I have listened to numerous presentations by Pete Hoekstra over the last few months in which he discussed his tax plan.  The one thing it is NOT is a tax increase.  How can it be described as a tax increase when the revenue from the tax plan he proposes is lower than today's tax revenue.  By definition, that is a tax decrease.

Nor does spreading the sales tax to services, when at the same time eliminating most all other state taxes to service businesses, make it a tax increase.  I encourage the reader to look at the proposal Pete Hoekstra has been advocating.  

His tax proposal eliminates the 4.35% state income tax on individuals, the current 6% sales tax, and most state business taxes and replaces them all with a 9.75% simple loophole free sales tax on goods and services.  To eliminate all the taxes service businesses pay today (MBT, Personal Property Tax, 6 mill State Education Tax, and business-to-business taxes, etc) and then exempt their retail sales from the new sales tax would be a complete shift of all tax burden to goods.  This would cause an extreme economic dislocation of resources and, because services are about half of all sales, result in a doubling of taxes on goods.

At a recent debate between Mike Bouchard, Mike Cox and Pete Hoekstra all had positive things to say about the MI FairTax proposal.  Apparently all of these candidates recognize the positive economic benefits of the proposal.  To date, only Pete Hoekstra has shown the political courage to advocate this issue before the voters.  He has taken the risk of taking on real tax reform rather than continuing the failed status quo by tinkering with today's broken tax system.  

The MI FairTax is a Constitutional Amendment that takes the control of taxes from the legislature and gives it to the people.  The Amendment prohibits the reintroduction of eliminated taxes and any tax increases without a vote of the citizens of Michigan!

It is great to hear candidates talk about tax cuts, but how successful has our state legislature been in delivering lower budgets and smaller government?  Why should we think candidates' campaign talk now will result in controlling the size and reach of our government?  What Pete Hoekstra proposes is throwing out the whole system that today is out of control due to the buying and selling of tax favors between our elected officials and special interests.

This trade has corrupted our representative form of government to the degree that our elected officials too often now represent the special interests rather than their constituents.  That is the root of our out-of-control government problem as government spending is too often a payoff for campaign contributions.  Many politicians find it easier to take lobbyist money than to go home to listen to constituents and ask them for campaign contributions.  Is it any wonder these politicians are unresponsive to their constituents?

I encourage the reader to follow the money when hearing detracting comments about the MI FairTax or candidates supporting it.  For example, the Michigan Chamber has strong support among its members for the MI FairTax, however the proposal was evaluated by the Chamber's Tax Policy Committee which is made up of corporate tax department managers, tax consultants, tax attorneys, etc. that would have their jobs/business drastically downsized if the MI FairTax was adopted (remember no more income tax returns and no more business tax returns, except for simple retail sales tax returns).  In essence, these Tax Policy Committee members were asked to evaluate a proposal that would virtually eliminate their jobs.  

What kind of advice do you think the Chamber Board received from this committee?  That is similar to the evaluation of the MI FairTax that corporate executives are receiving from their "tax experts".  That is why most business support for the MI FairTax in the Chamber and across the state is from small business owners as they don't rely so heavily on insecure tax experts to evaluate the proposal.  

In addition, a large amount of the Michigan Chamber's mission is to lobby for tax favors for their members and some there see the MI FairTax as a threat to the Chamber's existence, rather than an opportunity to rid themselves of the tax issue so they can address the many other impediments to doing business in Michigan.  Again, follow the money.

It is not healthy for Republicans to attack each other with false or misleading information in primary races as such statements will be picked up in the general election and be used by the opposition.  Inform yourself on the MI FairTax proposal.  It will give Michigan the most attractive business tax environment in America and bring jobs and prosperity to our communities and families in short order.

To learn more about the MI FairTax proposal visit www.mifairtax.org.

Respectfully,