Tag: Tax Hikes (page 3)

The MI Taxpayers Alliance has been campaigning against the tax hike using an extensive phone call campaign that allows taxpayers to connect directly through to their Commissioner by pushing "1" on their phone. So far, thousands of citizens have exercised that option to express their opposition directly to their commissioner.

Other people have decided to use their phone to express their "opinion" in a far less civil manner. Yesterday, I had to fill out a police report after someone began leaving bomb threat messages on the MI Taxpayers Alliance voice mail.

The union representing many county government employees has also been sending out robo-calls to union members in the county to urge support for the tax hike. This union has spent big bucks on full-page, full-color ads in The Macomb Daily newspaper urging citizens to call commissioners and demand they vote for the tax increase. According to one commissioner, the unions ads may be backfiring. The below article is from today's Macomb Daily:

The Detroit News details the latest report this morning, this one from the Brookings Institution, that shows most big cities are home to about 55% of the total jobs in the metro area, the remaining 45% more than ten miles from the "city center."  

Detroit is home to only 23% of the jobs in her metro area, with 77% more than 10 miles away, and the effect that has on native Detroiters is pretty heavy.

"Job sprawl is detrimental to employment and raises a lot of challenges," said author Elizabeth Kneebone, whose study of employment trends mapped 98 metropolitan areas, from 1998-2006.

It means many low-income and minority residents are often isolated from job opportunities, she said, and it adds to commute times and expenses.

On a morning like this, that's an especially frustrating reality.  We're talking, what, five inches of snow in the D?  Love these Michigan springs.  But... and this is a big but... John Cherry may actually have a silver lining in all of this.

The Democrats presumptive 2010 Gubernatorial candidate has been running around the state telling voters and newspaper editorial boards (those still in operation) both that the record of his administration these last six-plus years is a strong one and that he'll be proud to run on that record next fall.

The Associated Press offers a headline this morning that provides the man with the perfect "I told you so!"

Bad economy holds highway deaths to 1960s levels

That, my friends, is the way you find a silver lining.

Read on...

When it comes to desperate folks depending on the government to NOT take more than they're legally entitled through the property tax assessment process, so they can provide for themselves without ever having to go to the nobility... shoot, did it again... the politicians with a hand out and a "by your leave," Governor Granholm fires Tax Tribunal workers and creates a 22,000 case backlog.  

Now, finally, she's offering to hire a couple dozen new "referees" to help resolve a backlog that's only getting bigger but unlike phone bankers, these folks need to go through a lengthy training process that will prevent any relief from arriving for the next three months.  You know, because if you tossed amateurs into the gig they might actually agree with taxpayers a little too much.

The Detroit News reports:

Michael Kiwak, a 59-year-old out-of-work auto engineer from Livonia, has been waiting over a year and a half for his case to be decided. He says he's been unable to sell his home for $250,000, even though its assessed value is about $320,000.

"I'm way beyond frustration. The state of Michigan is stealing from me," Kiwak said. "The whole thing is almost criminal. We both know my property tax is way too high."

He's not the only one.  Between 2005 and 2008 the number of cases being heard at the state level has more than doubled and run to the largest level since 1993 as starving state coffers devour every dollar they can, even (and maybe especially) when they shouldn't but think they CAN get away with it.

And while Lansing steals from hardworking homeowners, exacerbating home loss and serious family financial stress the Detroit Water and Sewage Department is preparing to dramatically spike utility rates for metro-Detroiters.  

Read on...

I'd probably get a kick out of some of this nonsense, if it wasn't so thoroughly dangerous.

OK, so its not all dangerous.  One of the House Dem's freshmen members, for instance, isn't going to do any real overt damage but that doesn't make his latest campaign fundraising gimmick any less ridiculous.  Apparently the man doesn't own a TV or a radio and he's missed all of the Governor's "Pure Michigan" tourism ads.  

Instead of hosting his next fundraiser on the lakeshore or at a great local restaurant or ski resort, Representative Jim Slezak is packing up his donors and asking them to shell out hundreds of dollars to go on a cruise with him.  Not in a classic car down Woodward Avenue in Detroit, mind you... on a cruise line.  To a private island.  In the Bahamas.  

All aboard!

I couldn't make this up.  Read on...