...George Herbert Walker Bush broke his "read my lips" pledge. Today, the Michigan House of Representatives voted to raise the state income tax from 3.9% to 4.35%. It will generate about $765 million in new tax revenue per year. In the end, Chris Ward (R) Brighton, and Ed Gaffney (R) Grosse Pointe, voted with the majority of Democrats to approve the new tax. Both are in their last terms. They are not worried about reelection.
Mike Simpson (D), a vulnerable from Jackson voted NO. He got off the hook, thanks to two Republicans.
Please send thank you notes to rickshaffer@house.mi.gov and howardwalker@house.mi.gov and judyemmons@house.mi.gov. I made life a little tougher for them when I asked folks to write them and ask them not to vote for tax increases.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
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14 comments:
I hope you and your colleaugues force Ward out of his leadership position, which he should have never had.
Those two jack asses are probably going to retire to Florida where they DON'T have a state income tax! So nice of them to screw the rest of us before their retirement!
so in a sense, we can thank term limits for higher taxes ... since Gaffney and Ward no longer have to be accountable to voters. Which is how the 38 percent raise for legislators got through some years ago, because Senators who were term limited didn't vote to reject the unusually high raise, since they weren't going to run again anyway. Term limits = unaccountability.
I say we all send bills for .45% of our income to Ward and Gaffney to pay since they seem to have plenty of money to afford the tax increase.
I sent a "thank you" to both Gaffney and Ward; I thought they were merely unprincipled. Turns out they are cowards as well.
I appreciate these updates.
BTW, in addition to the size - a $613 million tax hike that mostly falls on business - the really ugly job-killing part of the service tax is not the silly stuff like astrology and baby-shoe bronzing that will get the media attention, but the things like $200 million on "consulting," $80 million on "office administration," and $45 million on janitorial, to name just a few. These directly add to the cost of doing business in Michigan and make this state even less competetive. It's incredible folly.
- from the guy with the deck and barbecue parties
Thank you VERY much for the timely information that you have shared on the blog.
It's been a long 7 months for you and your fellow Reps. It may even be a longer 12 months as we see how Queen Jenny "spins" what was just approved and how the people of Michigan really react to it.
I'm VERY sorry that you weren't successful in holding off an increase. You put up a good fight!
Kudos and THANK YOU to you and the others who voted NO!
I'm just SICK!
WTH do we do now?
I really can't stay in this state.
'Last term' is no excuse to trade in one's ethics (isn't Ward on the Ethics committee?) and backbone. Hopefully Reps Gaffney and Ward have no desire to run for State Senate or any other public office!
Let's remember the "off the hook" democrats Ebli and Simpson voted FOR the service tax increase. Every democrat today voted for some sort of tax increase.
We should first THANK everyone who voted NO to these increases. So, THANK YOU !!! Next, we cannot just go on, we must continue our vigilance on the other issues regarding the budget ... cutbacks and reforms or we will be in the same position again. THANK YOU to all who have endured the hardship and harassment during this time and were able to stand tall and vote NO !!!
Thank you Jack - for all you are doing.
Obviously Chris Ward was a better man in High School! I know most of the people in his district are NOT going to be very happy with his antics! Thanks to all for the hard fight, for what the VOTERS wanted. I'm glad that some of our reps still vote what their voters want and not on party lines. Michigan is in BIG trouble now. I guess my family will just have to leave the state. We just can't continue to foot the bill for "Queen Jenny's" spending any longer!
So where do we get our Granholm recall petitions?
My husband has been searching for a job for 4 months. My hope is fading that he will find one in Michigan. How are we supposed to help his aging parents from another state?
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