Not according to the experts at the Mackinac Center. Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh went over the State budget with a fine tooth comb and came up with $1.9 Billion in State budget savings. Even if only half of his recommendations were possible, wouldn't it have been better than raising taxes as much as they did?
Since details of Granholm’s massive tax hike on your income and on Michigan businesses was passed by the legislature this past Sunday, the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance has been deluged with more than a thousand emails in just two days. We have also received countless phone calls from angry, distraught taxpayers.
The vast majority of these emails and calls are from citizens who want to be involved in recall efforts against politicians who voted for these tax hikes on Michigan families. Many citizens emailed with questions, asking how they can be involved in recall efforts.
Due to the extreme volume of these emails and calls, it may take a few days for MTA staff to respond. Please forgive the brevity and tardiness of any initial response to any email you may have sent. The MTA WILL respond to questions and contacts as soon as possible. Staff and volunteers are sorting these contacts as quickly as they can.
However, please do NOT hesitate to contact the MTA by email. The MTA will respond and very much want to hear from you. Spread the word to family and friends - join the MTA and fight back!
Thank you for your patience and willingness to help.
Sincerely,
Leon Drolet
MI Taxpayers Alliance
www.mitaxpayers.org
Mr. Perks Arrested!
MTA mascot arrested by The Man
Mr. Perks was legally parked his spot in front of the Capitol, which had been reserved for a specified time. When his allotted time expired, Mr. Perks, in an act of civil disobedience, refused to relinquish his post.
While the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance does NOT approve of Mr. Perk's decision to flaunt the rules, we must remember that America has a long, proud history of peaceful civil disobedience.
Of course, The Man overreacted and the state police had Mr. Perks arrested. Luckily, they did not use tasers during their overreaction. When did liberals start cheering for The Man and against the underpig?
Mr. Perks remains defiant. His impoundment in a fenced lot with a gang of tough-looking cars has not shaken him. He will soon return to the Capitol lawn, representing taxpayer's perception of government spending, and reminding lawmakers that citizens are watching them.
At least for a night, Lansing citizens will have the full use of their fire trucks for fighting fires - not for trying to suppress free speech!
A Very Public Request to Governor Granholm
By Leon Drolet
Michigan is actually leading the nation in job growth in one small niche: The number of people employed on the staff of the gubernatorial first spouse
has never been higher. Michigan Taxpayer Alliance research has revealed that Michigan's First Gentleman Dan Granholm Mulhern has the third largest staff of any first spouse in the nation. Only California and Ohio provides their governor's wives with more assistants, five and four staffers respectively.
Jennifer Granholm's husband Dan Mulhern has three paid staffers, at least one of whom reportedly receives a very generous $115,000 salary and benefits package. In a state with a population more than twice Michigan?s, New York First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer ekes by with just two staffers. The spouse of the governor of Illinois has one staffer, as do those of Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota. The national average is 1.2 state employees per first spouse, brought down a bit by the fact that a few governors are single or divorced.
Is your state Representative or Senator on YOUR side?
Lawmakers in Lansing have two opportunities to announce their support of taxpayers over the taxspenders – they can sign the Pledge provided by the national organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) or they can sign the Promise provided by the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance.
The ATR Pledge is a pledge a legislator can publicly make to his/her constituents that the legislator will never vote to raise their taxes as long as he/she holds the office they are elected to. The MTA Michigan Promise is a shorter-term promise that legislators can make, promising to not support any tax hike on citizens this calendar year.
The MTA Promise was distributed to every legislator’s office on August 1st along with a request to sign and return the Promise document to the MTA by August 10. Those legislators who already signed the ATR Pledge need not sign the MTA Promise because those legislators have already declared long-term that they will always support taxpayers.
The week of May 7th was a very busy time for the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. Starting at 7am on Monday morning, the volunteers of the MTA set out on their mission to inform the citizens of the cities of Plymouth, Northville and Wayne about some substantial tax hikes passed by the state House and their state representative, Marc Corriveau.
The focal point of the tax hikes was a 3000% + hike in a garbage dumping fee that will increase the cost for everyone to dispose of their garbage. With this information in hand, the volunteers began following garbage trucks and an 11 foot, half ton pig named, 'Mr. Perks," through the neighborhoods to tape literature onto the trash cans of the unsuspecting taxpayers in Rep. Corriveau's district. The mornings of the following days were spent the same way, informing as many people in these key cities as we could.
About 500 Michigan taxpayers took a cold April day off work and drove to Lansing to tell Governor Granholm and state lawmakers, "Enough is enough, No new taxes! Cut spending!" The protest was organized by the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and Americans For Prosperity.
We made sure our voice was heard, chanting loudly, "Cut your budget!" and "She wants our pay, we say no way!" and "They want more dough, we say, 'hell no'!" Passing motorists blared their horns in support of our message. Most protesters came with their own, handmade signs but, thanks to Ray Wilson and the Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association, a variety of printed "anti-tax hike" signs were also available.
A ten foot tall pig named Mr. Perks, MTA's newest 'member', also made quite a splash.
An array of speakers kept the crowd motivated, including Stephen Moore an editor for The Wall Street Journal and Dick Patten from the American Family Business Institute, the leading national organization fighting the 'death (estate) tax'. Mr. Moore had perhaps the best line of the protest when he yelled, "No more taxation without respiration !"
Wayne County Taxpayers Association Chair Rose Bogaert filled us in about the tax revolt of 1983 and the creation of the Headlee Amendment. Roger Buckholtz, leader of Michigan's Fair Tax movement, spoke of how Lansing hides the taxes that you are paying.
Now what? Well, that's the job of the MTA to figure it out. And figuring we are. Keep an eye on our web page for news of the next steps in this fight for our wallets!
Sunset from the Grand Hotel
The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Policy Conference on Mackinac Island wraps up today. The annual event purports to be an opportunity for prominent politicians of both parties to mingle with Michigan’s business leaders for the purpose of sharing ideas and building consensus on improving our state. Last year, I attended the conference as part of a panel discussion on government race preferences, and found the Conference more akin to a surreal junket to Oz that represents a real threat to Michigan’s everyday citizens.
