Gov. Granholm Terminates 96,000 Michigan Promise College Scholarship Grants; Instead Shifts Same Amount of Scarce State Money to Gratuitously Buy Ferguson-Granger's Unnecessary State Police Headquarters Building Nearing Comp

Gov. Granholm Terminates 96,000 Michigan Promise College Scholarship Grants;
Instead Shifts Same Amount of Scarce State Money to Gratuitously Buy
Ferguson-Granger's Unnecessary State Police Headquarters Building Nearing
Completion on Downtown Lansing Floodplane

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Before
technicalities are completed, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Michigan) still has a
chance to reclaim some of her lost trust with statewide grassroot taxpayers by
honoring her commitment to 96,000 students enrolled in Michigan's 15
taxpayer-funded universities with $112 million in Michigan Promise College
Scholarship Grants.

She's in the process of cheating college students in order to gratefully pay
Joel Ferguson (D) and Gary Granger (R) $113 million with borrowed debt money
from taxpayers to buy their almost completed building on a Downtown Lansing
floodplane for an unnecessary new State Police Headquarters.

Gov. Granholm has turned hostile to education and is arrogantly proceeding
with plans to reward two of the biggest political campaign contributors active
in the State Capitol with her $113 million appropriation to buy the
Ferguson-Granger building with funds previously committed to Promise Grant
College Scholarships. Gov. Granholm has confused priorities required for the
honest distribution of State budget appropriations to best serve the public
interest.

We grassroot taxpayers in Taxpayers United believe Gov. Granholm has the power
and duty to cite several legal problems as excuses that enable her to reverse
herself and take out $113 million from the record high $44.5 billion fiscal
year 2010 State spending budget she just approved October 30, 2009. She can
put $112 million back to immediately fund Michigan Promise College Scholarship
Grants. She promised 1/4 of 1% of the current fiscal year's State budget would
be spent on Promise College Scholarship Grants.

State legislators know vigilant grassroots citizens from Taxpayers United
Michigan Foundation were in the Senate and House galleries in our State
Capitol on September 30 and October 1 when funding for the education program
and the Ferguson-Granger State Police project for their own personal unjust
enrichment were secretly switched.

Granholm's breach of good faith by an elected public official is unprecedented
in Michigan. Her gratitude-motivated priority choice to fund the fatally
flawed project of two major political party contributors by breaking her
promise to let taxpayers further help educate 96,000 enrolled students is
scandalous and must be reversed.

We in Taxpayers United have great concern for the ethics, integrity and
motives of Gov. Granholm when she first urges the governing boards of
Michigan's 15 state universities to hit enrolled underclassmen this semester
with 7% average increases in tuition, fees, room and board, and then imposes
anxiety plagues on campus' statewide by vetoing the entire $112 million State
appropriation of $1,000 to $4,000 she previously guaranteed each student in
Promise College Scholarship Grants payable last month.

For seven years, two of the biggest political campaign contributors buying
influence in our State Capitol have been trying to rip off grassroots
taxpayers with a new five-story State Police Headquarters Building. On
speculation, they've proceeded to build on a federal floodplane at the
intersection of two heavily traveled roads in Downtown Lansing.

Ferguson and Granger are relying on a no-bid contract they conditionally
obtained under a previous legislature from Bob Emerson, Gov. Granholm's
appointed Director of the Michigan Department of Management and Budget, which
did NOT obligate current legislators and Gov. Granholm to buy their almost
complete but never occupied office building.

Ferguson and Granger's political influence as major campaign contributors paid
off during the night of September 30 when 27 of 38 State Senators, and 64 of
110 State Representatives, approved spending for the corrupt deal Gov.
Jennifer Granholm promised to legitimize by immediately signing into law.

The Oct. 1 final bill approved in closed legislative caucuses, along with Gov.
Granholm's arm twisting, turned out in print two days later to be even more of
a sweetheart deal for Ferguson and Granger than their two-year-old deal.

