When Representatives Don’t Represent Constituents

Here at Inside Government our mission is to help explain and provide insight into how our government works and to help empower citizens to take action by providing tools to contact representatives or sometimes just to raise another voice.

Sadly, it is becoming increasingly common that when citizens do take action–when first time letter writers decide to contact their representatives such as over the first $800 Billion Bailout last October or when people like me who blog about the state of our government and the actions of our elected leaders–our elected representatives feel it’s acceptable to whip out a form letter and send it off via email or postal mail; in most cases totally ignoring everything that we had to say in our letter, and that we took time out of our busy schedules to write.

Such is the case with a recent letter I sent off to my State Representative in Michigan, Gail Haines. But before I get to that letter and Representative Haines’ response, some background. Gail Haines is a Republican, and I voted for her to represent my district because her predecessor was unresponsive to the needs of us living in Michigan’s 43rd District. I was also inspired by Haines’ campaign and what she promised the residents of our district. Unfortunately, she has proven to be no different than her predecessors, no different from any other politician, and thus, even a bigger disappointment.

From her website:

Dear Voter: My name is Gail Haines and I am running for the 43rd District State House of Representatives. In 2006, disillusioned voters sent a message - “No more politics as usual and no more usual politicians.” I heard that message and accept that challenge. This state needs change. This state needs a new type of leadership. COMMON SENSE LEADERSHIP. It is for that reason and many others that I am running to represent you in the State House of Representatives.

In 2008, common sense leadership and fiscal conservatism must prevail. My platform will include the Three E’s - The Economy, Education, and the Environment. My agenda will focus on getting Michigan back on track economically while fighting for education and safeguarding the many waterways in the 43rd District. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your concerns. (Emphasis mine.) Support for me means principle over politics, experience and vision. For our families and for the 43rd, I am asking for your support.

Unfortunately, when Representative Haines meant no more politics as usual and no more usual politicians, she wasn’t referring to the practice of responding to the issues of her constituents with form letters sent off by staff without responding to the issues her constituents took the time and the energy to raise in the first place.

We all know that Michigan is hurting economically. But just because we are experiencing difficult economic times does not mean that we should give up on our core values. Deep inside all of us is an appreciation for the arts. For dance, for music, for theater, for film, for paintings and sculpture and for what defies labeling. The Michigan legislature wants to cut arts funding. I believe that doing so would not only deprive the citizens of Michigan of some of the beauty in our lives that arts funding makes possible–and which we all so desperately need especially now with nothing but bad news being reported nightly on television, but that cutting arts funding will worsen the economy in Michigan by eliminating thousands of jobs that depend on arts funding. So I wrote a letter to my representative and gave some very specific numbers and alternatives to an outright budget cut:

March 11, 2009

The Honorable Gail Haines
Michigan House of Representatives
PO Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

Dear Representative Haines:

I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your support for arts and culture in Michigan as well as your support for our state’s creative future.

Recently, you received a letter from me expressing my opposition to Governor Granholm’s Executive Budget Recommendations for fiscal year 2010. Not one to present problems without offering solutions, I ask that you read on to see what’s at stake for Michigan if these cuts progress as well as a proposal that I recommend the Governor and Legislature consider to prevent arts and cultural funding from disappearing.

As I stated in my previous letter, in Fiscal Year 2009, over $3.2 million of the $7.9 million in funding appropriated by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) was granted directly to arts and cultural organizations to hire and retain workers in support of local programming. If this funding is lost, potentially thousands of people will lose their jobs - adding to the already high unemployment rate in Michigan.

As you know, the state receives federal matching funds each year from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) estimated at $800,000. I am told that if this proposed cut is passed, the NEA will no longer consider the MCACA a “State Arts Agency” by definition and will no longer grant federal matching funds to the council. Additionally, Michigan will be the first state in 40 years to not provide programmatic funding for arts and cultural organizations.

Knowing what’s at stake, for not only me and my family but our state, I urge you to consider the following proposal for this year’s budget:

1. I ask that you retain funding for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs at $7.9 million for Fiscal Year 2010 as well as the $300 non-refundable grant application fee.

2. Work with arts and cultural leaders to pass legislation that would provide sustainable funding for arts and culture.

3. Legislation creating sustainable funding will include language that requires a percentage of revenue, not to exceed $8 million, be returned to the state’s General Fund over a two-year period. Following repayment of the 2010 bridge funding, the state will continue to receive a yearly percentage of funds received from the sustaining legislation provided funding is not raided.

In relation to this proposal, among a number of available possibilities for sustainable funding I offer three:

* Senate Bill 263, introduced by (Republican) Senator Tom George, capturing the income tax of out- of-state entertainers and athletes for funding of arts and cultural grants.

* Close the state’s tax loopholes and pass on the savings to arts and culture.

* Increase the tax on beer by $3 per barrel. This tax has not changed since 1966 when it was actually decreased.

Taking such an important proposal into consideration will allow the Governor and Legislature to not only save thousands of jobs in Michigan, but affirm state and nationwide that Michigan values arts and culture and
its creative future.

