Some were done right off of the bat, like tax hikes on income and pensions (it's all about "fairness" you know) that were included in, but not in any way shape or form necessary for last year's MBT repeal.

Some new taxes were done below the radar like the Medicaid tax.

Fortunately, some never quite got off of the ground like the new death tax.

A little over a week ago, the SFA released a very eye-opening report regarding the status of the state's revenue until 2014 which effectively put the kibosh that notion.

Contrary to what the self-professed nerd claimed was actually necessary, Michigan is actually projected to be bringing in more revenue in the coming years.

Let me say that again: The Republican initiated tax hikes of last year will collect more money than the state government actually needs to operate.

According to the SFA report for FY 2010-11:

- GF/GP (General Fund/General Purpose) and SAF (School Aid Fund) revenue totaled $20.1 billion, up 8.6% from FY 2009-10.

- On a baseline basis, GF/GP and SAF revenue was up 7.1% in FY 2010-11.

FY 2011-12 projections were slightly less due to factors like tax credits for businesses filing under the MBT "Option" (but overall expected to have been worse):

- This revised estimate for FY 2011-12 is down 1.5% or $303.3 million from the revised estimate for FY 2010-11.

• The revenue projected for FY 2011-12 marks the first decrease in revenue since FY 2008-09.

• The revised estimate for FY 2011-12 is $393.1 million above the May 2011 consensus revenue estimate.

But in FY 2012-13:

- This revised estimate for FY 2012-13 is up 0.8% or $160.2 million from the revised estimate for FY 2011-12.

- While the revenue increase in FY 2012-13 reflects improvements in the level of economic activity, the increases are reduced by substantial negative impacts from changes in business taxes. However, unlike in FY 2011-12, the negative impacts do not exceed the gains.

And finally for FY 2013-14:

- This initial estimate for FY 2013-14 is up 2.3% or $458.8 million from the revised estimate for FY 2012-13.

- As in FY 2012-13, the revenue increase in FY 2013-14 reflects improvements in the level of economic activity, although substantial negative impacts from changes in business taxes still reduce revenue.

There's no nice way to put this: Michigan Republicans, you've been flimflammed by the governor.

That very sobering fact been said, Michigan Republicans no longer have an excuse not to act.

If they truly believe in the concept that people should keep more of what they earn, the first step is to publicly renounce what they have done last year.

Speaker Bolger and Senator Richardville need to call a joint press conference and admit that what they did was wrong and against to what they and their party believes in.

Admitting that you made a mistake is the first step towards correcting it.

Secondly, they need to announce that they will begin initiating repeals of all of the unnecessary tax hikes they imposed like those on pensions, income taxes, anything that was slapped on the producing class here in Michigan last year. If they don't want to be that bold, at the very least they should implement one tax cut at a time if they're worried about next year's revenue projections, but giving our money back should be on their top ten list.

Now some members of the legislature will squawk at the mere suggestion of that idea.

Buh-buh-but what about the {fill-in-the-blank-of-some superfluous-program-to-benefit-a-niche-constituency-here} Democratic (and yes even Republican) members will ask?

Whu-whu-what about the unfunded liabilities? Some fiscal hawks will keep that ace up their sleeve.

My response will be to that argument," Yes, what about them?"

I'll give you another principle that needs to be re-examined and adopted:

"I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least."

So how do you put this principle into practice?

Well, for starters, I'd recommend taking that suggestion from the GOP's Promise to America regarding the requirement of Constitutional Authority for ALL bills. Contrary to popular belief, Michigan does have a state constitution which spells out what Lansing can and cannot do.

And guess what? There's a lot that Lansing does, that it's not supposed to do.

"Well, we need the government to directly provide assistance for the poor."

Really? Show me the citation in the Michigan Constitution that says we need to do that.

"Well, we need to provide an increasing amount of state money to public universities every year."

Those same universities that are sitting on hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in endowments? Who feel that it's perfectly acceptable to pay obscene salaries to their staff with public money while holding out their hats for more?

How can anyone who even remotely considers themselves fiscally conservative even justify taking the earnings of from one group only to give to another which just so happen to be sitting on a very large stockpile of cash? Not only that, Lansing wanted to means test people receiving public assistance to see if they had over a set dollar amount in assets. Why is this any different?

I can continue with even more examples, but it should be readily apparent by now where I'm going with this. For anyone who is interested in right-sizing government (pun intended), this is a great way to start.

Now as for the unfunded obligations, this is a considerable problem, but not an insurmountable one. One reason is because Michigan put the brakes on it and went from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan for all employees, except for school employees, back in 1997. That change right there saved Michigan Taxpayers about $4.3-billion according to the Mackinac Center.

As for the rest, the state is looking at between $11-billion to $72-billion depending on whose numbers you use.

I'm not downplaying that point for a minute. It's a valid argument, but there is a little bit more to take into consideration than is widely reported.

First, that amount isn't all due at once, so there's some flexibility to work with there.

Second, the significant savings that is realized from the Constitutional Citation provision I mentioned above can be reprogrammed towards paying down that debt (and providing even more tax cuts afterwards).

The total state budget stands a little north of $55-billion. Yes, much of that is federal matching funds, however if Michigan's match isn't going towards the remainder of it, places where we shouldn't be spending money in the first place, you've just made a significant dent in those unfunded obligations.

There really isn't much more to say on this matter.

Either stay true to your beliefs and act upon them, or perpetuate a lie and hope that enough people don't take notice.