ABOUT
Committee to Save Peaine
Good decisions are rarely made without good information and the Committee to Save Peaine is dedicated to providing Beaver Island voters with the requisite information to make a fully-informed decision on township consolidation. You may contact us by sending an email to nobitownship@gmail.com
Why we do this
Simply stated, we are worried that the proponents of consolidation will not provide a coherent argument for consolidation that is fully supported by reliable financial information. That is, we want to keep the proponents honest.
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The following thoughts should be self-evident . . .
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If we were staring with a “clean sheet of paper,” it’s unlikely that anyone would design our current structure comprised of two townships and no one believes that two townships are theoretically superior to one township.
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The question before the voters, however, is much more complicated. Concisely stated, the questions is . . . do the net tangible benefits of consolidation justify the consequential expenditures that will be required to complete the consolidation?
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Any savings will have to come from the townships’ general funds. Most township services (including the transfer station, airport, emergency services, health center) are already consolidated. The townships’ road funds are basically a pass-thru account and, accordingly, there are no savings to be realized by consolidation.
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This is far too important to ask the Island’s voters to base their decision(s) on the unsupported claims, idle speculation and conjecture.
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Having started this process, it is incumbent upon proponents of consolidation to provide reliable information (other than the technical provisions of the law.)
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The failure to provide such information creates an informational void and more responsible parties would have prepared this information before circulating petitions. Township voters would not accept this from elected officials and they should not accept it from unelected petitioners.
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