I thank you for your consideration of my proposal and, as a constituent and taxpayer, would welcome the opportunity to speak with you regarding my recommendations.

Sincerely,
Michael Cavin

Now I would like the readers of Inside Government to understand that I am not a lawyer. I am not a legislator. I am not a policy analyst of any kind. I am not a politician. In almost every way, I’m just an opinionated citizen, like most everyone else, who feels passionate about the arts, the State I live in, and who is hurting along with everyone else in the nation with the poor state of our economy. I understand that with decreased revenue from property taxes because of the falling value of homes and of sales taxes because people aren’t spending right now and because of decreased income taxes because so many people are unemployed that our state governments are experiencing budget shortfalls.

That is why I was as specific as possible in my letter to my State Representative, and I offered possible solutions. Now, if my State Representative was truly looking forward to meeting me and hearing my concerns, and if she truly believed in no more politics as usual, why would I get a form response like this:

Michael:
Thank you for contacting me regarding funding for the arts in Michigan. I appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.

I have supported the arts in the past and I understand the need and benefit for arts funding today. I hope you will understand that in times when our goal is to avoid cuts to Education funding, the arts will take an unfortunate back seat. Moving forward, I will do what I can to protect the arts in Michigan.

Again, thank you for contacting me regarding this issue. If there is anything I can help you with in the future please do not hesitate to contact me.
Gail Haines
State Representative
43rd District

Please note, that while she said she appreciated the opportunity to address my concerns, she did not address a single specific in my email to her, nor did she offer to call me to discuss them. Granted, my concerns are complex and it would take some time to respond via email. Unfortunately, Representative Haines chose to avoid any kind of meaningful response or discussion with me.

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from Representative Haines’ non-response, and all of them are negative:
1. She didn’t read my email at all. Instead, her policy is to have her staffers read emails and reply with boilerplate responses on any number of issues.
2. She has already decided what she will do, completely ignoring the thoughts, ideas, and wishes of me, and by extension, her other constituents.
3. Her “No more politics as usual and no more usual politicians.” slogan was just a lie she used to campaign on to get elected.
4. She read my email but doesn’t have the expertise to understand creative alternatives and chose a form letter boilerplate response out of expediency.
5. It’s not an issue that she cares about that she doesn’t want to spend the time or political capital working on.
6. She’s in over her head. As a first term representative she has realized that she really doesn’t have much of a say when it comes to governing in the State of Michigan and is just following what other politicians are doing and saying rather than leading and making her own decisions to represent the best interests of her district.

Gail Haines said: This state needs a new type of leadership. COMMON SENSE LEADERSHIP. Well common sense dictates that in a poor economy in a state with the highest unemployment in the nation, every measure should be taken to avoid the loss of another single job. Clearly, with the arts funding cuts, thousands of Michigan jobs will be lost. And Gail Haines will be partly responsible for those losses, and answerable to her constituents come Election Day.

Please don’t misunderstand, it’s not that I believe the solutions I suggested are the right ones, but I think they are common sense and that they have the potential to work. What I expect out of my elected representatives is not that they will always agree with me and do what I say to do, because as educated and informed as I try to be, I know I don’t know everything. But what I do expect is that they will listen, that they will hear me, that they will understand my position and make an attempt to respond to me in a specific way. Otherwise, what are they doing in office? What are they doing with staffers that we pay for with our tax dollars other than using them as a shield from the constituents they were elected to represent on promises of “CHANGE” and “LEADERSHIP” and “RESPONSIVENESS” and “COMMON SENSE”. Or is everything just a lie and a slogan for a new type of job that merely leeches on society with no real accountability except on election day, for which the wily candidate can campaign with a new inspirational slogan and conveniently blame the other political party for his or her inability to make the Change and show the leadership and be responsive with common sense solutions that he or she campaigned on to begin with?

When Representatives Don’t Represent Constituents
When Representatives Don’t Represent Constituents it’s incumbent on all of us not to give up. Instead, we must try harder. We must blog about their lack of leadership, their non-responsiveness, the way they ignore us when we contact them. We must send letters to our newspaper editors. We must raise awareness–whether through conversations with our fellow parishioners at church or temple, at the gym with our pick-up basketball teammates, or around the dinner table. We have to hold our representatives accountable.

It’s time for boilerplate language to end. When we elect a United States Representative or Senator, when we elect a Governor, when we elect a State Representative or State Senator or County Commissioner, we are hiring these people to do a job for us. We are paying them a salary with our tax dollars. We are paying for the electric bill and gas bill and phone bill for their office(s). We are trusting them to hire staffers and we are paying for their salaries and business expenses as well. We deserve far more than boilerplate language. Especially in this economy.

It’s up to all of us to hold all of our elected officials to a higher standard. Today, we are holding Representative Gail Haines of the 43rd District of Michigan to a higher standard. Representative Haines, we welcome your real response to my email to you, and should you make one, we will publish it in it’s entirety. We want to know your side, and your impressions of how our government works.

Thanks for reading.

-Mike Cavin

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4. Is he Senator Biden or Vice President Biden?
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