New Poll: Little Support for Dillon Plan

by: LiberalLucy

Thu Dec 17, 2009 at 09:29:42 AM EST

You probably remember the bomb that Speaker Andy Dillon dropped earlier this year with talk of consolidating the benefits for over 400,000 public employees including emergency personnel, public school employees, and current and retired state employees, in the form of House Bill 5345.

The East Lansing-based polling firm EPIC-MRA ran a poll regardless, and released the staggering results earlier this week. Only 22% of those surveyed would support such a measure if enacted. 

This is in addition to an additional poll that MRG came out with in September showing virtually the same thing - opposition was strong at 57 percent to 37 percent, and within that, 72 percent of GOP voters opposed the bill. (Which is further interesting, particularly if rampant rumors of a possible Dillon gubernatorial run as an independent.)

According to Roger Martin, speaking for the group Citizens for Accountability in Reform, hearings in the state House on HB 5345 have stalled and key witnesses have been not been allowed to testify.

“House Bill 5345 is viewed as bad and risky public policy by Michigan voters, and legislators who support it will find it to be toxic in 2010 and beyond,” said Roger Martin, spokesman for Citizens for Accountability in Reform, a growing coalition representing taxpayers, police, firefighters, teachers, insurance companies and others who are concerned House Bill 5345 doesn’t provide the reform it promises at a price taxpayers can afford.

Martin noted that a House committee holding hearings on the bill has announced that today’s scheduled hearing will be the last for possibly months, even though 10 more bills were introduced late last week to implement the $4 billion to $5 billion state government health plan.

“With an election year just around the corner, given Michigan voters’ overwhelming opposition to this legislation, it’s no wonder the committee doesn’t want to hold more hearings,” Martin said. “During the hearings over the past two months, so many witnesses have either voiced opposition or raised serious concerns, opposition to the legislation among voters has skyrocketed.”

Dillon's Health Plan: Devastating for Michigan's Public Service Employees

by: LiberalLucy

Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 08:01:00 AM EDT

Truer words were never spoken (via the Freep):

House Speaker Andy Dillon dropped a policy bomb Wednesday on Lansing to cut the cost of public employee health care and help the state address a whopping $1.7-billion deficit.

'Bomb' about sums it up. Dillon's plan may sound good, but once you get past the sparkle and glamor of the term 'statewide health plan' it's apparent that this just another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, or is it robbing Peter to help Andy get elected? *cough, cough*

Regardless, Dillon announced his plan yesterday with a full court press, pulling out the stops in the usual fanfare that we've all come to expect. The fact that some of the state's largest unions were barred from the press conference and had to wait to find out from the media themselves after the conference, is if nothing else, disconcerting.

Under Dillon's plan, public service employees, everyone from teachers to firefighters to police officers, to legislators and even the Governor, and their retirees, all told more than 400,000, would be swept into one massive health plan. He claims that it would save the state $900 million.

Well that sounds all fine and dandy, except when you consider that a move like this would essentially neuter any of these groups, particularly the unions, from being able to effectively engage in collective bargaining, a backbone that has ensured fair pay and labor practices, all things that these deserving folks might normally be blocked from. 

Also worth mentioning are the very strange bedfellows of the plan. Starting with the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) who's clashed with the teachers unions more than once, and ending with the very guy who tried to recall Dillon not that long ago - Leon Drolet.