Tricky Rick & His 'Nerd Herd' Play Dangerous Economic Game in Michigan

"Re-invented" Michigan is headed in a disastrous economic direction: Feed the Corporations & Business Buddies v. Starve the Poor, the Elderly, and Shank Our Children.

How Truly Nuts Is This?

Snyder's slick 2 billion dollar tax increase/shift means: Less sales taxes, less commercial, fewer new customers and other diminishing business activity and expansion of small businesses. These are the direct results of headstrong, stone-hearted Tea-Publicans in Michigan's Super Majority Legislature having pushed through 2011 massive tax hikes on the poor, having stolen promise and limited savings from retirees, and having upped the daily survival expenses of vital public sector workers.

READER: "Titanic shift in Lansing" by Judy Putnam on February 25, 2011 at the Michigan League for Human Services


Herd of Robber Barons during turn of the century Age of Greed

All of this Snyder CEO inspired "harvesting" of nearly $2 billion in new taxes was raised to blatantly treat the Nerd's business buddies with a massive and excessive business bail-out/gift. Tax hikes of this magnitude will impact directly consumer demand and sales across the state. Less sales taxes, less commercial, fewer new customers and other diminishing business activity, as well as fewer small business successes will be the result.

Exactly how much of a cut-in-demand will result from Snyder's massive new taxes remains to be seen. But unavoidable reductions will gut the joy of the Michigan State Chamber of Commerce (now luxuriating in its power to strip monies away from the poor, the retired on limited incomes and pensions, children, and public servants) is headed for a rude awaking.


Snyder and a few of the political gaggle following the Nerd Herd, Signing Business Tax Cuts June 2011 (Official Photo)

The new Michigan Income Tax hit on investment income will dull and diminish the draw Michigan has had with retirees who have husbanded a personal portfolio intended to care for themselves to the end of life. Given the very nature of the radical shift from reasonable taxes on business and industry (sectors that utilize the common spaces and infrastructure as a means to produce profit and trade) to those whose working days are over is especially off-putting and repulsive to elders who can easily move themselves and their "kitty" to a friendlier state. Start subtracting retirees from drug stores, restaurants, retail stores, and from doctors and hospital care, then see for yourself what a terrible blunder the Nerd herd has committed. Seniors with their carefully stashed savings are a huge, stable financial asset to any community.

Add to the Nerd's negative tax scenario the hard facts about jobs in Michigan reported by Susan Demas:

"While Michigan added 63,500 jobs in 2011, it could have been more. Why? Well, the private sector grew, as University of Michigan economists reported. There were 77,500 private-sector jobs added. But the overall number of jobs added was brought down by the decline in government sector jobs.

CALCULATION: 2011 Lost 14,000 or is it 17,000?

And that's one reason why Michigan's economic recovery hasn't been as robust as downturns past. 'It's been brought down because government jobs are declining,' economist George Fulton.

That trend is set to continue in the future. Private sector jobs are projected to rise by 35,300 in 2012, 35,500 in 2013 and 52,000 in 2014. But government job declines will offset growth in all three years, according to the U of M forecast, bringing the overall projected total for the state to 26,000 jobs in 2012, 28,500 jobs in 2013 and 46,800 jobs in 2014.

And Michigan's unemployment rate isn't projected to slip below 9 percent, on average, until 2014.

So while the right-wing economic argument -- that has practically become accepted as fact -- is that government doesn't create jobs, the reality is that it does. And cutting government has a real economic impact, and it's not always positive." (emphasis added)

This is the Michissippification of Michigan, plain and simple.

READER:
Poorest families hit 1,000 times harder than rich by Michigan tax changes (Rob South Feb 1, 2012) and Report: Tax Changes Hit Low-Income Families the Hardest (MLHS Feb 2012)

See Also: Michigan Republicans say Taxes are a Sin. But Taxing the Poor to Prop Up, Bail Out, Corporate Cronies Isn't?  -- Discover Michissippi’s (Michigan's) Corporate Bosses: The Elites Who Now Run Snyder & the GOP Super Majority Legislature  -- The Free Fire Kill Zone: Snyder’s War on Michigan’s Real People

Original.

Michigan Republicans say Taxes are a Sin. But Taxing the Poor to Prop Up, Bail Out, Corporate Cronies Isn't?

Taking My Money for Taxes is a “SIN”: TeaPartisans must be squirming over Snyder’s Billion Dollar “SIN”; Taxing Working Folk to Prop Up, Bail Out, Corporate Cronies

HOW CAN MICHISSIPPI'S TEAPUBLICANS NOT SQUIRM & SUFFER HEARTBURN WHEN THEY CONDONE THE SAME KIND OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED TAXING "SIN" THAT THE THEY ACCOST & ACCUSE THE DEMOCRATS OF DOING-COERCING HIGHER TAXES-TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE TAXPAYER?

When government removes money from consumers it is a taxing act that reduces money in the private economy, resources that would otherwise have been used to produce valuable private-sector demands for goods or services. Boss Rick Snyder and The Business Leaders for Michigan are instead forcing UNPRECEDENTED/HUGE NEW TAXES on working people and the poor; these new revenues are them used to produce governmental outputs which in the case of Snyder's slick re-distribution of Michiganders personal funds-via coerced taxation on previously tax-sheltered (from state personal income taxes) hard earned pensions (delayed compensation) and (carefully garnered and saved for senior years) annuity income- adds crassly and brazenly to the bottomlines of those who contributed directly and generously to the Nerd's 2008 campaign for governor. It's payback time!

What kind of specious "shared sacrifice" for business is this?

The private-sector outputs projected by the Snyder geeks may never be produced because resources available to the consumers are instead being used to produce a massive, billion dollar plus business welfare handout. One pension dollar has the ability to turn around to the tune of $6.49 in the state's marketplace. To intercept that taxpayers' personal income...to direct it onto business bottom lines by an overly generous partisan "gift" of a much lower business tax for a few, and no taxes at all for many second tier businesses is unjust and corrupting. Meanwhile, the large stockholder corporations, especially manufacturing concerns e.g. Auto Production, will take a new tax hit. How does that create more good pay jobs? Snyder's faulty scheme has the ability to take a big, big bite out of Michigan's necessary commercial cycles.

These soon-to-be-forgone customer/demand dollars being taken from the worker, the retiree, the poor, the schools and our children, especially those supported on welfare, is a political folly; a costly blow to the very corporate and business lobbyists who tell the public this upward redistribution they rammed through the TeaPublican Super-Majority Legislature, is the answer to Michigan's recovery. It's a lie.

Taking taxpayers hard earned wages and savings to outright "gift" those precious, limited dollars to Snyder's overpaid CEO cronies-how is that just and right?

WHEN THE TEAPUBLICAN'S NERDONOMICS PRODUCES INCOME RE-DISTRIBUTION WHICH IS UPWARD... IT ISN'T CONSIDERED A RE-DISTRIBUTION? IT'S NOT LABELED "A TAKING"?

Sez Who?

