Joseph Whall, president of the Whall Group, an Auburn Hills-based forensic accounting firm, said Wednesday it sounds like he'd qualify for a tax cut under the lower rates found in the compromise plan.

"I've got to have my guys look at it in the morning, but what you're telling me sounds like I'm going to save some money," he said. "I'm for any reduction in taxes. We can't attract businesses, we can't keep businesses, until we revitalize the tax base in this state."

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone in the state understood ecnomics as well as Mr. Whall does?  I know, he's a forensic accountant and that's a lot to ask.  Then wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a cursory understanding of economics so they could comprehend what he told the FREEP?  

So the devil's in the details but he seems pleased.  How about some of the state's business organizations?

"We're pretty pleased," Todd Anderson, vice president of government relations for the Small Business Association of Michigan, said late Wednesday. "If you ask the average small-business owner, they'd obviously prefer to pay no tax at all. But, overall, it's much better than the Single Business Tax."

But Sarah Hubbard, vice president of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber, a leading business group, called the evolving compromise a "mixed bag for us."

She applauded the large reduction in the personal property tax that businesses pay on equipment, and the lower tax rates for existing Michigan businesses. But she said the compromise is still too complicated, though less so than the SBT.

"We are concerned that this is still a tax that is not found in any other state," she said late Wednesday. She added, "It would really help from an economic development perspective if we had something that was more easily comparable to our competitor states."

And there's that stick out tax rearing it's ugly head.  Time's going to tell on this one.  If nothing else I'm pleased that now, at least, both sides can get to work bringing spending in Lansing in line with revenues.  Heck, the Senate even went along, by in large, with the House MBT (though they won a few victories along the way), proving a willingness to compromise and cooperate.  Now it's time for them to put on their battle armor and do some stretches because there's a long and protracted battle on the horizon.  

The stakes really couldn't be much higher.  You can read about them every day.  Today, for example, swing over to the Ann Arbor News.  

Facing a painfully slow market, revenue that fell 60 percent from 2005 to 2006 and mounting debt to suppliers like Fingerle Lumber Co., home builder Craig Welch began to cut.

He cut the size of Wexford Homes' Saline headquarters.

He cut allowances for mobile phones, cars and gas.

He cut salaries.

And finally he cut people, dropping Wexford's employee count from 30 to 11.

"We tried to look at everything in the company to see what we could do,'' said Welch, who, along with Wexford co-owner Bill Collins, isn't taking a salary this year.

"We had to get by on less.''

Just one example of the effects Michigan's housing market is having on builders, suppliers, realtors... you name it.  As "FOR SALE" signs continue to pop up in lawns, seemingly unable to ever come down, the effects on the economy are beyond just another house on the market.  People are loosing their jobs.  Even out there in Google boom-town.

And while all that's going on the left still wants to raise taxes?  

Finally, and half-way on the lighter side (if you ignore the fact someone could have died), the Oakland Press is reporting this morning that 2006 Senate candidate and current Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard made the collar himself on a shooting suspect yesterday!

"She was really horsing it up Telegraph," Bouchard said. "I was trying to stay on the radio with dispatch, and once a marked car got behind her and activated his lights and we pulled her over together. It's like riding a bike, you know."

Jaclyn Gornbein, 47, was arraigned in 52-1 District Court in Novi on Wednesday on charges of domestic assault and reckless discharge of a firearm.

Deputies were called to a home in the 8000 block of Woodspur in Commerce Township after a man called 9-1-1, saying his wife fired a shot at him with a handgun about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

When they made the arrest they found a loaded gun in the glove box of the car too.  All things being equal I'd rather have Bouchard in DC but I know at least one guy in Commerce Township who's glad he's still wearing black in Oakland County.