Tag Archives: proposal 1

The problem in Michigan…

Well….as everyone predicted, proposal one to fix the roads here failed by a huge margin…and, as predicted, the repubs are misinterpreting the result to mean that the people here support their tax cut at all cost policies that have put us in this mess over the past 6 years. What these idiots need to do is to read the polls of why people voted no…the largest being that the legislature abdicated its responsibility to the state and the people to maintain the infrastructure just to give tax cuts to corporations and the rich. The problem is that tax cuts do not work…let me say that again…tax cuts do not work to spur growth or increase tax revenues…never have, never will…and the giveaway over the past 6 years of repub control is estimated to be 3.5 billion dollars…more than enough to repair the roads, fix the schools, and to share the revenue with our cities, which is where the growth comes from…not giving tax cuts to millionaires with the blind hope they will invest and create jobs. Now, let’s put an end to the idea that we are overtaxed, too…that honor goes to Minnesota who has a tax rate that is 30% higher than Michigan and has outpaced us in growth every year…and they fund their schools, fix their roads, and their cities are thriving. We need to stop this tax cut nonsense that has put many repub controlled states into this same downward spiral we see here in Michigan…and stop the faith based economics that has kept Michigan from the growth it could accomplish with a rational tax policy…I don’t mind paying a little more in taxes…just as long as it doesn’t end up in a CEO’s pocket like the last tax cut for corporations did….geez…

No on proposal 1

Well…if you don’t remember, there is an election tomorrow to vote on whether to raise the sales tax here in Michigan to repair the terrible roads that all of us drive on. I am going to vote no on this proposal for a number of reasons…the first being that sales tax increases are hardest on the poor and middle class as a percentage of their income and that is not a fair way to pay for infrastructure projects. My second reason is that the people who do the most damage to the roads, corporations that use them for commerce, won’t have to kick a dime in to pay for all that damage…where is the tax increase on them to help? On top of the sales tax increase, the proposal would raise the registration fee on every car by almost $50 dollars per car that normal folks can’t just write off as corporations do. To raise the the 1.3 billion dollars that this proposal is supposed to raise, why not just rescind the 1.3 billion dollar tax cut the corporations got that was paid for by me and other people living on their retirement savings? This proposal is just another failure by the repub run legislature to do their jobs as they were elected to do…never before did a sitting legislature in Michigan abdicate their responsibility to do what was necessary to keep the state moving…I think it’s just a ploy for them to be able to say they never raised taxes…that the people did…what a bunch of crap…geez…