DELUSION & GREED ARE THE MOST PALTRY OF PUBLIC POLICY MOTIVATORS!
WHAT KIND OF FUNNY HERB IS IN THE TEAPARTISAN'S CUP OF TEA?

LOCOWEED DELUSION & GREED MAKE FOR DISASTROUS PUBLIC POLICY


Original.

Nerdonomics on Stifle: Rick Snyder's Michigan Dashboard Disaster

No new jobs, no new jobs action, more taxes for many, fewer discretionary dollars to spend in the Michissippian Economy.

Across the state a stark realization is dawning in these early days of 2012.

The Raw Truth:

"Many companies will see significantly lower tax bills or pay no business taxes at all in 2012, thanks to a switch from the Michigan Business Tax to a new 6 percent corporate income tax that kicks in Sunday and falls mostly on large corporations with shareholders. Businesses can expect to pay $1.1 billion less in taxes this year and $1.7 billion less in 2013, according to estimates. Two-thirds of companies will pay no state income tax at all."

Source: Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press in "New state tax rules good for business: Some residents, though, will end up paying more this year".

So a raft of second tier businesses in Michigan will escape paying any business taxes (THAT'S ZERO BUSINESS TAX) in a continuing crucial season of low revenues and serious budget shortfalls for all Michigan units of government.

On the other hand the LARGE CORPORATIONS WILL PAY MORE. In other words the manufacturing sector, so vitally important to Michigan's future and long-term well-being will be paying more. What sense does that make? Ask the Nerd. Snyder's Relentless Corporatist Action has fissures and fault lines. This state is in for a crude and rude economic ride, inflicted by Snyder's muddle-minded self-delusion.


The Nerd's A Victim of His Own Unreality
Snyder's policies are NOT positive; they are stubbornly False-Positive Snyder style. Can we afford a neophyte governor who is in deep denial and suffers from self-delusion? Snyder's abysmal approval rating tell it all!

We think Not.

Michigan according to A.P.'s Hoffman:

"Residents born between Jan. 1, 1946, and Dec. 31, 1952, will have all retirement income liable to tax whether it's from a public or private pension, 401(k) or IRA. Exemptions can be claimed for up to $20,000 for a single filer and up to $40,000 for joint filers. Above those levels, retirement income will be taxed at the state income tax rate of 4.35 percent. When these residents turn 67, the $20,000/$40,000 exemption applies to all income, not just retirement income. The exemption is eliminated if a taxpayer claims a deduction for a military or railroad pension. This will affect about 230,000 returns."

"[Michigan] Residents born after 1952 will see all retirement income taxed as regular income until they turn 67, at which point they'll qualify for a senior income exemption of $20,000 for single filers and $40,000 for joint filers on all income. A taxpayer can forego the $20,000/$40,000 exemption and instead deduct 100 percent of Social Security income. A taxpayer claiming the $20,000/$40,000 exemption can't claim the deduction for Social Security or the standard personal exemption. This will affect about 150,000 returns."

En total this means 380,000 returns will be under the gun of Snyder's re-invention: The Nerd has hatched a scheme: UPWARD INCOME RE-DISTRIBUTION.

CATCH THIS: IT'S A Snyder Invention: RADICAL UPWARD RE-DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME-BILLIONS GIFTED TO SNYDER'S BUSINESS CRONIES.

What could be more insulting, unfair, or cripplingly regressive in Michigan's hour of need?

Those who follow these prognostications criticizing Nerdonomics will credit this blogger with accuracy on the issue of Snyder's corporate and Chamber of Commerce pandering. The results in a profound hit on Michigan's retail commerce and customer demand; at least $1.1 BILLION LOST, BILLIONS OF LOST PURCHSES IN 2012 AND $1.7 BILLION LESS CUSTOMER SPENDING ONGOING INTO 2013.

The more frequent confused and sad look on the Nerd's public face elicits neither sympathy or support. More loss of family spending power, more costs for such things as college tuition and services are bone grinding. And at the same time; the chocolate on the DeCon: Amid this historic one state depression Snyder and the heartless and stoneheaded rampage by the TeaPublican Know Nothings, comes down to this sad blow. Michigan deductions for community foundations, food banks and university services...Summarily eliminated. Insult added to injury!

Snyder's Re-Invention: Relentless Aggressive Political Stupidity: It's Michissippi Rising RAPS !


Original.

The Occupy Wall Street Activists & Grassroots Tea Party: ‘Activists Have a Lot in Common’ Finds Support from Grand Rapids’ Crack Business Reporter

Across Michigan there is real movement in an angry population: 'We are damn mad and want to do something to improve the unemployment, lost of manufacturing, the 'senseless behavior of big banks and investors sitting on nearly $3 TRILLION in cash assets outside the market and the economy.'

The behavior of both parties during the 'let's play chicken' with the federal government's credit status and ability to pay its obligation over and against the peppered up focus on the deficits looks more like a political game than a sensible way to run a government.

Hot words reverberate in the dining rooms of local eateries, farm homes, and townhouses: The hot talk centers on the critical issue: "THE FULL FAITH AND CONFIDENCE" of the consumer, the citizen with a need for a sense of direction and security handling their valuable assets and savings. They want to know, 'Is it safe to return to the marketplace, to make commitments, to go to the mall or Sam's Club and do a little discretionary shopping. After all, the entire economy rests squarely on the 'spending' of the average citizen. (Actually millions of pre-teens and teens who spend at the mall during good times, times of prosperity.)

Say What? Spend what?

There are presently, in Michigan, ONE HALF A MILLION UNEMPLOYED OR MORE, SOME ON UNEMPLOYMENT STIPENDS, OTHERS NOW OFF THE ROLLS ENTIRELY. What can these folks spend to jump-start the economy?

How does the fly paper legislative move by Snyder work? The $800 million or so removed by new taxes on pensions and annuity income of pensioners was stolen from those who saved and planned for retirement based on this resource. According to recent information from MIPSERS those pension dollars have a normal turnaround of $6.49 in economic activity when spent by those who earned it.

Now take $6.49 and multiply that by the number of discretionary pension dollars REMOVED FROM THEM BY SNYDER'S GRAND THEFT GIFT TO HIS BUSINESS BUDDIES - say $800 million, and there is ONE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF DOLLARS TAKEN OUT OF MICHIGAN COMMERCE AND ECONOMY. How many factories with how many workers does it take to make up for this GIGANTIC GAFF REDUCING CUSTOMER DEMAND AND SALES?

Nerd-o-nomics has greatly worsened the dirth of demand. Where are the customers? The summarily removal of disposable, discretionary money; to spend that was taken by TeaPublicans from the poor, the retired pensioners, and the elderly has been blown on 'gifting' the Chamber of Commerce business types (without any directives).

The 'Nerd's near $2 BILLION tax shift and other excessive pro-business tactics such as putting stringent limits on health benefits and removing pricing from items at WalMart and other retailers has assured that many businesses will get a 'Tea Party' bonus, but a bonus in tax reduction is predicated on the idea that there is commerce/demand/buying and selling activities upon which taxes are assessed.

