Open heart surgery left off Gov’s tax list, for now
A recent Sunday newspaper featured a cartoon of a man burdened down with levels of tax hikes on his back.
Standing behind him, erect and with shoulders thrown back, is Governor Jennifer Granholm.
The caption reads, ‘Quit whining and show some backbone!?
Elsewhere in the same paper is a list of 98 services that could fall under the governor’s ‘service tax? proposal.
They range from amusements to well drilling, and include such things as debt counseling, which is likely to be sought by those living on their current income when hit with a 2 percent increase in their cost of living.
Jennifer would have us believe all schools would have to close and all children go uneducated if the legislature doesn’t pass her budget, which was put into deficit because the state didn’t live within its income.
She is trying to make us believe that the cutting of 30 state police will make every highway the equivalent of the Indy 500 and make rioting even more expected.
Of course, the poor and needy people (who would also have two percent added to their cost of nonliving) will have only churches, charities and ‘high income? people to support them.
But, because church and charity givers will also have their income cut by two percent, the poor’s future is even bleaker. Even the ‘rich? have limits on their support.
Enthusiasts and casual users of Michigan’s waters, lands and air will also pay more . . . above the 2 percent hike. Licenses, permits and fees for catching a bluegill, having a rowboat, riding a sled, flying a kite . . . excuse me, that wasn’t in the initial list . . . also have to pony up extra cash.
The state JUST HAS TO HAVE more money.
There is no other answer.
Well, the state might do what its citizens have to do when outgo exceeds income.
It might CUT SPENDING!
Now there’s a novel idea. One practically unheard of in government.
I hadn’t driven around our capitol in Lansing in several years, until I took a wrong turn trying to find a golf course a couple years ago. I remembered the street running north and south on the west side of the capitol being lined with houses.
‘Taint that way today.
Today the capitol’s buildings are spread in all directions. And they are huge.
Why is it, and this applies locally as well, that our governments need so much more space (and so many more assistants) now, since the advent of the computer? Weren’t computers ‘sposed to make all activity speedier and more accurate?
I might make one more snide suggestion. Get rid of all the computers and go back to simpler times, you know, like when we considered the voter.
If raising taxes by two percent (backers like to call it two cents because is sounds smaller) is not a large amount, then cutting spending two percent should be considered likewise.
Right now the automotive people (as well as newspapers, recreational people, the employed, etc.) are having financial problems. Are they raising rates?
No! They’re cutting back.
And, please, Jennifer, don’t tell us you’ve made deep cuts. Unless, of course, you tell us all the places you have increased expenditures.
Back to the 2 cents miss-lead. If you take home $10,000 a year and spend it all, your take home will drop $200.
That could buy a pair of socks, a quart of milk, loaf of bread, roll of tp, and some aspirin.
Let’s talk the worst here, just like Jennifer.