Friday, October 19, 2007

A note from an exasperated business owner

The letter below says more than I could ever say. It is from a small business owner in this state:

I am so angry at what has gone on in the state of Michigan. I am in the mortgage business and it has affected us to the extreme. With foreclosures at the highest, we have so many people in these ARMs that they are not allowing us to refinance into fixed loans, even people with great credit. You are going to see even more coming soon.

There are so many banks that will not even do business in the state of Michigan. We are just a little broker shop that is not able to survive this. Of course we don’t know what any of us are going to do because as we all know there are no jobs for us to get when that happens. Who in the world would want to bring big business to the state of Michigan? I know if it was me I would move mine to Ohio where they will pay me to bring my business.

My fiancĂ© has a security company in this state. He was having a hard time keeping above water because everybody needs protection but nobody can afford it. Now that there is sales tax he has had to raise his prices to cover his expense and because of that, he lost 3 of his big accounts. He just had to lay off the office staff because he can’t afford to pay them anymore. So he is going to have to shut down; another one lost and more jobs gone. “Thank you” to the Democrats and a few Republicans. I'm not sure where he is to go from here.

I think it is so unfair that they could pick and choose who has to pay service tax and who doesn't. If you ask me that is discrimination!! I don't know what to do; we are looking to relocate but it’s hard. I have a daughter who is graduating this year and my fiancĂ© has a son who he has working for him part time. I don't understand why the people of Michigan can't look out of the box and see the big picture. Without big and small businesses, the middle class have NO JOBS.

2 comments:

Mitch said...

The worst part, is that "service tax" legislation was written with lobbyists in mind. Look at what was taxable and what was exempt, and you'll get a good idea on who had good representation in Lansing.

Really, the stupid thing is the easiest way to skirt around this is to change the SIC/NAICS code on your tax return to become exempt that way.

What a bunch of morons - that is what you get doing tax policy on the fly.

Mitch said...

I've been lucky so far. I moved from metro Detroit to Charlotte for work, but I haven't sold my house in over two years. Fortunately I make enough (barely) to float the house and rent down here. So now I have a cottage in Michigan whether I like it or not.

To see the difference in tax policy in Michigan versus states in the Southeast first hand is incedible. They do not hassle taxpayers down here like they do in Michigan.

Last one to leave turn out the lights. A shame, because I love Michigan, but sadly the only way for it to turn around is for it to get a lot worse before it gets better. See Ontario - Bob Rae vis-a-vis Mike Harris for a comparison.

If you do, you'll see that Jennifer Granholm and Bob Rae were separated at birth, policy wise. I moved from Canada to Michigan in 2002, and told people, if I wanted Granholm's Canadian style solutions, I would have stayed there!