Politico Who Understated City Debt By $215,000,000 In Open Letter To Newspaper Complains About “Misinformation”

by P.D. Lesko

Fifth Ward Council member Mike Anglin sent out an email on January 15, 2012 in which he urged Ann Arbor residents to vocally oppose John Hieftje’s proposal that Ann Arbor enter into a regional transportation agreement under the auspices of which Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) would be dissolved and the entity’s millage money would be “repurposed” without a vote. Anglin writes: “At the last Council meeting Mayor Hieftje presented a proposal that could have a detrimental effect on the bus service in Ann Arbor….Jane Lumm, Steve Kunselman, and I do not support this transfer of city taxes to a county wide transit authority. But we are a minority on Council. We need you, the citizens of Ann Arbor to express your opinions to influence the Mayor and others on Council. Tell them that you, the citizens, voted for this tax and you expect the right to vote on any transfer of money to a county authority.”

The email is unprecedented. The three Council members go public with their overt rebellion to the Mayor’s anti-democratic move aimed at simply taking $10 million in property tax money without a vote of the people.

In response to one of his constituents who’d received Anglin’s email, Third Ward Council member Christopher Taylor writes:

From: “Taylor, Christopher (Council)” <CTaylor@a2gov.org>

Subject: RE: AATA countywide proposal

Date: January 15, 2012 10:35:21 PM EST

To: “XXXXXXXX (home)” <xxxxx@comcast.net>

Dear Mr. XXXXX,

Thank you for your message.  There has been a good deal of misinformation about this proposal.  You raise some excellent questions.  The precise transit plan is not yet fully formed, but the agreement’s very purpose is to put a framework into effect that will allow for the creation of that plan over the next few months.

Please too rest assured regarding Ann Arbor’s millage.  No millage dollars will be transferred, or increased, without the approval of Ann Arbor voters.  The full funding plan (as well as the full transit plan) will be created for residents to review and consider as they vote whether to move forward with the County-wide system.  Ann Arbor will not participate unless its voters give their approval.

Thank you again for letting me know your views on this.

Best,

Christopher

On March 3, 2011 Council member Christopher Taylor sent out an email to Ward Three constituents that purported to “explain” the extent and reasons for the city’s ballooning debt load. AnnArbor.com published Taylor’s assertions in its print version, and the next day followed up online with a piece that excerpted portions of Taylor’s email. Taylor writes, “As you will see from the attached documents, Ann Arbor’s long term debt – its mortgage debt, if you will – has increased from in $119M in 1999 to $246M in 2010.  This is a substantial change and you should understand the reasons behind it.  The short answer is ‘Infrastructure’.”

Alas, by March 2011 Ann Arbor’s total long-term debt had quadrupled from $119 million to $461.133 million, not merely doubed to “$246M” as Mr. Taylor “explained” to Third Ward constituents in the error-riddled email he shared with AnnArbor.com and, which in turn, AnnArbor.com shared with its readers.

Taylor’s incredible $215,000,000 financial blunder won him an A2Politico.com Weekly Whopper.

So, it seems particularly precious that Taylor should complain in response to a constituent email sent to him about to Anglin’s January 15, 2012 call to arms that, “There has been a good deal of misinformation about this proposal.” Taylor is referring, of course, to Hieftje’s proposal to transfer city property tax money to a county-controlled transit entity—all without a vote. In addition to his mewling and puking about alleged “misinformation being spread,” Taylor’s assertion that “no millage dollars will be transferred, or increased, without the approval of Ann Arbor voters” is also misinformation.

A vote is only required if a county-wide transit millage is placed on the ballot and passes county-wide but fails in Ann Arbor. That’s not very likely.  The so-called 4 party plan Hieftje supports also considers funding options that do not require any public vote — such as public/private partnerships.

It appears that the Hieftje Hive Mind Collective is falling back on its tried and true defense: “everyone else is misinformed.” However, with the sound thrashing of former Second Ward Council member Stephen Rapundalo by Jane Lumm in the November 2011 elections, and the even sounder thrashing of Honorary Hieftje Hive member DDA Board member Joan Lowenstein in the comment section of AnnArbor.com after she complained there that Ann Arbor voters who tossed Rapundalo out on his ear were “old,” “stingy” and “Republican,” the public seems less and less inclined to believe everyone else is “misinformed,” or spreading misinformation.