Granholm did sign the Substitute for Senate Bill 253, the $524 million
Department of State Police budget, which contains separate component parts of
the $113 million Ferguson-Granger deal, for the fiscal year normally ending
September 30, 2009, but which was extended this year one month to Oct. 31,
2009, through Sept. 30, 2010.

That state government spending for Michigan State Police alone amounts to more
than the half billion dollar value of all the gold found in King Tut's Tomb.

Corruption is evident in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to illegally divert
$113 million in State funds to aid and abet windfall profits for political
campaign contributor activists Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger who want their
new office building to replace the still serviceable $1-a-year State Police
Headquarters building in use on the MSU Campus in East Lansing. State
taxpayers have maintained and upgraded that building and surrounding
facilities and acreage annually ever since State Police Troopers officially
became part of State government in 1937.

Taxpayers United, a non-profit, non-partisan statewide organization founded in
1976 by Dick Headlee (deceased 2006) and Bill McMaster to successfully support
statewide grassroots citizen adoption of the 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation
Amendment into our Michigan Constitution, filed a 53-page lawsuit in 2002
against then Gov. John Engler (Taxpayers United vs State of Michigan et al,
Ingham County Circuit Court File No. 02-1404-AZ) seeking an injunction to
keep Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger from building the same State Police
Headquarters at issue today on the same downtown Lansing floodplane.

Over four months of court litigation still on permanent record, during which
Jennifer Granholm, in her then capacity as Michigan Attorney General, defended
Engler, the state legislature and the Michigan Dept. of Management and Budget,
Taxpayers United recorded evidence proving the pending 2002 State deal with
Ferguson and Granger would violate provisions of the Headlee Amendment and
State law.

While still Attorney General responsible for representing Defendants Engler,
et al, Granholm was elected Governor in November 2002. In anticipation of
taking office on January 1, 2003, Granholm was quoted on the Ferguson-Granger
State Police Headquarters issue in a December 24, 2002 Lansing State Journal
news story headlined 'Project worries Granholm, Engler hoping to OK lease for
$113M offices':"Whatever happens must take into account the state's bottom
line in light of the deficit," Granholm said. "I'm not interested in pursuing
endeavors that are going to create even further crisis than already exists.

"The state faces a potential budget deficit of between $1.2 billion and $1.8
billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 (2003). The Michigan
Constitution requires the state to have a balanced budget, which will
necessitate budget cuts."

Dick Headlee's failing health after retirement to low-tax state Utah
prohibited him from further participation in Taxpayers United after the MI
State Administrative Board declined, on the last day of Gov. Engler's term in
office in 2002, to finalize a $113 million State bond financing for
Ferguson-Granger's proposed new State Police Headquarters building.

After Engler finally killed the 2002 Ferguson-Granger deal, Plaintiff
Taxpayers United voluntarily discontinued its fight to defend the Headlee
Amendment in court. Judge Thomas L. Brown agreeably dismissed the case on his
way out of the courthouse to retirement in early 2003.

By 2006, Taxpayers United had evolved into the current non-profit,
non-partisan, statewide 'Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation'. Bill McMaster
is still State Chairman (Volunteer). Now a tax deductible educational
foundation under IRS Code 501(c)(3), its mission is: 'Helping educate
grassroots taxpayers how to defend and control their Constitutional Rights
despite exploitation by units of government'.

After steadily increasing political campaign contributions, Joel Ferguson and
Gary Granger were confident they had bought enough Democrat and Republican
political influence by 2008 to again push the State of Michigan to prioritize
appropriation of $113 million to be collected from overtaxed grassroots
taxpayers to pay for the same Ferguson-Granger State Police Headquarters
building scheme stopped by Taxpayers United's action in 2002.

It's also significant that Ferguson is more powerfully situated after serving
as the successful Michigan Campaign Chairman for the 2008 Obama for President
Campaign and on the Democratic National Committee.

