by Rick Thompson/September 16, 2017
MIDLAND- Friday was a bad day for Michigan House Rep. Gary Glenn, representing the Midland area.
On Thursday he introduced a new bill, HB4965. In the late morning hours on Friday, Shane G. Trejo of RightMI.com wrote about the bill and its anti-conservative nature. At 1 pm I wrote about the bill and how it would create a contradiction in law, effectively making it either unpassable, unenforceable, or both.
The bill’s proposal is this:
THE STATE TREASURER SHALL WITHHOLD ALL OR ANY PART OF ANY PAYMENT THAT A CITY, VILLAGE, TOWNSHIP, OR COUNTY IS ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE UNDER THIS ACT IF THE CITY, VILLAGE, TOWNSHIP, OR COUNTY ADOPTS A MEDICAL MARIHUANA ORDINANCE.
I challenged this bill’s introduction as a shining example of law enforcement using the Michigan legislature like a well-trained drug dog. The bill’s effect would be to neutralize the new medical marijuana business program (MMFLA) being rolled out by the Michigan government this year, and the next. “If Glenn’s misguided and hopefully-regretted bill were to pass, NO businesses could apply for the MMFLA.”
Trejo called Glenn out as a “a sell-out politician desperate to kiss up to Attorney General Bill Schuette…” Our current Attorney General was labeled by Trejo as a “scum-sucking stooge” who acts as “Dick Snyder’s top henchman,” a reference to current Michigan governor Rick Snyder.
And I was worried that saying “Idiot” was being too harsh!
At approx. 4:20 PM on Friday, Trejo’s website carried an update from a RightMi.com staffer who added this comment:
Representative Glenn reached out to RightMi.Com upon realizing the legislation he introduced is NOT what he had intended.
Glenn asserts that Mr Trejo is absolutely correct in his analysis, and that the legislation is a very significant distortion of what he instructed staff to do. Further he is working to withdraw the legislation immediately.
Rep. Gary Glenn himself responded to the Trejo article in the Comments section at approx. midnight on Friday evening with this:
“…I should have read the bill to ensure it said what I’d instructed. I didn’t. So I take my lumps with regret for the distress I’ve caused in this case to those committed to limited government.”
Dumping blame on staffers is standard operating procedure for politicians who get caught doing dumb things, but… in this instance, the entirety of the bill’s language is about the size of a Donald Trump tweet. Who doesn’t have time to read one sentence?
Anyway, the good guys win one. Glenn has apparently abandoned this bill, which cannot be withdrawn once it has been assigned a bill number.
I stick by my article’s final words:
“…the remainder of the House must be on alert for more screwy proposals like this one.
You can bet your bottom dollar, more will be coming.”