So, stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
“When you look at the last four years, we hardly did anything for working-class families as far as tax relief.” – Michigan State Senator Jack Brandenburg – January 2015 (from today’s Detroit News)
“What do I look like, an ATM machine here?” – Gov. Rick Snyder, September 2013 (AEI speech)
Ummmmm, yeah.
{And if wishes were horses, we’d all be eating steak. Continued after the fold}
(12)Nuh Uh.
(0)A few items of note from each month in the year 2014.
RightMi.com was the back up site for RightMichigan.com in the event something happened to the WWII servers hosting the original site.
We started off in January fighting for a good man and ultimately getting booted for saying enough is enough from those who profess to be conservative, but cannot be counted on when it matters. We argued that some GOP leaders have their priorities off, and when Betsy DeVos attacked one of the most stalwart and responsible Republicans in the state, we said not-no-fast.
Of course that resulted in the move from the old site to the new. Much of January was spent reminding people of the values Republicans are supposed to hold and why attacking our most conservative committeeman was maybe not such a good idea. RighMi.com as a destination became a reality. Unapologetic, informed, and collaborative; Michigan’s conservative blogging has a home just like Do Six Figures
OH, and as for the subject of the misplaced attacks?
He is just fine and dandy
February found Michigan legislators beginning the debate for a minimum wage increase, bailing out the big D, and local governments pandering to a dangerous lifestyle..
(14)Nuh Uh.(0)Just to be on the level, I’m not going to bring back stories about grossly overpaid art museum CEO’s and their boards, not-so secret loans to art museum CEO’s, and art millage scams promoted against Tri-County Taxpayers.
Feel free to use that search window in the upper-right corner if you’re inclined to read more about it.
No, I’m going to talk about what the good people in the Snyder/Calley/Weiser/et al republican machine are in effect helping to promote with your own hard-earned tax dollars.
Just a quick warning to those who wish to continue: The remainder of this post does contain some graphic and disturbing descriptions.
Consider yourselves warned!
{Continued after the fold}
(20)Nuh Uh.(0)A Traverse City Retailer might well feel the pain of his misplaced good cents.
There will be more than a few legislators regretting their turkey moves of additional regulatory rules during the ‘lame duck’ session.
But its not just the legislators. ‘Exhibit A,’ might well be a story that ‘celebrates’ the “early Christmas present” that Front Street Traverse City business received via SB 569 and SB 658 on Friday Morning. Demonstrating that the lobbying efforts of a few rent seeking business interests are not at all in line with taxpayer interests, the piece on Saturday’s TC Ticker starts with the ‘celebration’ of the “main-street fairness” law:
“It’s been years in the making, but state lawmakers have handed brick-and-mortar retailers like Bill Golden and others throughout Traverse City and Michigan a welcome Christmas present. Starting in October, more online retailers will have to add on Michigan’s sales tax to customer purchases — just like Michigan retailers have always had to do.”
Of course, folks around here (and very likely in all other places) understand that what is sold as fairness is usually anything but fair.
(19)Nuh Uh.(0)It's time for the creation a statewide "Tax Me More" Fund. Just think of the possibilities.
When I got back in range of Michigan radio stations this morning and caught the diabetes-inducing, sugar-coating that Gov. Snyder and the proponents of this road funding sham were trying to spoon-feed Michigan Taxpayers, several things came to mind.
Take a sip…you’ll enjoy it!!!
(13)Nuh Uh.(0)Stop the sixteen point seven percent tax increase May 5th.
Higher taxes, and the return of redistribution aided advanced by Republicans in Lansing last night.
A May 5th special election will have poor voters deciding if they will be getting more cheese. The corporate abusers will get their pie, and the rest of us in the middle will get the bill. Pandering welfare gimmicks, corporate cronyism on steroids and a blanket party for the working class. Whats not to love?
(18)Nuh Uh.(2)A great big THANK YOU to a rock solid friend of the constitution and conservatism!
Tom McMillin would have been an outstanding congressman.
Though we have some incredible voices joining the Michigan legislature this upcoming session, we will be losing one that is unique and irreplaceable. Tom McMillin has been a stalwart conservative voice in Lansing, has put his himself out in front to keep taxes low, fight the crony capitalism that seems to be the force majuere of our executive branch, and lead in the DOMA battle. Much of it knowing the battle was lost before it began.
We will miss him as the true representative of appropriate governance, and a fine example of the best this state has to offer.
Thank you Tom.
(26)Nuh Uh.(3)Garlic chips on the cheap. And they taste better than legislative sausage too!
Yeah.. I can get domestic once in a while.
And as we all know, tis the season for Chex mix. And I don’t know about you all out there, but the garlic chips usually used are expensive (usually about $3-4 a bag) and they are too darn thick. With the upcoming additional taxes on gas, we need to make our economies where we can. (Yeah, I threw politics into a recipe – This ain’t Martha Stewart’s page)
So here is a way to make that particular part of the recipe for your mix, that is tasty, flaky, and costs about a buck to make. (it makes a great snack too!) It was surprisingly better tasting for me (seriously, I had my doubts) than the typical chips used for chex mix, and I can see it used as a movie snack, croutons, or whatever.
So lets do this.
(12)Nuh Uh.(1)
“It’s a first step. It’s a big step – don’t get me wrong. In a bipartisan way, the Michigan Senate was ready to say, `We want to fix roads and we’ll take tough votes to do it,”‘ said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, a Monroe Republican.
“What I would say is the House action doesn’t get us there fast enough or far enough. It also creates major consequences to schools and local partners — that I don’t want to see negative things happen to them,” said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.
And these guys are “republicans”?
So, who’s thirsty?
{Not to fear, more below the fold}
(15)Nuh Uh.(4)Big Box retailers have found foot soldiers willing to do bidding in HUGE rent seek.
Heads up!
Word on the street is that HB 4202 and HB 4203 are on the schedule for second reading today in the Michigan House of Representatives. That means it would be up for FINAL PASSAGE tomorrow. You can read below all the details about the bills. Bottom line, if they are enacted, you will be paying MORE taxes.
Please take a moment and contact your representative today. Let your opinion be known! These phone calls and emails do matter. They do affect how a representative votes.
Find your representative’s contact information here.
We will keep you posted of the progress (or lack therof) of these bills tomorrow.
House Bills 4202 (Kowall-R), and 4203 (VerHeulen-R), will impose new taxes on consumers in Michigan and will further burden online sellers, especially the mom and pop shops that operate out of a small store front office or the business owners home. They will be subjected by government to an abundance of new compliance requirements. It will stifle competition as many smaller competitors to the big guys (like Amazon) will likely be forced to downsize or worse yet, go out of business.
(21)Nuh Uh.(6)