Nerd-o-nomics has delivered: No business, anemic demand, lower taxes, but no progress toward recovery. No Jobs. No New Jobs!

The Citizens & Consumers Are Fed Up
What entity, government or individual can be trusted? What media is being honest and forthright about the true state of economic affairs in America?

West Michigan's premiere business editor and reporter has laid out the logic found in the unifing elements between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Writes Rick Haglund:

"Occupy Wall Street, a growing protest against corporate greed, income inequality and a few other things, is spreading across the country."

"Conservative pundits with secure jobs and comprehensive health care benefits scoff at these protests as the unfocused rants of fuzzy thinking left-wingers who want to destroy capitalism. On their website, occupywallst.org, the protesters describe themselves as a "leaderless resistance movement employing the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to restore democracy in America.

They say they are the 99 percent of Americans who 'will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.'  Whether the Occupy movement will jell into a potent force for reform is far from clear. It could disappear as fast as it started."

Haglund concludes with this strong assessment:

"But don't count it out just yet. The Occupiers represent a widespread belief that Michigan and the rest of the country have gone off the rails. The tea party was born out of the same frustration; that America was losing its greatness. But while the Occupy movement blames corporate greed, the tea partiers point their angry fingers at government. The Occupiers are raging against more complex forces, which they probably don't fully understand..."

Another snip:

"I'd bet that many Americans who wouldn't go near an Occupy demonstration share the Occupiers' belief that the economy is rigged against them. Corporate profits are at record highs, yet jobs are scarce. Interest rates are at record lows, but it's tough to get a loan. Many people are working harder than ever, but can't get ahead. Although economists declared the Great Recession over more than two years ago, most Americans still are losing ground.

A new study by two former Census Bureau officials, reported last week in the New York Times, found that household income has declined at more than twice the rate since the recession ended than it did during the downturn. While household income declined 3.2 percent between December 2007 and June 2009 - the start and end points of the recession - it fell 6.7 percent from June 2009 to June 2011, the study found.

A new survey by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA, taken earlier this month, found 52 percent of likely Michigan voters believe the state is on the wrong track, while 72 percent think the nation is on the wrong track.

THE STATE LOST NEARLY 6,000 JOBS IN AUGUST. THE STATE'S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HAS RISEN FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS AND STANDS AT 11.2 PERCENT.

Which leads me to this question about the Occupy movement: WHAT TOOK IT SO LONG?"
(emphasis added) 

SEE: "Occupy Wall Street protest a long time coming" October 16, 2011.

Ignore Rick Haglund's analysis at your own peril. Change is coming. Change that is pro-active and productive? THAT POSITIVE TURN IS UP THE GREAT AMERICAN MIDDLE-THE SO-CALLED SILENT MAJORITY - OR NOT.

Original.

Positively Insane: Nerd Rick Snyder Doesn’t See or Comprehend His Role in the Systematic Decimation of Michigan

Snyder is one sad soul with a painted-on clown's happy face. He's so "into" his "nerdship" that he's unable to see how trapped and controlled he is. Rick Snyder came to the governorship with positive expectations, he was going to be "always positive." By putting a faux positive spin on every tough question or politically motivated legislative move, the Nerd was going to "Polly Anna" the state out of its one state depression. "Nerd" Snyder doesn't see or comprehend his key role in THE SYSTEMATIC DECIMATION OF MICHIGAN

Snyder did not understand or know the history of those "crony" operatives he embraced as advisers and staff- hold-over Englerites, American Legislative Exchange Council - A.L.E.C. bill delivery boys, and Mackinac Center types. The Nerd did not rightly comprehend or appreciate the fact THAT IDEOLOGUES ARE NOT TRIFLED WITH FACTS OR PUBLIC PROTEST-ROAD BLOCKS TO THEIR GOALS.

Swept Along by Corporatocracy
Snyder is unable to deal with the Far-Winger American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.'s) ability to dominate much of the nation with pro-corporate "Plug & Play", fill-in-the-blank bill generation that amounts to a national coup by the Radical Right.

Now Michigan's "nerd" governor is neutralized and neutered in a very profound way. If "just one" of the some two dozen recall efforts succeed, there will be a huge political sea change says political soothsayer, Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan.

We all are on our way to pay BIG the price for Snyder's advanced "nerd" affliction.

Rick Snyder slip-streamed the voters with his brazen method of avoiding the revelation of what he would do to "reinvent Michigan," even refusing to fully present or debate his radical proposals in public.

Most crossovers and independents had high hopes, as did former Gov. William Milliken, that Snyder would move Michigan forward in a truly communal and common sense way-that's why they voted for him. Snyder was to be a breath of fresh air. The voters had no idea that Snyder would become the handy dandy "tool" of the Tea Party faction-backed and funded by conniving Corporatists such as the Brothers Koch, "Rotten" Murdock, and spinmeister Karl Rove.

Reinvention-A Catch Word/Canard
Do we need to re-invent the wheel? No, we have the wheel and it works. Did we need to so savage the governmental infrastructure and the legislation underlying our state-giving a huge, unprecedented TAXPAYER FUNDED BAILOUT TO BUSINESS AND CORPORATIONS?...NO.

A temporary Michigan income tax hike of less than one-half a percent would have covered the state deficit and prevented the coming economic and educational carnage.

As the details unfold; as they are being published now across the state,  we find that taxpayers are taking a very uneven and egregious hit with new taxes.

The Michigan House Fiscal Agency analysis reports:

• A couple with 3 children making $110,000 annually will take a tax hit of $190 while a couple making $55,000 will take a hit of $549 in NEW TAXES.
• A couple with 2 children earning $250,000 will pay $989 MORE IN TAXES because they will lose personal exemptions for joint filers earning over $200,000.
• A couple married with 2 children and making $34,000, less the removal of earned income credit, will pay MORE IN TAXES to the tune of $396.
• A Michigan retired couple, born after 1952 with $53,000 in income and property taxes of $4,000, will lose their entire homestead credit and pay Michigan Income Taxes on all of their pension(s) which will mean a whopping $3,130 TAX INCREASE. That's enough to make the couple decide to move outstate and take their remaining assets with them.

Take these TAX HITS watchdog TeaPublican Nut-Wingers. This is A MONUMENTAL VIOLATION OF T.P. BASIC PRINCIPLES. It's the dreaded Snyder/Chamber of Commerce taxpayer funded Business BAIL-OUT. Are TP'ers (Tea Party followers) going to simply roll over and take this duplicity? Or will they fight back?

Nerd "Positive" claims his gargantuan tax increase is not a tax increase. The way he sees things, in his rose colored world, shifting nearly two billion dollars away from businesses and corporations and on to elders, the middle class, and the poor is "not a net tax increase." Thus, in Nerd Speak, those who are being hit with paying a whopping new state income tax increase are delusional. Go figure!

The Nerd is being classically the "nerd" we all are familiar with: A quirky personality with a one track mindset, one who relentlessly and "positively" pursues his own version and vision of things, to the utter exclusion of all true facts or reality.

