Donna Scorse  made an appearance at the Wednesday evening meeting of the Gogebic County Commission.
She brought with her the latest draft for the regionalization of the local revolving loan funds. She also brought two resolutions for the county to pass or not pass. One says  we’re happy that you want to steal our money and will sign off on the theft.

The other says, well we need more time to think about the theft, but we’ll sign later after you answer our questions.
The coercion by the MEDC to regionalize may just be one of the most outrageous things we know of. At every turn, the MEDC has bribe promised reneged or outright tried to coerce local governments into submission.

At first Cathy Cole (MEDC) used the old carrot and stick trick, promising to put between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 into the regional fund. Since then they reneged.

 They also stated that they would give the local funds $50,000 a year for three years to offset administrative costs. Of course that too is now off the table.

The Lansing Banditos also promised to help de-federalize the program. Now they say sorry, you’re on your own.

While the MEDC and WUPPDR play good cop, bad cop time is running out. The Cole and her Banditos have given the local RLFs until February 28th to sign or else.

Fortunately, the County only has 4,000+ dollars in their fund. However, other governments have a great deal of money to lose. Ontonagon County has $350,000 left in their fund. It was stated that Baraga has $500,000 that Cole is lusting over and Houghton is sitting with several hundred thousand (that’s questionable).There are still some questions that need to be answered before the Western U.P. goes along with the extortion.

One real nagging question we have, does the state have the legal right to take back the money?
So far, none of the counties have actually approved the theft, although Houghton did sign the second agreement. No for now but ok to pick our pockets later.

Now why is that not a surprise? Houghton is home base for Whoppi Do WUPPDR, the needless layer of do nothing bureaucratic red tape that stands between us and our funding needs.
While Kim Stoker would like us to believe that he is only the messenger, his WUPPDR bank account stands to gain 20% of the stolen RLF funds. HMMMMMMMM!

Like the other counties, the Gogebic  Commissioners wisely chose to table the issue until their next meeting, awaiting further developments.
 Commissioner Don Pezzetti, advised the Commission that there is stimulus loan money available for repairs to the Medical Care Facility. The building is in dire need of Electrical and Plumbing upgrades. The county could borrow $400,000 to make the repairs.  It is believed that the $23,000 annual payment could be handle thorough the facilities operational revenue. The loan can be acquired at an annual interest rate of 4 percent.

Mr. Pezzetti, was not looking for Commission approval, merely providing the information.