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My Thoughts on the Current Tax CrisisBy Jack Brandenburg, Section News
 Greetings to everyone here at Right Michigan. In light of the House Democrats' decision earlier this week to adjourn without addressing an onerous, job-killing tax hike scheduled to go into effect tomorrow at 12:01 AM I think it's important to look back at where we've been and examine once again where it is we should be going. Our state constitution mandates that on October 1st of every year, Michigan's budget has to be balanced. This year there was a 1.8 billion dollar deficit in the budget for fiscal years 07/08. The Governor stated numerous times in a very public way that she wanted to cover this deficit with a 1.5 billion dollar tax increase. For the record, I did not and will not ever support an idea as weak as this. When deficits occur, slapping a tax on the public is the easiest thing for elected officials to do. The state of our economy dictates that we move away from the status quo with reforms and a very serious restructuring of our government. The Governor has been very blunt in her ideas on how to extract billions of dollars from the public. Her favorite idea was a 2% tax on all services. Another idea she considered was increasing the state income tax rate from 3.9% to 4.4%, a 15% increase. She considered charging a 6% sales tax on all entertainment type activity. And when the dust settled at the end of this budget process she'd succeeded in foisting on Michigan residents a $1.5 billion tax increase with a compliance cost on businesses of nearly a billion additional dollars. Read on...
We've constantly read and heard about this debate in Lansing. You already know what my position is on this issue. One thing you won't hear too much about is that the Governor has an additional 1.75 billion dollars worth of spending increases built into and throughout the budget. If I were the Governor, I would have frozen spending to that of last year's spending levels. I would then force all department heads to cut their budgets by 3% for fiscal years 07/08. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can make do with 3% less for a year.
I will make no bones about this: I am a fiscal conservative, and I always will be. Being a business owner for the last 27 years has taught me that if I don't have revenue to buy inventory, I won't buy it. As a taxpayer myself, I am dead tired of all the entities that depend upon tax dollars always crying poverty and wanting more. My reaction to that is to make do with what you have, because taxpayers are maxed out. Michigan has been suffering from a structural deficit now for seven years. A structural deficit is a deficit that will exist in bad or good economic times. (That's scary.) Therefore, we have to address the structure of the spending and restructure the way Michigan does business, with no exceptions. If I were the Governor, I would not hesitate for one minute to make the necessary structural changes to put our economy back on the path to prosperity. I learned in Economics 101 that you do not extract 1.5 billion dollars via a tax increase, then expect an economy to grow. Listed below are what I think are some basic common sense reforms that I want to fight for:
Remember that deficits do not occur because we are taxing too little, they occur because we are spending too much. As always, it is my pleasure and my honor to serve the people of the 24th District, and the taxpayers of the State of Michigan. Thank you for what you are doing in your communities. I hope you won't hesitate to leave a comment or to email me at: jackbrandenburg@house.mi.gov
My Thoughts on the Current Tax Crisis | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
My Thoughts on the Current Tax Crisis | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
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