Rick Snyder, in self-labeling himself as a "Nerd," sent a signal that was clearly misread by the public. This nerd is out of control, as is his legislative Super Majority of tax hating wing-nuts. Theirs is a world of unreality and economic disaster for all of Michigan.

Michigan voters have THE RIGHT OF RECALL.

The recall paperwork is filed and approved.

O.K. LET'S ROLL....


Original Post.

Jabs, Jabs, and More Jabs - No Interest in Jobs, Jobs, Jobs... from Gov Rick Snyder or Michigan Republican Super-majority

The hidebound lemmings in the TeaPublican super-majority continue their herd-instinct march into the deep Sargasso sea. As the aggressive actions of the GOP Legislature continue to conduct Class Warfare on public service and due process, good jobs are being replaced and taken from loyal personnel as a way to garner profit for the elites.

Massive taxes are placed on the elderly and the poor are shortshifted from supplemental survival monies, foreclosures march on, and in a bold and stone-cold stroke, Michigan's curmudgeon TeaPublicans cut un-employment short- amazingly in our state hardest hit by job loss. The bail-outs that saved GM and Chrysler are railed against.

In Grand Rapids, the backroom/controlling elites have created a huge monopoly in health care by the combining of previously competing medical services. Now, years on, they are in financial straits. Their efforts to gobble up regional hospitals in places as far away as Traverse City have failed. Doctors outside the monopoly warn that the conglomerate is driving up costs, not bringing relief or reduced expenses.

The money-men of Grand Rapids, so critical of public education and public service, have a controlling hand in the Mackinac Center's on-going crusade to "fix Michigan." MacCenter is the JAB factory, not the JOBS source. The Center is fixing Michigan alright! Their greedy and grabby "fixes" are working against the Middle Class and ultimately are helping to bring down the standard of living for the state. Jabs from Spectrum Health are not producing jobs.

For 6 months the TeaPublicans have manned the reprisal legislative wrecking ball. All the prime targets of the greedy elites have been hit. More Jobs? No jobs creation legislation has made the docket. However, jobs reduction and jobs handicapping has been center stage; this is what they are really most centered on.

The jobs score card as of today, far fewer jobs, more furloughs, more pink slips, more economic distress and recession.

Firemen, social workers, DOT employees, state police, corrections personnel, local police and dispatchers, teachers have been given the TeaPublican shaft. These key personnel are treated with the most rude disrespect. How will the new feelings of "positiveness" called for by faux positive Rick Snyder ever overcome the acrimony and hard feelings that will survive the Nerd's tenure and taint the every possibility of co-operation and collaboration to bring Michigan back long into the future?


Jobs, Jobs, Jobs was the false flag under which the conniving Business Leaders of Michigan laid out in their successful stealth campaign to place a "corporatist compliant" Snyder in the Capitol as "their man" - to benefit their proprietary special interests and procure larger profits.

Walhalla-their prize: a nearly $3 billion taxpayer bailout to fatten their bottomlines. Not bad for starters!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...Snyder where are the Jobs you promised?

Where is the emergency legislation to create and import those jobs Michigan needs rigtht now; Today ?

This Governor and a far rad legislature are far more committed to JABS than JOBS.

If JOBS were their top priority then why waste precious time on JABS?

Original Post.

Absolute Michissippi : All Business/Profit All The Time

Absolute, peat tinged 18 yr old Scotch Whiskey, and Cuban Cigars...

It's all Celebrations on elite, remote Mackinac Island this coming week for the "business bail out" victors. Gov. Snyder will arrive with the Brinks horse drawn lorries laden down with nearly $3 billion in booty, a neatly gift wrapped taxpayer bailout bundle, to be laid dutifully into the hands of his biggest backers and contributors.
Business trumps the little guy once again.

A huge new tax is forced on the seniors and elderly, cuts to the tune of hundred of millions to public schools serving our children, heartless cuts to the unemployed by removal of a quarter of their access to unemployment benefits, the imposition of new and more draconian powers to the Emergency Finance Managers, and many other detrimental steps in the Nerd Herd's downward spiral of quality of life now being inflicted on the ordinary family and the workers here in Rick's Michassippi.

Served by smartly dressed Jamaicans and sporting designer polo shirts, the kings and princes of Michissippian business elite will prowl the green, green grass of the manicured greens at the Grand Hotel, howling with glee and fattened with assurance of a nearly 3 billion bailout for their bottomlines in the Snyder Budget for the next 2 years.

It's the Michigan Chamber of Commerce on parade on the island. We won! We Won! At long last, we've reeked revenge on our perennial political opponents and have now we've spoils of this battle all to ourselves. Snyder and crew have just fattened the pot, swilled the trough, and stoked the pokey for business-at the huge expense of the common man and woman here in Snyder's re-invention, Michissippi.

But there is more to the story. This windfall, product of pure partisan blitz-legislation, has a viper's sting in its very soul. Huge new taxes were raised. Many, who had pledged to Grover Norquest et. al. never to raise "new taxes," are trying to hide behind their political-speak Speedos the fact that (what they would love to see stick in the minds of voters was a "tax shift" is), will always be, a humungous new "tax hike." Got that, A HUGE NEW TAX HIKE. Inevitably, the naked truth is out.

Across the state names are being outted: Republicans, both Senators and House members, are showing up on recall lists. Who's sponsoring these recalls? The True Believers. The rock-ribbed Tea Party advocates, who are purists and determined to see that these who betrayed the cause of lower taxes, smaller government, and more local control pay the ultimate political price-a ignominious defeat, recall from office!

Puff, Sip and Swill-on Chamberites. Your victory party is soon over. Look sharp for the proverbial handwriting on the wall. You've won, but at an incalculable, exacting cost.  

Original Post.

Michigan’s TeaPublicans Have Just Raised Your Taxes by Nearly 2 Billion Dollars to Bailout Their Business Buddies Without Proving Why...

Michigan’s TeaPublicans Have Just Raised Your Taxes by Nearly 2 Billion Dollars to Bailout Their Business Buddies Without Proving Why Business Needs This Massive “Gift” of Cash

A malignant miasma has overtaken Michigan Legislative Republicans. This party, so opposed to "new taxes," has just A-bombed a sizable section of the state with a massive tax increase, a nearly 2 billion dollar "gift"/"bailout" to business interests-now firmly in total control of all four branches of Michigan governance:
1. The State House, 2. The State Senate, 3. The Executive Branch, and 4. The Michigan Supreme Court.

Stonecold Ugly is the rule of the day.

Radicalized Republicans, known as TeaPublicans, have become the owners of a massive tax increase on a defenseless section of the public: The old, the poor, the school children. Passage of Snyder's budget proposal yesterday literally stolen from them an unprecedented-targeted tax takings.

The "bum's rush" is on, with much more to follow.

Particularly, Snyder wanted his budget passed before next week's report that there is a sizable uptick in revenue from recent economic activity.

Two deceptive elements included in the Nerd's budget are: The clever K-16 treatment (lumping into the K-12 budget higher ed) of the $650 million school fund surplus, which coupled with the uptick in collectable revenues (about to be released) would offset, to a large degree, the harsh cuts to school funding imposed and inflicted by anti-public education GOP Teapartisans.

