Tag Archive for Michigan

Cronyism, Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Taxes

Happy Deer in Michigan

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Michigan Hunters Not So Happy

Happy Deer

DNR just slyly reported that Michigan hunting license sales dropped to 729,000 in 2014, a 4.2% drop from 2013 sales and the all time low in data extending way back to 1958. This drop is even worse than the numbers suggest, since the new HB 4668 hunting license rules require base licenses for hunting activities which did not require licenses in previous years. And if you believe President Obama and his statistical mathmagicians, the U.S. economy surged at a 5% GDP growth rate in 2014Q3 just before Michigan’s traditional firearms deer season. Michigan’s population increased by 11,684 people in 2014, the third consecutive annual increase. So the number of hunters should have increased in 2014? But the number of hunters in Michigan dropped, and hunter numbers declined because license fees skyrocketed under HB 4668 of 2013.

The most popular hunting license prices increased 50 – 100 % under the new 2014 fee schedule, although a direct comparison is not possible because the licenses were restructured under HB 4668 to ‘simplify’ the license schedule. Even though the DNR has not released license sales dollar amounts yet, we can still sketch out the doleful effect of the DNR hunting license fee increases on Michigan’s staggering economy.

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Proposal 15-1, Taxes

Another Glitch in the ‘Road’ Tax Package

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Legislative Craftsmanship at its Finest

Crying CEO or managerA week ago we found out that the new road tax package vehicle registration fee system would end its Federal tax deductibility.  Now Gongwer News Service is reporting another glitch, this time in the gasoline sales tax provisions of the road tax package:

Fix Planned to Correct Sales Tax Problem in Roads Plan

The administration of Governor Rick Snyder will seek legislation to correct a potential problem in the road funding plan that as written would lift the sales tax off of gasoline only for motor vehicles, but not for boats, snowmobiles and other non-road purposes like generators and gasoline-powered equipment.

As currently constructed, that would create a mess for retailers who theoretically would have to determine whether or not to charge the sales tax and even ask customers filling up a gasoline can what the intended use of the purchase is. The Citizens Research Council of Michigan, as part of a broad analysis it is conducting on the road funding plan, noted the quirk and provided the information to Gongwer News Service.

It will be interesting to see how Governor Snyder fixes this.  Purchasing gasoline for your boat or ORV could become a really entertaining bureaucratic exercise. Ready for the ‘Gasoline Police’? Think of the new forms to be filled out.

CRCoM is a collection of the usual corporate interests orbiting Michigan government. Not certain why they would have ratted out this bungle to Gongwer, but it does suggest a certain degree of unease among the establishment.

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Michigan, Taxes

Michigan Business Owners! The Clock Is Ticking.

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Yes, you still have to fill out the form every single year.

PPT-2015Recall that 14-1 didn’t do away with the PPT entirely.

Michigan business with $80,000 or less in fixtures, desks, computers etc., are STILL required to fill out the form to get their exemption. You must fill out the MI Treasury Form 5076 with your local assessing offices by Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. You can use the link to the affidavit form here.

Fill it out and for best results deliver by hand to your assessing office ASAP.

And remember, give em no more than is absolutely necessary.

 

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Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Taxes

AgitProp in the 21st Century

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Mercenary Research in the Service of Greed

News stories on the Michigan road tax proposal are replete with compelling, eye popping factoids about the costs poor roads impose on Michigan drivers. These factoids are so compelling that our colorless Governor cites them to sway voters in the upcoming sales tax proposal debate. Some examples:

  • An inadequate transportation system costs Michigan residents a total of $7.7 billion every year
  • Driving on rough roads costs Michigan motorists a total of $2.3 billion annually in extra vehicle operating costs
  • Driving on rough roads costs the average Detroit urban area motorist $536 annually in extra vehicle operating costs
  • Driving on rough roads costs the average Michigan motorist $357 annually in extra vehicle operating costs

