Just ran into @RJ4MI in downtown Lansing. "Secretary Johnson," I said. "Please, just Ruth, or I'll have to call you Mr. Livengood."
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) March 31, 2015
Forget it, Ruth. You showed all of us what you really are about.
OABTW, that Fred idiot on the government dole has a face.
(19)Nuh Uh.
(0)Wait until you discover zero sales tax dollars goes to roads, and the Education Fund doesn’t mean money going to schools. Enjoy.
Think those additional costs on shipping goods to stores aren’t going to be passed along to you on top of the direct personal hit to the wallet? Better think again about that.
Thanks for voting against this convoluted, Snyder invented perpetual tax hike during the lame duck, Rep. Franz. Also, thanks for being the only Rep. to address this, and the fact there are multiple “Plan B’s” in the works.
And, to you out there who are appalled that Lansing had the audacity to foist this abomination onto us, you better get off your asses and Vote NO on May 5, because the news outlet editorial page propagandists pushing Snyder’s agenda is already ramping up their “it’s all we got” meme as noted here and here.
Remember, requirement is 50% + 1 stinking vote is all it takes to entrench this mess into our constitution.
(48)Nuh Uh.(0)Journalists Bravely Display Their Mathematical Deficit, or......?
The MLive Media Group Editorial Board endorsed Proposal 2015-01 this morning. The endorsement was no real surprise, given the blizzard of slanted reporting MLive has been posting on Proposal 1 over the last 30 days. The real surprise here was the shoddy math cited in the endorsement:
If you currently pay $100 per month in sales tax, which is the average for median income households in Michigan, you’ll pay an extra $1 per month. Because the sales tax is regressive — it falls disproportionately on the poor — Proposal 1 evens the playing field by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, which was cut in 2011.
The fuel tax changes will result in an additional 2 to 10 cents per gallon, depending on gas prices. Some of these costs will surely be offset by reduced damage to vehicles as the roads are improved.
Governor Snyder’s FY 2015 Executive Budget projects that Michigan’s current 6% sales tax will collect $ 7.89 billion in FY 2015 on $ 131.5 billion in taxable products. This is $ 797 per year, per Michigan resident. The U.S. Census says that the average Michigan household is composed of 2.53 persons. Thus the current 6% sales tax is projected to collect $ 2,016 per household in FY 2015, or $ 168 per household, per month. Not $ 100 per month.
Looking at FY 2015 as if Proposal 2015-01 was in effect, the 7% sales tax would collect $ 8.5 billion on $ 121 billion in taxable products. Keep in mind that road fuel will no longer be subject to the sales tax, so we have to back out S 10.2 billion in formerly taxable fuel sales on just over 4 billion gallons in road fuel. This is $ 855 per year, per person. Thus the proposed 7 % sales tax would collect $ 2,165 per household in FY 2015, or $ 180 per household, per month.
So the difference is $ 12 per month, per Michigan household. Not MLive’s $ 1 per month fantasy factoid.
(19)Nuh Uh.(0)Gov Rick Snyder: Crumbling roads are a healthcare issue, too. pic.twitter.com/EUhkewDl7z
— Dave Murray (@Michigandmurray) March 31, 2015
OK, Slick Rick, here’s an $18,000,000,000.00 “insurance policy” waiting for fixing only roads.
So, Snyder’s goal is to protect the insurance industry lobby? Rick Snyder and Brian Calley have a huge credibility problem, yes?
And, Snyder is wasting our money on his frivolous River of Opportunity Lake of Lobbyist special interest payola pursuit of this universally despised constitution tampering disaster Proposal.
(21)Nuh Uh.(0)This is not the time for chutzpa!
If our elected representatives in Lansing are in need of any suggestions to “find” money to reallocate towards more important matters affecting Michigan, a local vote that was taken yesterday afternoon by an advisory committee would be my recommendation for a great place to start.
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(9)Nuh Uh.(0)Taking away the options, our elected class leaves us with no choice, right?
So, do you say “Baaaa” or “Moooo” on Wednesday May 6th?
That is, if you intend on voting for proposal 15-1. And all the animal sounds notwithstanding, will anyone reading this accept the fact that they have pretty much been ‘herded’ like common farm critters if they decide to support the measure?
Consider how ‘heeling’ with a border collie is done. By taking away the options for movement, a nip at the herded animal’s feet, and the dog manipulates the path of the animal so that it pursues the desired direction. When one goes astray, the new direction is blocked ensuring a return to the planned route.
When looking at proposal 15-1, it should not have gone unnoticed that the scheduling of the proposal’s vote is at the time when the roads are at their peak ‘crap’ condition. The end of winter and at a time when patching work by the local road commission has not completely caught up with the seasonal destruction.
(17)Nuh Uh.(1)Among other things, the state needs to pay up.
And we’re here to remind them, as this isn’t the first time its been said.
Here’s hoping every township, and county clerk is ready with a bill for services on May 6, 2015. In fact, maybe it might not be a bad idea to remind your local election officials to ready the receipt pile and get a stamped envelope ready to submit the invoice for officiating one of the most senseless proposals yet.
Proposal 15-1 is going to cost us money no matter what. Legislators added about $9 million or more dollars to the cost of doing state business when they punted to the citizens of Michigan in that December lame duck. A recent special election in Grand Traverse County cost over $85,000 and we have about 90,000 for population. At a cost of about $1 per Michiganian, each county, city, and township government is having to officiate what is accurately called a ‘special election.’
And how special is it?
(22)Nuh Uh.(1)Will Proposal 15-1 become a bridge too far for the GoverNerd?
According to a colleague of mine, the power of government (at any level), over its law-abiding citizens, is directly derived from the taxation authority. Think about that for a moment or two. In a truly free society, the government has no means to control the behavior of its citizens who aren’t actual criminals, nor will those citizens tolerate any such action from their duly-elected public servants. And while the citizenry does indeed pay taxes – because even in a free society, the government still has the authority to tax – control of the taxation mechanism isn’t left to the arbitrary whims of government functionaries, and the true tax burden is plainly visible for all to see.
By that measure, it’s been at least five decades since Michigan was a truly free state. Since being gifted with an income-based taxation model, and a full-time legislative model, the state that was once the engine of freedom has progressively mutated into a socialist laboratory, at best a generation between now and whatever bankruptcy chapter awaits a nominally sovereign state collapsing into receivership. And in that regard, I don’t think it overly dramatic to suggest that this statewide special election to decide the fate of a legislative piece of sausage is similar to Gettysburg . . . if we don’t stop them here, then where will we ever be able to stop them at all?
The upside is that We the People received a bit of good news on this front yesterday, though how this’ll ultimately play out is still an open question.
(13)Nuh Uh.(2)…and stupid users.
(6)Nuh Uh.(1)It’s all about education, yes?
True story. More with photos here.
Because anything else is just feeding lawyers and politicians at the trough on both sides of unconstitutional statute.
(18)Nuh Uh.(1)