Specious is the Snyder Nerd-O-nomic claim that this massive taxation is "fair." It destroys the Nerd's claim that his budget-based on a huge tax increase for a targeted group-includes, somehow, a "shared sacrifice" on the part of business.

There's no sacrifice involved here for businesses, but there is a real possibility of dozens of "Kalkaskas" statewide.


Original Post.

Snyder’s Depression Mode

Rick Snyder hasn't a on tax cuts = JOBS clue: If you don't want to be clued in, don't read this:

"Neither the State of Michigan nor the federal government is broke. The federal government has no problem borrowing money at very low interest rates, and state and municipal bonds have a default rate of 1 percent, in contrast to corporate bond default rates of 14 percent.

"In addition, the untapped potential for tax revenue for both federal and state governments is enormous. The marginal rate of income tax on the wealthiest Americans has dropped from 94 percent in 1945 to 50 percent in 1986 to 35 percent on incomes over $373,650. A modest surcharge of just over 5 percent on incomes over $1 million would raise $50 billion a year for the federal government without any perceptible drag on the national economy.

"A similar scenario is valid for Michigan's state government. State and local governments collectively throughout the United States have a total outstanding debt of less than $2.5 trillion, compared to the $14.2 trillion debt held by America's financial industry and the $11.1 trillion debt held by the nation's non-financial businesses (Floyd Norris, "A Shift in the Balance of Debt Obligations," The New York Times, March 19, 2011). So much for the argument that state governments should be run like a business."

This insight above is from a column by Keith McClellan in "Unintended Results of Governor's Budget."  His is an independent voice, one of the many not controlled and manhandled by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

So as Nerdly Snyder presses ahead with his plate of left-overs from his gaggle of Englerites and hangers-on, such as Flanagan and Dillon, the Michigan corporate press drones on about Michigan's budget problems with the same old same old from the Mackianc Center and Prof. Wolfram & Co. They act as though they've never seen a projected Michigan state deficit of just over one billion (that's a big number alright), but Engler faced a similar number at the start of his tenure, and Engler (all thought of it suppressed) left one equally as large for Jennifer Granholm.

Michigan is trouble, that is true However, Snyder's harsh reactions may make it exponentially worse.

Here are some of the reasons for Michigan's economic fall off, taken from McClellan's article:

1.) National economic recession

2.) The extended mismanagement and decline of the American automobile industry, which was centered in Michigan and for nearly a century was the economic engine for the state

3.) Michigan's reliance on a sales tax and a low, flat income tax rather than on a graduated income

4.) Tax shifting - with all of its loopholes, exemptions, and carve-outs - which has placed a disproportional tax burden on the individual income of middle-class taxpayers. These structural problems make tax collection vulnerable to economic fluctuations, while concurrently reducing taxes on those who can most afford to pay higher taxes - the very wealthy and the corporations that are shifting jobs and resources outside the country.

The first two items would garner near unanimous agreement, it's the next two that are solvable, but not by Snyder and Company who have set their partisan canines against new or different taxation. On that account, McClellan suggests Michigan's "structural problems cannot be solved by budget and tax cuts, and are likely to exacerbate economic inequality. The unhealthy financial inequalities that resulted from the tax cut policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations contributed to the economic meltdown of 2007-8 and significant additional unintended problems.... Ergo, some of Governor Snyder's tax changes, such as eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit, are likely to create notable and expensive adverse, unintended consequences."

McClellan torpedo's the Mackinac Center's most threadbare, oft repeated mantra:

"Claims that high business taxes impede job growth in Michigan are unfounded. In truth, Michigan has a below national average tax burden on businesses." 

Those who have researched this, know it. Corporate media has no interest it making such a fact known, out of economic self-interest.

The impact of Snyder's massive tax shift and "gift-outright" to his business supporters and cronies is without adequate assurances that the end result will be worth the potential harm, disruption, and human cost festering in the Nerd-O-Nomics that are to be forced on the elders, the poor, and the children of school age and college students.

McClellan sends up a sober and important warning. Things may go wrong, worse yet radically bad wrong. The result may be a serious deterioration of Michigan's economy and commerce. How so?

Keith McClellan explains:

"We have been assured that spending cuts in public sector budgets will result in greater business confidence that will produce more jobs. But this has never proven to be the outcome in any country that has pursued harsh austerity spending cuts. Instead, this (Snyder) policy prolongs underemployment and unemployment and their side effects.

"One of the primary symptoms of an economic recession is the lack of consumer demand that results from unemployment and underemployment, the reduced value of assets, and the fear that savings will run out. The unintended consequence of cuts in government spending is a further reduction in consumer demand, increased unemployment, and a decline in tax revenue.

"This is particularly true when government cutbacks and tax policies deprive lower middle class and working poor employees and retirees of income.

"Cuts in teaching and other government jobs also affect female employment more severely than male employment."

Caution, Rick Snyder may be marching Michigan into Depression Mode.


Original Post.

Tea Party Principles Oppose Centralized Government

Governor Rick Snyder's regime is "Centralized Government" moving Michigan top-down into corporatist-style consolidation of local governance and affairs; centralizing power away from our neighborhoods directly into the hands of a few "smarter-than-thou bureaucrats dispensing "our money." Local taxes are taken from us, then doled back to us under bureaucratic, tight, and complete centralized Lansing control.

Centralized government, which Tea Party supporters oppose, is being put in place with a superior and arrogant attitude: "We, bureaucrats and lawyers alone, know best what is good for you."

Snyder's CEO delusion: You hired me to run Michigan like a business organization; just do as I say. I'm now totally in charge.

Forget local control, the right of self determination, and the importance of free elections, my "Man, the EFM (Emergency Finance Manager), has his instructions from me, do as we say or your units will be taken over and your local/civic assets sold off as we decide.

"The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government." -- Milton Friedman

Original Post.

Rick the Trick Behind the Stick

There is a snide mistruth that underlies the concept of Snyder reversing the state's exemption of pensions from state income taxation.

The concept is the oft used mantra of the Tea Party as applied here: Whose money is it? . To wit: "It's our money." Now Snyder and Engler-holdovers and that political corporatist chameleon, Andy Dillon have put forth the new BIG GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST redefinition into the mix; "The retirement pensions are OUR MONEY and WE MAY TAKE OUT OF IT WHAT WE WANT because we are the judges of "fairness."

What about Snyder's oft repeated assertion that he's the arbiter of total "FAIRNESS" for all.
Snyder's over 300% tax increase on seniors s not about fairness.

It's about securing the state's largest shift of seniors' personal money to corporations in the history of Michigan. If the people of Michigan allow this MONEY GRAB will it will indeed be "unfair" to the corporate contributors to Snyder and his cronies? Though you may agree with Tricky Rick that it would be simple and efficent.


SNYDER CLAIMS TO HAVE A BIG SOFT SPOT IN HIS HEART FOR POOR SENIOR CITIZENS, YET BEWARE !

