For Immediate Release
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012
Contacts:
Ted O'Neil, Media Relations Manager
989-631-0900
or
989-513-3970

MIDLAND — All five constitutional amendments in Michigan were soundly rejected by voters Tuesday, including two that received heavy union backing that would have locked collective bargaining for government union employees and a dues skim that has taken $32 million from Michigan’s most vulnerable residents into the state constitution.

“Today, the voters of Michigan sent a clear message,” Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio said of the Proposal 2 defeat. “The voters put workers, taxpayers and job creators above special interests. Michigan avoided making government unions a super-legislature that would have the ability to effectively veto laws passed by our elected representatives. The move also allows reforms to continue that will save taxpayers a projected $1.6 billion annually.”

Vernuccio also noted that with President Obama the projected winner at 53 percent in Michigan and Proposal 2 being defeated with close to 60 percent of the vote, this shows that many Democrats voted against labor’s interests.

"The defeat is a major setback for organized labor across the country and further shows that the reforms in states like Wisconsin and Indiana were not a blip, but a national trend that is gaining momentum," he added. “This is a sea change and shows that unions can't assume that Democrats will rubber stamp their agenda.”

Proposal 4, a scheme that would have allowed the SEIU to continue taking $6 million a year from family members who provide home-based care to loved ones, was also soundly rejected.

“Home health care options and a registry and training for care providers was not the issue here, but the SEIU chose to attach them to the poison pill of forced unionization and also attempted to preserve their scheme in the state constitution,” said Patrick J. Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. “Voters saw through it. This is the third time in three years that a forced unionization ploy has failed in Michigan. Perhaps they’ll eventually get the message.”

Proposal 3, the “25 x 25” renewable energy mandate, received little support.

“Voters weren’t willing to risk billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to support a mandate that is not financially stable,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy. “If the market could sustain such ventures, it would already be doing so.”

Proposal 5, which would have required a two-thirds majority of the state House and Senate to approve a tax increase, also appeared to get swept up in the anti-proposal sentiment.

“Voters will have to be diligent when state legislators start talking about tax increases instead of making tough budget choices,” said Michael D. LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative. “As we saw in 2007, politicians have no qualms about crafting a budget they know exceeds revenues and then increasing taxes to avert the overspending crisis they’ve created. We also learned in 2007 that legislators who vote ‘no’ on tax increases will generally vote ‘yes’ when it comes to spending that money.”

Proposal 1, a referendum on the emergency manager law, also lost, meaning that Public Act 4 of 2011 is repealed.

“With the defeat of Proposal 1, the emergency financial manager law that was put in place in 1990 goes back into effect,” Hohman said. “That will help municipalities and school districts that could potentially face bankruptcy, but strip them of powers to fix the problem.”

Proposal 6, which would have required a vote of the people before any new international crossing could be built by the state, also was defeated.

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Michigan voters resoundingly voted down attempts to change the state constitution Tuesday.

Most notably, union-backed efforts to benefit themselves by changing the state constitution were soundly defeated.

Proposal 2, which would have enshrined collective bargaining in the state constitution, lost in a landslide 58%-42%, as did Proposals 3 through 6.

F. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor relations at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said it was telling that President Barack Obama fared well while Proposal 2 was defeated.

“It shows the Democratic Party is not knee jerk union anymore,” Vernuccio said. “It shows how much of an overreach it was that even Obama Democrats voted against Prop 2. … The defeat is a major setback for organized labor across the country and further shows that the reforms in states like Indiana and Wisconsin were not a blip, but a national trend that is gaining momentum.”

Proposal 2 supporters spent more than $20 million to try and get special union privileges enshrined in the state constitution, and that apparently didn't sit well with voters in Michigan.

"It was obvious to us from the start, that this proposal was never about giving union workers additional rights, but instead was a power-grab by union executives intent on keeping their stranglehold on workers and their dues," Terry Bowman, a UAW member and president of Union Conservatives, said in an email Tuesday night. "Union officials have wasted our dues on a project doomed to fail from the beginning."

In the closest race of the night, voters also rejected the referendum Proposal 1, which allows emergency managers to continue operating in failing municipalities and school districts. Proposal 3, the attempt to put a 25-percent renewable energy mandate into the state constitution, was defeated by double-digits. As was Proposal 4, the SEIU scheme that allowed the union to take $6 million a year from family members who provide home-based care to loved ones.

Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center, said the skimming of union dues will end at the latest when the collective bargaining agreement between the SEIU and Michigan Quality Community Care Council expires in February.

The SEIU has taken more than $32.7 million from the elderly and disabled who get Medicaid money in Michigan since 2005. Although the money to support Proposal 4 was paid through a committee and a recently created non-profit organization, the SEIU reportedly spent more than $5 million on the campaign, and possibly as much as $9 million.

"The people of the state recognized an underhanded scheme when they saw it,” Wright said.

Proposal 5, the 2/3 tax amendment that would have required a super-majority vote of the legislature to get a tax increase or a new tax also was resoundingly voted down. And Proposal 6, the international bridge and tunnel proposal supported by Ambassador Bridge Owner Matty Moroun lost, as well.

Here are the results of the ballot proposals:

Proposal 1: Referendum on the Emergency Manager Law – No 52%, Yes 48%

Proposal 2: The 'Collective Bargaining' Amendment – No 58%, Yes 42%

Proposal 3: '25 x 25' Renewable Energy Standard – No 63%, Yes 37%

Proposal 4: The Unionization of Home-Based Caregivers – No 56%, Yes 44%

Proposal 5: The Two-Thirds Majority Tax Limitation – No 69%, Yes 31%

Proposal 6: The International Bridge/Tunnel Voting Requirement – No 60%, Yes 40%