The institute ran more optimistic and less optimistic forecasts, but under any of the scenarios, it concludes Michigan's current tax structure will be inadequate to support state spending, based on current policies.

While Michigan's constitution requires the state to annually balance its budget, the study highlights what's likely to be the heightening difficulty of that task.

http://crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/SUB/709240320/1033/toc

Unfortunately, the opportunity to address this problem head-on was never dealt with last month, and may rear it's ugly head in the form of yet another state government shut down as early as the end of this month.

Compounding this problem is the one-track solution consistently being bandied about by the Governor and supported by those in her party (and unfortunately a few Republicans as well), that any budget shortfall can be fixed if we just ratcheted up the tax rate/expanded the scope just a little further.

Being drowned out in this cacophony of support for tax increases by the MSM is the call, any call, to address what government should really concentrate spending its budget on.

To his credit: Sen. Bishop did have a proposed listing of cuts which would've been infinitely preferable to the income tax and mish-mash of service taxes (which are nowhere near to being finalized), yet these as of yet have gone nowhere.

Not being discussed is exactly what Michigan should be spending the money that it takes from its residents in taxes, or even better yet, how the budgets are created or prioritized.

Consistently raising taxes, especially in a depressed economy with a declining population will eventually see a negative return.

So before we dig ourselves into this collective hole with no way out, it is imperative that the problem should be addressed now, while there is still time at act. Instead of waiting for several years and reacting to each year's budget with a "shocked" and "surprised" response.

That having been said, I'm throwing out to the contributors here to submit their ideas on how to fix this problem.

And just so that I won't get anything about not having any solutions to bring forth of my own, here are my ideas:

Constitutional Authority: As I'm sure many of you are aware, the framework that our government operates on is our Constitution. This spells out what our state government's responsibilities are, and where they aren't.

My first idea would be to address state spending in areas that it has nothing to do with.

To address that, I would propose that all appropriations include the requirement that section of the Michigan Constitution that is relevant to that appropriation be cited. No citation, no spending. Ideally, this should be done as an amendment to the Michigan Constitution.

Our elected officials are supposed to be adhering to what's in our Constitution anyway, this would be an enforcement mechanism.

TABOR: My next suggestion would be an idea that has been implemented in Colorado (with much success) and is being looked at in Maine: Introducing a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) into the Michigan Constitution.

Colorado's economy grew phenomenally after its implementation of TABOR. Given Michigan's economic woes, we can use an industrial strength dosage of whatever picked up their economy right here, right now.

Now, this is the part where you can jump in. List some of your ideas below. They can be specific cuts. It can be consolidations. They can be procedural changes. But list something that can be collected and can be used in the future, instead of having to contend with yet another tax hike shoved down our throats at some future date.

Lee Iacocca used to have a saying several years ago," Lead, follow or get out of the way."

I don't know about anyone else, but I have no plans to follow anyone on another tax increase. I have no plans to get out of the way of those who feel that they can spend my money better than I can. But I do want to take the lead and get the ball rolling on ideas that we can use next time around to defeat a new round of tax hikes.

Make your ideas good ones. The money you save will be your very own...