If some folks, for elective reasons or out of tough economic circumstances, or other necessity (supporting grown children in financial difficulty) are still at work in places like Wal-mart or McDonald's past normal retirement age, we the BUREAUCRATS OF LANSING now proclaim that unfortunate condition, if out of necessity, is so tragic that we must FORCEFULLY LEVEL THE PAYING FIELD by instituting a whopping new 300% tax increase on those seniors with earned the right to it, and/or were promised delayed compensation/pensions as part of the condition of their willingness to render services.

So ill-prepared and under-calculated is Snyder's scheme that Rick's beancounters ignored and/or overlooked the fact that SOME SENIORS HAVE NO SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEPEND STRICTLY ON LIMITED PENSION FUNDS FOR THEIR LIVING, DRUGS AND MEDICAL CARE, AS WELL AS OTHER LIVING EXPENSES.

Gov. Snyder admited this omission; and promised earlier this week, during a statewide telephone-townmeeting, (held seeking public input and pressure on the legislature to pass his budget package) that he would look into that omitted class of pensioners' dilemma.

The corporate-serving Snyder Team would have us believe that removing $900 million in pension funds piped directly into the business community's cash flow is good for Michigan. NOT SO, NOT SO AT ALL!

Those lost pension dollars pulled from the economy equal a huge loss in broadly spread business opportunity and employment in Michigan. Keeping this money in circulation is now more important than ever, it's ceertainly a big part of the state's service sector.

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION: Every pension dollar in Michigan's pensioner hands spent on goods and services produces $6.49 in economic activity in commerce and business. 

How important are pensions to the Michigan Economy. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security: Michigan's "state and local pensions also supported more than 45,000 jobs that paid nearly $3 billion in wages and salaries, nearly $7 billion in total economic output, and nearly $970 million in federal and local tax revenues."

THAT FOLKS IS A REAL CHUNK OF CHANGE !

Cutting into Michigan's retiree pension revenue by $900 million (to fund a corporate tax break) as Rick Snyder has demanded) could result in a stunning loss of economic activity in Michigan in the range of tens of billions of dollars!

Who best knows how to spend their own money: Retirees on limited/capped incomes or BIG GOVERNMENT out of Lansing; Rick Snyder's intent on funneling this LEGISLATED BILLION PLUS WINDFALL to favored business interests?

GOP State Senator Brandenburg (the Harrison Township Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee) said of Snyder: "I want to work with him, I do, but I can't because he (Gov. Snyder) has a $900 million money grab in there, and there's no guarantee that the tax cuts for businesses will generate a lot more jobs."

News reports reveal: "The governor acknowledged that levying the standard income tax on retirement income has very little support among fellow Republicans in the House and Senate."

Perhaps being a beancounter and "one Tough Nerd" leaves one out of the realities of the real world. The Michigan Views Daniel Howes column touched on the heart of Snyder's problem in this regard: Snyder may be a University of Michigan Wunderkind-turned-CEO-turned venture capitalist and he may be a trained accountant, but it's increasingly clear he skipped the communications classes that turn business executives and politicians into their own kind of rock star."

However, again, to frame Howes' phrasing, there are thousands of Michiganders who are out-of-step with this Tough Nerd: "...And they each have their own version of what fresh kind of hell Snyder's Michigan would visit on everything from schools and city halls to economic development and the environment."

It will take more than some "factual concoction of dashboard indicators," using campaign-speak to get the citizens of this state back on the track. "Fairness (as any seasoned union or management bargainer could tell you) is in the eye of the beholder," opines Howes.

"FAIR" for Rick is largely slanted toward his predisposition to favor business and money over people and children's well-being. Nothing fair there! Just the fact that Snyder would turn over 800,000 poor into the vacant space of neglect is stone-cold.

Now, regrettably Snyder is now so far mired the muck of political misrepresentation and mendacity concerning the underlying reasons for his programs and his involvement with the urber-corporate/Koch Brothers/Mackinac Center's "legislative force-feeding of Lansing Tea-Publicans via A.L.E.C. that it may not be possible for him to successfully lead the state.

Rick is way behind the stick.


Original Post.

Hell hath no fury as in a state built by industrious working men and women, good people now scorned and disenfranchised by Michigan Teapartisans

The passage H.B. 4215 et al, dictatorial EFM take over, voter disenfranchisement, 'corporate' direct control of local units of government breaks all previous records for reckless and thoughtless partisanship.

This all sadly grows out of the nasty Engler Revolution and the bad blood Engler engendered.

The giddy 'gotcha trolls' in the News blogs are high with grit in their teeth!

Many villages, towns, fire and police departments, schools and all their sweet children have been summarily turned over to Plunkett/Cooney high powered/high fee attorneys.

Emergencies, not yet declared, will mount up into the hundreds as the Nerdomomics of Tricky Rick unfold. This will include scores of public schools, sent to the dustbin by Rick Snyder's Nerdonomics.

Do the math yourselves.

There are already units in a financial fix. SNYDER'S INTENTIONAL TAX/REVENUE STARVATION of other units who are surviving, but struggling, will led immediately to many more undefined, but certain, declarations of 'finance emergencies.'

The We-are-much-smarter-than-thou GOP State Senators will rue the day they stepped off into this muck. We already know that $470 or more is cut from the neighborhood schools. We are fully aware that revenue sharing back to our communities of our own tax dollars via Block Grants is axed. This situation alone means there will be real trouble locally, real soon.

This is Snyder creative crisis built on a national economic downturn, not the first, but one of many very similar, over the years in Michigan.

Former Gov. William Milliken knows personally the hurt and the struggle of these cyclical events in Michigan. He led the state in pro-active and collaborate ways to overcoming and recovery.

SNYDER AND HIS TEAM OF HARD-HEADED,HARDCORE ENGLERITES HAVEN'T A CLUE They, like Engler, love the political battle and its spoils more than the peace, preferring strife over 'genuine, sincere, honest sacrifice' by all including corporations, the mega wealthy, and businesses-each according to ability.

The kind of EFM turmoil, headed up by corporations and 'firms' handed the undemocratic assignment(granted wages not to exceed $177,000 per year) is the kind of quality of life, culture buster, that drives away outstate investors.

Fancy this, what incoming corporate CEO wants to live in the wasteland this debacle has fueled. Culture to a German Company is equal to capital profits.

Germans get it. GOP'ers don't. The more cunning of the Teapartisan fearing ninnies, that timorous covey of poultry, should not be surprised by the ugly outcomes. The other sheepish, including the clueless newbees, will be stunned and very adversely effected by the collapse of units in their districts. The acrimony and the gnashing of teeth; viewed as the parsimonious landscape of "hell" will be their abode.

The 'real people' are coming for your leather swivel chairs and your platinum promise of State-Funded Health Insurance for Life, and all those other bits and pieces that lured you, the current GOP'ers into public office.

Now you've been elected, you turn on your people; to become judas goats, bitter enemies, to your own district's working families; turning against your own first responders, teachers, and the school children who populate our hopeful futures.

