According to the FREEP:

"This tax is going to kill me. If it passes, I'm moving to Indiana," testified Dan Cherney, who said he quit the tool and die industry to start a landscaping company in Warren. The tax is scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, and landscaping companies would come under it.

"It would be a talent drain," said Tony Anthony of AKT Peerless Environmental Services in Farmington. He said the tax could force him to move to Cleveland.

Others, such as warehouse operators, said they would be forced to lay off employees.

The final committee vote on repeal... all 4 GOP members voted YES and all 3 Democrats abstained.  When asked about the Democrat voting behavior tax-hiker Gretchen Whitmer offered this to the Detroit News:

"A simple repeal today is untenable, it's fiscally irresponsible."

Then why, Senator, didn't you vote no?  No, wait, don't answer that... it's a rhetorical question.  Whitmer's already voted for the tax hike once, voted for the nearly $800 million a year income tax increase on struggling moms and dads and has consistently voted against cuts and reforms.  Obviously she doesn't want one more anti-growth pro-big-government vote hanging over her head if she can help it.  After all, she wants to be sworn in as Governor in January, 2011.

But despite Whitmer's big government daydreams the repeal passed out of committee and is expected to come before the Senate as a whole very soon.  The juice appears, at this point, to be there for repeal now that everyone sees just how devastating the SMALL part of the overall tax hike on Michigan residents is really going to be.  

The Senate is no cake walk, but it's the easy part.  The House is where things are dicey.

House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche has been working this issue since the Dems first approved the nearly $1.4 BILLION overall tax hike and the caucus has proposed a list of $677 million in cuts and reforms for this fiscal year.  More than enough to repeal the tax hike on services completely without replacing it.  

You can check out the list of proposed cuts here.

But first things first.  Before Andy Dillon and his tax-hike crusaders consider spending cuts and reforms they're going to have to repeal the job killing sales tax hike.  The House Tax Policy Committee has been hearing the same sort of testimony all week, meets again today and could vote by the end of the week on a repeal.

That's where you come in.  

PLEASE Read on...