Sam Adams Alliance Connects Allies at Boot Camp
Our website states that our mission is to "connect and support citizen leaders who are working to defend liberty, hold the government accountable, and protect the rights of taxpayers starting at the state and local level."
And we mean it.
In fact, earlier this year, we did exactly that by connecting the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance with Chris Kliesmet and Orville Seymer of Wisconsin's Citizens for Responsible Government Network (CRG).
Chris and Orv formed CRG in 2002, after they and 11 others planned and executed the largest recall in Wisconsin state history and the largest successful recall in U.S. History up to that point.
Milwaukee County bureaucrats had meddled with the government employee pension plan to allow employees to retroactively collect retirement benefits if they'd worked past their retirement dates, to collect a bigger portion of their unused sick time at retirement—and to give several politicians million-dollar retirement payouts. Chris, Orv, and other citizens responded by launching a recall campaign against Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament—they had 60 days to collect at least 73,000 signatures, but at the end of 28 days, they had more than 182,000. Needless to say, Ament resigned.
When citizens across Wisconsin heard about this tremendous victory, they inundated Chris and Orv with phone calls asking for help. Chris and Orv then decided to start CRG in order to educate and empower citizens to hold their government accountable and deal with unresponsive, unaccountable elected officials. Since then, CRG has made great strides doing just that—in fact, with CRG's help, affiliate groups have successfully recalled 15 elected officials (out of 20 attempted), and one of them was even later indicted.
Enter the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance (MTA).
The current economic climate in Michigan is, to say the least, disastrous. The tax burden is high, the economy is floundering, families and businesses are fleeing the state in droves, and elected officials are racing to agree on a balanced budget by September 30—failure to do so could result in a partial government shut-down.
The last thing Michigan needs is higher taxes and more government spending—but elected officials just can't seem to grasp this crucial fact, and the MTA is working hard to show them they mean business when they say they're dedicated to stopping the state from increasing taxes.
When we heard about the MTA's efforts to stop out-of-control politicians in Michigan, we put them in touch with CRG-after all, who better to help deal with unresponsive elected officials?
So, earlier this summer, CRG and the MTA joined together in Michigan for a "Recall Boot Camp." During this program, which was put together by CRG, members of the MTA learned how to prepare and equip themselves to recall elected officials who vote for higher taxes—and who are more afraid of those who benefit from higher spending and higher taxes than citizens.
After Boot Camp, the MTA put their new education into action by filing paperwork to form recall committees against state representatives and senators who may support tax increases. Their efforts are working—politicians have gotten the message, and they're not happy about it. As September 30—the day a balanced budget is due—approaches, it will be interesting to see whether they heed MTA's warnings about tax increases.
If not, however, the MTA is prepared to respond—thanks to CRG's Recall Boot Camp program, and a connection made by the Sam Adams Alliance.
Join our network today to connect with like-minded community leaders like CRG and the MTA!