Remember...Dictatorship is Ugly! Hell's fury via angry, offended voters is real.

Original Post.

When Is Totally Insane Nerdonomics Not Totally Bonkers, Way Beyond Crazy?

Nerdonomics: Gov. Rick Snyder's wide-ranging proposals have made it shockingly evident what's at risk for citizens of this state. 

Many services and essential state functions are dangerously at stake here in Michigan.

Truth be told: Businesses will realize more than a HUMONGOUS 80% DECREASE IN TAXES.

Nerdonomics demands, not a reasonable 10 percent cut, not a generous 20 percent or even half 50% cut; nor does it call for a temporary cuts to tide the state over (WWMD-What Would Milliken Do)"but a FULL 82 PERCENT DROP IN BUSINESS TAXES.

Michigan's Business Tax now generates $2.1 billion in revenue to help pay for vital services such as education, help for abused kids, and public safety, etc. as business' share of civic responsibility.

Under NERDONOMICS THAT WILL PLUMMET to $392 MILLIONS IN FY 2013; first full year of the tax changes are in effect. House Fiscal Agency Director Mitch Bean this week used a different base in his accounting to compute an EVEN BIGGER DROP - 86 PERCENT.

THIS WILL OCCUR AT THE EXACT SAME TIME PERSONAL INCOME TAXES WILL CLIMB A WHOPPING 31 PERCENT. That will not be shared equally. In fact those at the high end of the economic ladder (THE VERY WELL OFF, THE ECONOMIC ELITES, MANY OF WHOM WILL HAVE ALSO SEEN THEIR BUSINESSES SKIM UP TO AN 86 % GIVE BACK FROM NERDOMOMICS) will see the biggest TAX REDUCTION WINDFALL as the income tax rate shrinks from 4.35 percent to 4.25 percent.


Original Post.

Snyder Picks & Chooses: Business wins, Retirees Lose

Highly unfair, not-so simple, highly inefficient corporate-style Snyder tax plan goes for the low hanging fruit.

Those communities that have cultured a highly attractive retirement setting, cultural events, great health care, transportation, high grade housing and custodial care/end of life care (were needed), supplied with supporting volunteers and places of worship: these places in Michigan (which surprisingly, in spite of harsh winters, attract numbers of former professionals and retirees many from other states) continue to flourish. Such Michigan retirement locations are at high risk under Rick Snyder's plan to tax public and private pension income. The state income exemption is a key reason sernors chose to stay in Michigan or come from other "pension taxing" locations. This vast source of personal resources, vital to Michigan's economy and healthcare facilities will be shipping out, others are busy cancelling plans to come to Michigan. All no thanks to Snyder's giant tax mistake.

Prudent seniors invest and, if they can, secure at a minimum, in these highly volatile times, a steady, predictable 5% return on their life savings and /or have a pension-based stipend based on decades of loyal and quality public service they must protect. They now face a battery of distinct cuts (cultural programs, libraries, etc.) and new tax increases. The harshest "hit"; Snyder's new pension tax of 4.25%.

Snyder's bifurcated remarks on Channel 7, Detroit Feb. 18th reflect his callous disregard for the prudence, planning ahead, and careful husbandry of personal resources by seniors. These are citizens who have no intention to be a burden to society in their maturity.

Rick Snyder calls them out, making them "losers" saying because they have these savings and have planned well, he has political provocation to see their promised exemption cut off. Those seniors who did not save, could have laid aside, but didn't; those who didn't render public service as a policeman, fireman, judge, or teacher; must pay Michigan income taxes while they must continue to work.

Snyder insists: Pensioners should have their exemption rescinded, to be fair to those without pensions. Snyder is pitting one group of seniors against another.

Snyder fanes to "feel the pain" of those seniors who are still working past normal retirement pay and continue to pay Michigan income taxes on the pittance they earn......that's nonsense. The pensioners are being put in a highly unfair position-Snyder chooses to make them LOSERS in his scheme.

Snyder's million dollar quote to Channel 7, 2/18/11, "I still DON'T WANT TO MINIMIZE" (my new $900 million tax on pensioners is a financial "hit") "It is a burden on people."

AARP calls it: "War on the elderly."

From the Snyder Interview:

Snyder: its typically Senior couple, if they have the average SS, average homestead (have) exemption, they would be making more than over $40K before they pay a dollar of MI income tax. Which again, I still DON'T WANT TO MINIMIZE ( "It is a burden on people.") but the other part we have to remember is, not all seniors have a pension. And if you look at the future trends, a lot fewer people are going to have pensions, and those people who are still working after they become a senior. They are paying income the Michigan tax today so you have a real equity question between the people who worked hard and are fortunate enough to have a pension....(and those who don't have one.)

Egalitarianism is not the "real" Snyder goal, except for as he argues for his pro-tax the pension plan: Tax "Haves" and acknowledge the "no-pension Have-Nots" are still working and paying taxes but do nothing to elevate that burden on them.

In Snyder's increase sales pitch he's off the Tea Party line of defense; "NO NEW TAXES"; leastwise he also upsets the Neo-Libertarian Detroit/MacCen News that despises the thought of "total equality."
How could this paper allow new taxes by whose are advocates coercing "losers"(pensioned seniors) to bear the budget burden, while allowing the less fortunate senior "winners" to go on working and paying and not provide a state income exemption for them move ahead with such a flawed plan?

With the bulk of the make-up to cover an over-generous business tax give-away placed on the seniors and public servants, where's the statewide "shared sacrifice" so touted by Snyder? The "fairness?


Original Post.

Will Calabrese Clarify His Boast: Snyder Told the “Cold, Hard Truth” About Raising $900 Million in New Taxes From Michigan Pensioners

Response to Dan Calabrese Op-Ed “Rick Snyder: Leadership is found in thestatehouse, if not in the White House” in the Northern Star National on February 18th, 2011

Calabrese doesn't believe that he's misrepresenting Rick Snyder when he says in his recent column: Snyder is "Leading!" by the means of his honesty. "We have not had governors willing to do what Snyder did yesterday, which was to deal with cold, hard facts and tell the people of the state the cold, hard truth about where we are and where we need to go."

Dan genuinely values "the cold, hard truth."

So we ask:
Our Response (in the following parody dialog with Dan): Dan, let's see if you understand the basic facts of Snyder's budget proposal. Did Rick Snyder propose a new tax on anyone in Michigan? A simple "yes" or "no" is sufficient.

Dan: ...(Snyder) told the truth.

Our Response: Is that a "yes"

Dan: ...that's a "yes."

Our Response: Let me refresh your memory.

Here's the exact verbatim answer Snyder gave veteran reporter Tim Skubick, on FOX 2, Detroit, right after Snyder left the Senate Committee Room; having just presented his proposed budget to the state:

Skubick's Question: Some people are going to pay more to the state...Aren't they?
Snyder dodges the question: We are decreasing revenues this is not a net tax increase. When you look at all the numbers.
[Skubick stays on his question: Some people will pay more!]
(Again evasive and un-answering to Skubick's direct question concerning his proposed huge new tax increase.)
Snyder: But it's really based on the premise of a net tax decrease...
Skubick: Your pension tax is very controversial (it) raises $900m. Is that number correct?
Snyder: It's not a pension tax. It is actually removing a tax expenditure. We are actually reducing your tax rate. Our individual rate tax rate... [Skubick breaks in, still dead-on for an honest Snyder answer]
Skubick: It raises $900m? Correct?
Snyder: It generates $900m in revenue.

