Zero gained revisionism business tax?  Income tax increases discharging set rollbacks from the highest income tax rate in the history of this state?  Reduction of the homestead property tax credit?  A minuscule 0.38% of the proposed budget in "savings" on public unions that still would yet have to be negotiated to attempt to "bring their compensation in-line"?  Another $47 billion budget proposed that is ballooned to the size of Jennifer Granholm's final budget?

FerChrissake.  Snyders' budget proposal has done little more than round the corners of a square wheel.

Q: Let's look at the budget ... starting with taxes. There's a shift here in the tax burden -- heavier on individuals now and lesser on business than it was. How do you defend that to critics who were already saying you're balancing this budget on the back of this group or that group and there's no guarantee this will create jobs?

A: In many respects, it's not just on the backs of business. Businesses are real people too. Are they getting out of paying tax because they're a business? No. They're going to pay the individual income tax rate. They've been paying it, plus they were paying the MBT. Just because you're a business, just because you're the people that are the engine that create jobs, you should pay over 10 percent, when all the rest of us are paying four percent? That doesn't make any sense.

Taxing pensions was not an easy decision.

Whooooa, dude?  You serious?

It is a tough call because they are real people. They're being asked to go pay the same rate the rest of us are. A lot of this is to level the playing field in a constructive way. Social Security income is fully excluded.

Huh?  Tough call... real people... pay the same as the rest of us... level playing field... SS is exempt?  Hey, wait a minute... I see what you just did.  Thankfully I had my trusty, handy-dandy bullsh!t detector on when I first read that, though it is a shame that it melted.  Hey, Gov. "Tough decision", here's a concept seeing that you preach less complication in tax code and equality...  sh!tcan the income tax and the business tax altogether and replace them with a consumption tax, in essence, simply by just modifying our current state sales tax.

Yah, yah, I know... something like that would leave a whole gaggle of collection weenies down at the Treasury Department with little to do without those quarterly's and the April deadline being nonexistent.  Not to mention it'd prolly be too damned FAIR SHARE based on what one freely chooses to buy.

Q : If you let the personal income tax continue down to 3.9 percent, then you have a political argument that you have cut individual income taxes in addition to the 6 percent business tax. Why not let that continue to a scheduled 3.9 percent? Why stop it at 4.25 percent?

A: I think it's being financially prudent to stop it at 4.25 (percent). You can always go back and reevaluate that issue.

Oh?  Gov. Snyder, would you please provide one example, just one, of anywhere in the State of Michigan's history that income tax has been reevaluated resulting in a permanent reduction, starting with Gov. Romneys' famous "If not now, when? If not us, who?" speech in 1964 that created a flat 2% personal income tax, a 3½% corporate profits tax, and a 5½% income tax on financial institutions?  Wouldn't your proposed budget be the same old Romney/Milliken kicking the can in concept?  I know, Gov. Snyder will have to 'get back with us on that'.  Carry on...

Our tax rate is very competitive compared to our surrounding states.

Competitive?  Just competitive?  What happened to all that corporate talk of "benchmarking" touted along with those gimmicky dashboards at the SOTS?

On personal income, other than Indiana, we're quite a bit lower than all of the surrounding states.

Hmmmm, now what makes Indiana so special that they kick our ass when it comes to tax?  Let's see... Indiana has about 3.4mil less people than Michigan (not counting Michigan's 140,000 illegal aliens), and a little less coercive... Oh wait, I betchya it has sumpin' to do with Indiana being in the Blue Column.  To that all I can say is, I see another opportunity for benchmarking.

Q: Do you worry about the impact of $1.5 billion in new taxes on individuals and the impact it'll have on economic growth in the state?

A: There could be some elements of that.

Oh, there will be a lot of that "worry" when the geezers figure out that they get stuffed not only on their pension checks but on the homestead property tax credit too.  But, what the hell, somebody needs to get tapped for those yet negotiated 0.38% of the proposed budget in "savings" on public unions comp.  That's the breaks geezers.

In a lot of ways, we're putting in a net reduction of over $200 million in taxes. So, total taxes is a reduction. This is a tax cut.

A 0.42% of the proposed budget tax cut?  Whoohooooo!  Yah buddy! Gov. Snyder, please put away that Paul Bunyan sized axe you wild man before you whack away everything vital.

Q: You're going to be going to your employees for a $180 million in savings. What sort of concessions are you looking at? What sort of savings are you looking at?

A: There's an opportunity to do more premium sharing for medical insurances, post-retiree medical, there's opportunities for savings there. I believe most of those numbers can come from areas other than wages and salaries. There's a lot of opportunity to be working together to make a benefit package that is more cost effective and more in line with the private sector.

Pay close attention to that 'opportunity' word, geezers.  Remember how that 'opportunity' worked out for our new Treasurer Dillon.  Also remember, your SS checks were left alone for this budget proposal.  Coincidence?

Q: What's you anticipation on how many communities will need emergency financial managers?

A: There could be a number. Our encouragement is to get people to adopt these best practices before they ever need a financial manager. By adopting these practices there are a lost of opportunities for cost efficiency.

Translation:  Quietly we have been actively training many for a Phalanx that will perform a pincer movement as each failed Democrat led city that glutted their public unions to keep their elected offices presents itself.

Q: Do you have the option to appoint Dave Bing as emergency financial manager of Detroit to give him perhaps more of the power he needs to fix things?

A: That's not on the table at this point. That's not something I've considered.

Flashback to Gov. Snyders' first SOTS... "The governor's office has traditionally had a Detroit office, but we will do more. Thru this partnership, we will create an Office of Urban Initiatives to proactively address issues in Detroit and the rest of the urban areas."

In other words, nobody would take the shortest straw drawn, and a whole new department has to be created to avoid rioting.

Q: If this budget gets through intact, can you assure the folks of Michigan it will create jobs, it will lead to job creation and how soon can we see a return on this investment?

A: I can't guarantee things. I firmly believe in it. The whole track record of what we're trying to do is really solid. To say we're financially responsible, it is the environment for success and building for the future.