The October revenue report for the state of Michigan has been released, and there’s very little good news to be had. Revenues were again below the most recent projections. October saw tax collections that were $31 million below expectations. The best real-time indicators of economic activity, sales taxes and income tax withholding, are both...
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George Heartwell
Fiscal Armageddon – Time for Tough Choices
Mayor Heartwell to Taxpayers: Drop Dead
Last week the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority board approved the expenditure of $850,000 to help the city buy five new DASH buses for the downtown parking lots. The catch is that mayor Heartwell asked the DDA to kick in extra money so the city could buy hybrid-electric buses instead of standard buses. The...
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Proposal 2: Mayor Heartwell and the U of M
The fallout from Proposal 2 continues. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell has apparently decided that he wants the taxpayers of the city to pay for a federal lawsuit to stop the implementation of Proposal 2. Heartwell uses the same logical contortions of groups like BAMN to try and make an argument that banning racism...
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Oh boy
We just got a preview of the Grand Rapids City Commission’s upcoming agenda. The resignation of Robert Dean from the commission created an opening which the commission needs to fill. Candidates were interviewed yesterday for the appointment. The interesting thing is that Mayor Heartwell says that the second round of interviews for the three...
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Grand Rapids State of the City 2006
Mayor George Heartwell starts his State of the City 2006 Speech by summarizing past state of the city speeches and reviewing accomplishments pertaining thereto. First, he starts with cooperation between the city schools and the city government. Nevermind that his 2004 state of the city touted cost savings as a primary goal of collaboration...
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State of the City Annual Follow-up
Each year we’ve looked at past State of the City speeches to see what was proposed and what was actually accomplished. See last year’s analysis, as well as 2004‘s. A quick recap: Two years ago, the mayor trumped more money for schools, city-school partnerships in administration, and more environmental education. He accomplished essentially nothing...
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Mayor in Panic Mode
Grand Rapids mayor George Heartwell held a rally in the Creston neighborhood on Monday to continue his so-called “rebellion” against cuts in Community Development Block Grants. The mayor, along with all the big-government spenders are panicking lately because of reduced revenues to local and state government. But the real kicker is the mayor’s quote...
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State of the City Analysis
Mayor George Heartwell gave his state of the city speech for 2005 on January 15th. First, let’s go over last year’s state of the city speeches. He gave three, but only two were available online. In his first 2004 SotC speech, Heartwell concentrated on education. His fluff-filled tome focused on adult literacy, city/schools operating...
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Hold on to Your Wallet!
The era of big government is just beginning… The newly-installed Grand Rapids mayor George Heartwell gave his second state of the city speech last week at the Rotary Club downtown. His message? More government is needed to improve the regional economy. He essentially outlined three initiatives that included more funding for downtown, a bigger...
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