You are expected to conclude that a 16.67% sales tax increase is a just trifle to escape these ghastly financial burdens. These factoids are always attributed to “TRIP, a national nonprofit transportation research organization”. Sounds like an independent, credible source – right? The adjectives ‘nonprofit’ and ‘research’ give you a high level of confidence in their pronouncements? Perhaps you should dig a little deeper than our conniving politicians and their lazy media scribes.  The TRIP report they are mining for these factoids is: MI_Transportation_By_The_Numbers_TRIP_Report_Jan_2014

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Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

Rotten Fish in Michigan

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DNR Fee Increase Backfires

Politicians of all stripes are rooting around for fresh money to fulfill past, present, and future promises lately, figuring that the economy is so hot that their depredations will go unnoticed and have no consequences. Let’s take a look at a Michigan example: the increase in license fees for hunting and fishing which the Legislature authorized in 2013 and which took effect in 2014.

The most popular hunting and fishing license prices doubled under the new fee schedule, although a direct comparison is not possible because the licenses were restructured to ‘simplify’ the license schedule. Governor Snyder’s goal for these increases was to raise an additional $ 18.1 million dollars annually for the DNR. The Senate Fiscal Agency benchmarked the anticipated annual increase at $ 19.7 million.

These are fees, paid voluntarily, so why should we care? Only taxes matter? The State of Michigan has been reducing the amount of money appropriated to the DNR from tax revenues since 2000, a reduction that now amounts to about 70%. So fees are now required to replace taxes. A common story across the United States. Fees play better with voters than taxes.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking

A Letter To Amazon

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An open letter to Amazon.com Owner Jeff Bezos on the Main Street Tyranny tax.

Regulars have seen the attempts here to correct the misinformation about the main street fairness act.

Michigan lawmakers were snookered by Kowall and Verheulen into passing their tyranny in the lame duck; a time when there would seem to be no voter backlash.  We call that cowardice, and reprehensible.   This morning I penned (typed) a letter to Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon.com:

Jeff,

I am an online retailer.  I have been fighting the mainstreet fairness taxes for several years now.  Recently, Michigan legislators in a lame-duck session voted to address nexus issues in the state in an attempt to collect use taxes from out of state vendors such as Amazon and other drop shippers.

Clearly you have been arguing that the commerce clause is the remedy to what the states are trying, and frankly you are right.  Quill v North Dakota settled the matter, and if there was EVER a reason for Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, this is it.  The states cannot use tariffs or taxes to discourage (or encourage) trade with other states.  It is one of the enumerated powers of the congress, and the states have little business attempting to work around it.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Republicans

I think that it is time to begin filling out a scorecard before May 5th.

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Otherwise known as “What's good for thee, but not for me (con’t).

Breaking from the republican kakistocracy’s latest rope-a-dope on the Grassroots (aka Dave Agema’s “controversial comments” brouhaha), it is important to note that Governor’s Snyder’s plot to raise the Michigan Sales Tax 16.7% is beginning to pick up a few supporters.

On the plus side; So is the opposition.

And what interesting bedfellows are beginning to appear.

{Continued below}

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Speaker Race Tops Today

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An opportunity to STOP the Obama agenda - Will we get it?

FireBoehnerMost the regulars here would love nothing more that to see a second round of voting for the US House Speaker’s race.

Its something that has not apparently happened since 1923, and would be a significant blow to the Obama agenda. Will Boehner hang on to the necessary number of votes?  Will the 29 needed defections in the Republican caucus happen?

We can only pray that it does.  Two more years of blindly allowing the president to use the constitution as his personal wet wipe is not what this country needs.  Blindly allowing the expansion of the the Obama Bureaucracy is hardly a way to return this nation to its former glory.  And running up the debt on our children, their children, and a few more generations to follow, is bad government plain and simple.

We urge our Michigan Republican delegation to consider the consequences of letting the WORST PRESIDENT EVER continue to rot this country through emperor’s decree.

Remind them  (numbers below the fold) THIS MORNING!

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Maybe A little Mis-Read?

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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.

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