Our Response: Dan, there you have an honest answer given after an honest inquiry about the facts and following a lot of evasiveness and double talk from Snyder.

Snyder is raising taxes on pensioners by 9 tenths of a billion dollars and concurrently removing that amount, and more, from select businesses supporters in the state.

The "Leader" in Snyder said on the campaign trail repeatedly and very clearly to his audiences all across the state including pensioners: "My objective is not to raise revenue in the budget."

Our Response: "What part of "no new taxes" does Snyder's post-election budget proposal keep? Did he keep his pre-election promise not to "raise new revenue"? Did Snyder tell the truth about his new taxes?

Dan: If that's what Snyder's doing...could I have a moment to think over my answer?

Our Response: Take all the time you need, Dan. We all know how much you value moral absolutes like the "truth."
 
Original Post.

2/17 (February 17, 2011) will live on in Michigan History as a very dark day: The Day Gov. Snyder Robbed Kids & Grandparents

"Pensions are deferred payments for work done. 'Benefits' are pay for work, not a handout. Pensions and benefits are arranged by contract. If there is not enough money for them, it is because the contracted funds have been taken by conservative officials and given to wealthy people and corporations instead of to the people who have earned them." - George Lakoff

Simply put, Snyder has chosen to join on the Welcher Wagon. The numb nerd has bought into the "airy fairy" world of Karl Rove and William Kristol. Snyder has become the manservant of that nasty little corporate gofer , Grover Norquist and his anarchist John Bircher buddy, Saulis Anuzis.

The Back Story
Years ago, a nominal moderate (at the time), former House Speaker, now corporate officer at DTE, Paul Hillegonds, said that the local communities had been "too generous to teachers." He said that the state take-over of local schools was the way to force (that's "coerce" - a term of endearment our Tea-Publicans adore) by the "shift and shaft" mechanism that become Proposal A. That pushed costs back on the local taxpayers so that they, in Hillegonds' scheme, would have to make "hard choices."

Prop A was a clever device that gave the taxpayer a sugar coated, measured dose of arsenic, accumulative poison. The candy coating was the immediate "tax relief" in the form of a 60% annual reduction in local property taxes for "homesteaders" and hoped owners ignored the "hit" that was backloaded in the form of "state transfer taxes" at the point of sale. Prop A saw several categories of state responsibilities such as retirement costs (state obligations) drilled back to the local schools as part of the required responsibilities due under the so-called "foundation grant." That provision included what has amounted to hundreds of millions of indirect support to private and church schools.

Sen. Jack Welborn was less sophisticated in his truth and revelations, he knew exactly what was happening in 1993 and spoke up revealing how "foundation grants" were designed to undercut public schools.

The sharp decline of the Michigan economy is now a decade along. The "gifts" and "ear candy" bandied about by John Mathias Engler and cronies (many of whom are back at the state salary trough under Snyder) were illusions. The slippage following Prop A created huge loopholes for corporations who weaseled out huge tax "give-backs" from local units of government. Tens of millions of tobacco taxes were lost to cross-state-boundary smuggling, which became an industry until the tardy tax stamp was affixed.

Did Engler save the Big Three? Did Engler's Revolution insulate Michigan from recession or produce a business boom in Michigan? Decidedly NO. The structural games and devices he and cohorts peddled began to ravish the state even before he left town for a millionaire Bonus for Bonzo as chief lobbyist at NAM, aggressively promoting China over Michigan. How weird is that!

The debt Engler left Jennifer, and the many, many holes "King John" drilled in the revenue bucket did just what he designed them to do, they revenue starved Michigan. That huge "unfunded" business connected to "state obligations" to pay deferred constitutional income to superannuated public employees: That's a nasty Engler legacy.

On 2/17 we said, "Shut up we don't want to hear about history," "we want what we want" taken back from our deserving retirees. And "Oh Yes," we have the majority power to do it, "so there."

2/17 will live on in Michigan History as a very dark day; the day Snyder walked the state away from its moral obligations in order to award his business cronies and boost Karl Rove's efforts to defund unions.

This last week we have seen the final chapter of the Engler Revolution make a direct hit on our children and our seniors. Granddad and grandma are hit with the leeching effects of a decades long campaign from Engler's Willy Wonks over at the Mackinac Center. They are so proud, so happy! Just drop by their new showy headquarters near the Lansing capitol and pay them a visit, ignore the party trash in the back conference room! MacCen benefactors: Dow, Amway, Consumers, the Insurance lobby as well as a whole host of outside anti-government foundations have been paid-off big time with the proposed Snyder/Engler Redux Michigan Budget proposals.

Whoa, just a jiffy!

Snyder is imposing dramatic "new taxes." Does anyone believe all those "NO NEW TAXES" Tea Party legislators can stay true to their solemn oaths and support HUGE NEW TAXES ?

Snyder's Voo Doo vocabulary usage, neutralizing the REAL facts, notwithstanding!

Just you wait, Just you wait. The people are coming to Lansing.


Original Post.

The Detroit News is "Tapped Out"

Response to Nolan Finley in "A tax hike is a tax hike is a tax hike" Detroit News on February 18, 2010.

Each and every day outside Denny's Restaurant or other local eateries the Detroit News stands at the door like a miniature billboard projecting its view of the world in the form of a major headline. The News which as served so well as the regurgitation press for John Englerites and his cathouse friends and cohorts at the Mackinac Center try once again to project and propose their defeatist and business-before-families and community attitudes and agendas.

Just as surely as the state defeated the MacCen/Amway sponsored voucher petition drive in 2000 by 2 to 1, when the state shutdown again last September 30th the polling stateside showed that by 2 to 1 those polled showed they favored a tax hike to help the state survive the steep dive that the Detroit News and John Engler were so instrumental in NOT PREVENTING and in fact took positions and pushed for policies that did not enrich the state's economic status as a premiere manufacturing state and location. In fact, there was no evidence that the News had much "pull" in helping GM in its decades long haughty headed slide to the bottom.

NoviReader has the tiger by the tail:

" Finley wants to pretend that government can provide the same level of service with a lot less in revenue. If people don't want to pay for those services anymore, that's their choice. But stop the false claims that lead people to believe that they can have more government (services) with less money."

We are workers and eager livers here in Michigan. But take our jobs and fail to lead us to see that bad things happen when corporations and business are made the main interest of the major news rags and the hidebound legislature --then watch the quality of life slide.

Nolan, take a moment and tell us how you and your paper have made an actual, positive difference in stopping the 20 year decline. Please give us, as evidence, a dozen examples where you and your publication have improved the quality of life in real terms for the ordinary Joe and Suzie.


Original Post.