biggest corporations paid zero taxes in 2010. The list is a blue-chip roll-call.”

The authors of the report sum up the situation even more tartly: “Most Americans can rightfully complain, ‘I pay more federal income taxes than General Electric, Boeing, DuPont, Wells Fargo, Verizon, etc., etc., all put together.’ That’s an unacceptable situation.”

On the list? DTE Energy. Yeah, the company to which Ann Arbor folks make out our utility checks every month. Unlike your family, DTE Energy paid no income taxes between 2008-2010 on its huge profits. With some of the money they didn’t pay to the federal government to cover their fair share of, well, anything, the company’s Political Action Committee donated to local Dem pols who are decidedly unprogressive when it comes to grubbing after campaign funding.

A local Democratic politico who asked not to be identified summed up the local campaign financing situation thusly: “Many of Ann Arbor’s current elected local officials come very, very close to the definition of the term ‘$2 whores,’ when it comes to whom they’ll accept campaign donations from. It’s a serious problem.”

How serious?

In 2009, First Ward Council member Sabra Briere raised a total of $4,500 to run for re-election. She committed a campaign finance violation and took $2,000 of the $4,500 she raised from local developer Dennis Dahlmann (she also got a thoughtful $300 donation from Dahlmann’s attorney, Steve Zamorwitz). It was Briere, along with Fifth Ward Council member Mike Anglin, who subsequently pushed to have Dahlmann’s proposed development of the Fifth Avenue Library Lot parcel get a second look after the project had been axed by the Council committee in charge of evaluating the proposals.

In 2010, John Hieftje and his political pals were running as the pure-blood “progressive” Democrats. At the same time, Ann Arbor’s mayor and First Ward Council candidate Sandi Smith were taking money from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters— a union whose PAC supports Republican candidates and county Republican parties. It’s tough to sell your fairytale facade as the uber-progressives with donations from a PAC that supports Republican candidates mucking up your campaign finance disclosure forms. The $1,000 donation John Hieftje “took” from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters on July 29, 2010, was reported as a “late” donation in the post campaign filing. That the donation was made “late,” meant it could be kept secret until after the election.

On Labor Day, a piece in the Detroit Free Press about the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters appeared. Titled, “Breaking with Dems, carpenters union planning to back Snyder,” it was reported that: “The carpenters union supported Republican Dick Posthumus’ gubernatorial bid in 2002, and has given money to Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and the Oakland County Republican Party. John Hieftje, Dick Posthumus, and L.Brooks Patterson. There’s a picture worth $1,000 words, don’t you think? Union officials from the  Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters held a press conference on Labor Day to announce that the group’s PAC was backing Republican Rick Snyder whose running mate, Brian Calley, favors making Michigan a right-to-work state. Go figure.

In his 2011 League of Women Voters debate against a Republican opponent, Third Ward Council member Stephen Kunselman railed against the Downtown Development Authority Board, which he has called a “shadow government.” Kunselman alleged that Ann Arbor city government has a problem with cronyism. The DDA Board members are appointed by John Hieftje, and many of those same board members routinely donate hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to the campaigns of current Council members whom Hieftje endorses, as well as Hieftje-supported candidates such as Ingrid Ault and Neil Elyakin. Ault and Elyakin ran in the 2011 Democratic primary in the hopes of knocking off Kunselman and Fifth Ward Council member Mike Anglin, both of whom can be relied upon to ask tough questions about Hieftje’s development schemes, such as the Fuller road parking garage.

A2Politico posted a poll on October 14, 2011 that asked voters this question: “What Are YOUR Issues In This Upcoming City Council Election?” Of the over 900 people who voted, more of them were concerned about political corruption and cronyism in Ann Arbor city government than with protecting the environment, or even infrastructure. In fact, concern about political corruption and cronyism in Ann Arbor city government ranked third out of a long list of issues behind government spending and safety.

If the campaign finance forms of many of the city’s current elected officials are any indication of the ethical and moral compasses of those serving on City Council, Ann Arbor residents have every reason to be worried.

As for taking donations from the company Citizens for Tax Justice have dubbed one the nation’s top “corporate tax dodgers,” here in Ann Arbor that seems to be a no-brainer for local fauxgressive politicos. A quick visit to the campaign finance watchdog site FollowtheMoney.org, and one sees that DTE’s largest political donations have been to House Republican Campaign Committee of Michigan, the Michigan Republican Party, Senate Republican Campaign Committee of Michigan and the House Republican Campaign Committee of Michigan. In 2010, DTE gave the majority of its donations to Republicans in the Michigan Senate and Dems in the Michigan House.

Locally, the DTE Political Action Committee is supporting Second Ward Council member Stephen Rapundalo in his current bid for re-election, has repeatedly donated to John Hieftje’s campaigns, as well as to former Third Ward Council member Leigh Greden—including the campaign he ran in 2009, when he lost by 6 votes to Stephen Kunselman.

[polldaddy poll=5642080]