Lobby that got $14.6 million from MI taxpayers stages Sandbox Party convention to lobby for more government spending

(Genuine) Tea Party supporters are already fuming about the dirty trick of a (fake) "The Tea Party" political party created with the assistance of Democratic Party operatives; another abuse of democracy this week may add to their ire: A government entity that received $14.6 million of taxpayer money in the current state budget organized a publicity stunt to lobby for more government spending, called the "First Ever Sandbox Party Convention" in East Lansing.

The culprit is the "Early Child Investment Corporation" (ECIC), a government entity created in 2005 explicitly to expand the size, scope, reach, budgets and spending of government welfare, preschool, social work and related programs. This was accomplished through the device of an "interlocal agreement" between the Department of Human Services (the state welfare department) and Intermediate School Districts, which are among the recipients of any additional taxpayer loot the entity extracts. ECIC is essentially an adjunct of the DHS and appears on its organization chart.

The "interlocal agreement" gimmick may sound familiar to those who have followed the Mackinac Center's home child care worker "stealth unionization" lawsuit, which was perpetrated by another such contract between DHS and Mott Community College.

Here's how the press release prepared by a Lansing PR firm hired by ECIC described this week's event:

Thirty-five hundred people from across Michigan — parents, grandparents, children, policy makers, elected officials and others — hooted, hollered and made their voices heard at … the first-ever Sandbox Party Convention today.

The candidates for Michigan governor — Republican Rick Snyder and Democrat Virg Bernero — each got a rousing reception from the crowd, which included scores of families, some from as far away as Delta County in the Upper Peninsula. Four busloads of kids and families came from Lenawee County."

It's likely that taxpayers picked up the tab for those buses as well.

The event was promoted solely for political action — ECIC officials even boasted about timing it during the week before the two major state political party conventions.

E-mails show stealth unionization of Michigan home day care workers, midwived by Granholm administration, designed to set up money conduit from DHS to unions

The organization set up as the employer of 40,000 home-based day care workers, some of whom were unionized without their knowledge, was a union-driven experiment without legal or administrative precedence that had the support of the state's Executive Office, according to a batch of e-mails involving union members and the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council.

One e-mail suggests that the MHBCCC's true role was to act as a shell corporation simply charged with moving money from the Department of Human Services to employee unions.

The e-mails, included in a Freedom of Information request by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, reveal a terse discussion between the employee unions and members of the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council over the handling of union dues collected.

In a convoluted set up, the Michigan Department of Human Services and Mott Community College got together to create the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council (MHBCCC) as the employer of home-based day care workers. The state says there are as many as 70,000 home-based day care workers. Those that collect money from the state for low-income clients are included in the union. The MHBCCC negotiates with the day care union Child Care Providers Together Michigan. The MHBCCC collected $2.5 million in union dues in 2009, according to its financial statement.

The Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services after some day care providers complained that they were unionized against their will.

The most revealing e-mails are from Nick Ciaramitaro, director of legislation and public policy for AFSCME Council 25.

His e-mails suggest that the MHBCCC's true role was not to improve day care conditions but to facilitate union negotiations and the transfer of money from the Department of Human Services to unions.

Mackinac Center fights Michigan's bid to force home care owners to pay dues to SEIU

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation will appeal the case of Loar v. DHS to the Michigan Supreme Court, according to Director Patrick Wright. Wright and his clients, home-based day care owners Sherry Loar of Petoskey, Michelle Berry of Flint and Paulette Silverson of Brighton, will discuss the case at a press conference Wednesday at 9 a.m. outside the Hall of Justice in Lansing.

The public-interest law firm brought suit against the Michigan Department of Human Services in September on behalf of home-based day care providers who were forced into a government employees union and had dues withheld from state subsidy payments provided to low-income families. In late December, the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the case without explanation.

At least 40,000 home-based business owners and millions of dollars were affected by the DHS/union effort to designate the providers as government workers for unionization and dues-collecting purposes. The MCLF is suing to prevent the DHS from collecting dues from the providers. The brief will be submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court Wednesday morning.