Opposition to Gov. Granholm's present decision to take $112 million from
'Michigan Promise College Scholarship Grants in order to give $113 million to
Ferguson-Granger for rushed State Police occupancy in their building on Jan.
1, 2010 is based on many of the same questions answered on the 2002 court
record. They include:

1- State law and our Michigan Constitution are violated when Gov.
Granholm enters into a no-competitive bid contract worked out in secret to
build a $113 million state office building in Downtown Lansing without
following legal procedures for such a 'Capital Outlay Project'.

2- Other developers were never given the opportunity to submit bids or
competing proposals to the State on a Development Fee/Management Fee only
basis.

3- Only Ferguson-Granger's property at the busy intersection of Grand and
Kalamazoo Streets two blocks from the State Capitol were allowed to be
considered as an appropriate location for an if-eventually-needed new
State Police Headquarters. Existing State Police facilities at MSU, on
Collins St., at Capitol City Airport, or even logical expansion of that
section of hundreds of secured acres in Michigan's remote Secondary
Complex ten miles from the Capitol and already home to some State Police
facilities were NEVER considered.

4- Building a State office building on a floodplane is prohibited by
Executive Orders from several previous Michigan Governors.

5- Gov. Granholm is ignoring the Department of Management and Budget Act
which requires the State to go through the full Capital Outlay process of
open bidding for design, construction, and cost transparency services
mandated to hold down costs to taxpayers.

6- Michigan has long-standing policy prohibiting placement of state
facilities in a floodplane. According to the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), Federal Home Security operations and State terrorism and
natural disaster emergency response units cannot be located in a
floodplane as proposed for Ferguson-Granholm's State Police Headquarters.

7- High tech equipment and personnel currently functioning well in the
State Police Headquarters on the Michigan State University campus can't
be transferred, improved or insured at Ferguson-Granger's site because
it's on a floodplane.

8- Compared with the current State Police Headquarters, the Downtown
Lansing location cannot physically accommodate any helicopters, large
emergency vehicles, first response units and equipment, or sensitive
communications facilities including installation, operation, maintenance
and replacement of a telecommunications tower and equipment as originally
promoted by Ferguson-Granger.

9- Inadequate on-site parking required by Lansing zoning laws and State
labor union agreements mean taxpayers would have to immediately incur
additional expense by purchasing or leasing more required free parking
space for 550 of State Police employees. Those employees would/will also
have to start paying the Lansing Income Tax they don't have to pay in the
current East Lansing State Police Headquarters.

10- Backpack bombs could be easily lobbed over the new five-foot fence
next to the sidewalk by pedestrians or drive-by terrorists. Still very
serviceable State Police facilities at MSU don't have such security
problems.

11- The full costs to the State for the Ferguson-Granger project have not
been publicly disclosed. The real cost to taxpayers to purchase the
Ferguson-Granger building would surpass $113 million when bond finance
management costs, moving and new furnishings and equipment costs for
employees are figured into the deal. Not included were additional costs
for real estate taxes, building management and maintenance fees, and
payment of interest rate charges requiring grassroots taxpayers to pay
back the proposed basic $71 million loan (bond).

12- Despite calls last summer by State Representative Rick Jones (R-Grand
Ledge) for an official State Auditor General audit "to determine how
developers Joel Ferguson and Gary Granger were profiting from the deal,"
the majority of legislators agreed Oct. 1 with Granholm to implement part
of the old 'agreement' by adding a $409,100 payment from the State of
Michigan to Ferguson-Granger for one month's rent on their unfinished,
vacant building starting this month.

13- Several western Michigan legislators who had opposed the deal for two
years changed their votes to support the $113 million expenditure during
the midnight Oct. 1 legislative session in our State Capitol. Bank and
Ferguson-Granger lobbyists got word to Democrat and Republican backroom
caucuses, legislators' laptops and cell phones on the Senate and House
voting floors that Huntington National Bank in Grand Rapids, which had
already been losing millions, would be pushed over the edge if Ferguson
and Granger were not able to complete their State Police Headquarters
building deal with Gov. Granholm and repay their loan to Huntington Bank.

