| Lessenberry agrees, Proposal 5 is so stupid that defeating it should be the primary concern of every decent and informed citizen of Michigan. It's defeat is more important than passage of the other four proposals in front of it (and defeat of the one after it is pretty important, too). Lessenberry talks to Rich Robinson, who we last saw standing up to Ruth Johnson's dumb citizenship questions, said that it appears that Matty Maroun has decided that we're going to have a publicly owned second span to Canada that he's just going to destroy the state. By the way, this is a terrible example of how to do campaign journalism. Down at the bottom, there are exactly the same number of people for it as are against it. There's another little something circulating on the Internets that shows a list of who's for it and who's against it. The list against is like two columns. And, by the way, the list of people in favor of it includes no one currently responsible for writing a state budget. It's Mike Bouchard and Bill Schuette. Plus, Matty Maroun and Grover Norquist, who's not only not a citizen of the state of Michigan but who also curiously threw his hat behind Proposal 6 ... almost as if he peddled his ass to Matty Maroun for Maroun's bankrolling of Proposal 5. Finally, if we haven't quite had our fill, here's the Freep, pointing out that hamstringing the Legislature from doing its job doesn't translate into less state spending. It just means that local governments are more apt to raise local millage rates or, if they bump into Headlee, probably just institute fees for stuff like local recreation program. Like summer softball? If Proposal 5 passes, don't discount the possibility that the cost of it won't go up. Finally, we go to a pro-side Op-Ed piece. Why is it that these people always appear to have the cognitive abilities of a spent toilet paper tube. For many Michigan families who are struggling to make ends meet, increased taxes on our income, gas, food, and everyday services like haircuts can make the difference between making it and not making it. These are all taxes politicians in Lansing are currently or have recently tried to increase.
Hey, guess what? Nobody's asking for a tax hike. And, I don't know when anyone seriously tried to expand the sales tax to food, but taxing services is something we ought to be doing. Services account for a large portion of economic activity that is currently untaxed. Manufacturers of consumer goods get taxed, service providers do not. |