14- Last August, State Attorney General Mike Cox advised legislators
and Gov. Granholm that the State was under no contractual obligation to
occupy the Ferguson-Granger Building if Gov. Granholm simply decided not
to pay the first month's rent of $409,100 by October 31, 2009.

15- News stories this week quote Gov. Granholm repeatedly saying she
doesn't really consider the ($113 million) expense for a new State Police
Headquarters Building will count to exceed the limitation on expenses
of state government as stated in our Michigan Constitution, Section 28,
(part of the 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation). 'We'll issue bonds and the
Headlee Amendment doesn't apply to bonds,' Granholm alibis. Gov.
Granholm is not being truthful. She learned in 2002 that the Headlee
Amendment DOES apply to bonds she would attempt to issue this year to pay
Ferguson-Granger.

16- Bonds issued by the State of Michigan, by definition, are loans based
on the good faith and credit of grassroots taxpayers who are obligated
to pay back the loans with interest and finance charges from law firms,
banks and bond brokers over a stated period of years.

17- The State $113 million expenditure for the project would/will, by law,
count against the State's bond cap in a period of State budget
instability. A new bond obligating the good faith and credit of
grassroot taxpayers statewide to now buy the still not completed or
occupied Ferguson-Granger building for State Police Headquarters,
would/will take up room under the cap which could be used for deserving
education or other competitively bid Capital Outlay Projects.

18- If Gov. Granholm doesn't edit a new State Police Headquarters building
out of Senate Bill 253 she signed on Oct. 30, 2009, she is authorizing
State Budget Director Bob Emerson to again privately negotiate a blank
check payment to Ferguson-Granger. A section of the bill states: 'This
state is also authorized to pay any ancillary costs including estimated
real estate taxes.'

As Gov. Granholm's chief Cabinet advisor on fiscal matters and State
accounting functions, Emerson illogically declared on Oct. 1, 2009 that
whatever money Ferguson-Granger ask for changing their lease/buy deal for
their building to an outright purchase should be appreciated 'because buying
the building with State-issued bonds will save taxpayers $40 million compared
to the lease/buy,' which he advocated for two years up to Oct. 1. Taxpayers
can't trust Emerson either.

THERE'S MORE TO THE FERGUSON-GRANGER STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS BUILDING STORY
OF CORRUPTION

City of Lansing Property Tax Appraiser Maria Irish reports the
Ferguson-Granger building has a '2009 True Cash Value of $13 million. Gov.
Granholm and the legislature's appropriation for the proposed new State Police
Headquarters building mysteriously increased during the Sept. 30 late night
legislative session from a $39 million lease/buy deal valued by
Ferguson-Granger to a $52 million price tag for the State to buy it now.

Joel Ferguson, a statewide elected member of the Michigan State University
Board of Trustees, created a prosecutable conflict of interest when he used
his elected office to publicly suggest to MSU administrators and Trustees, as
reported by The Lansing State Journal, that there would be savings for
taxpayers if the State Police Headquarters building on the MSU campus would be
razed for an MSU parking lot and the Headquarters moved to a new building
(his) in Downtown Lansing.

Kelly Rossman, head of one several Lansing public relations/lobbying firms
retained by developers Ferguson and Granger, was permitted the unique
privilege of maintaining contact with voting legislators throughout the
evening of September 30 and early morning of October 1 by manning free food
and non-alcoholic drink tables set up on the second floor of the State
Capitol, between Gov. Granholm's office and the Senate and House chambers in
session on the same floor.

NEED FOR ACTION

Gov. Granholm must scrap the Ferguson-Granger rip off of grassroots taxpayers
and shift the $113 million back to keeping state government's $112 million
obligation to 96,000 students dependent on Michigan Promise College
Scholarship Grants.

SOURCE TaxPayers United Michigan Foundation

Bill McMaster, State Chairman (Volunteer) of Taxpayers United Michigan
Foundation, Cell: +1-248-798-8501