Sunday, December 02, 2007

State of confusion

Saturday was an interesting news day for Michigan. First, the state legislature, once again acting at the last minute, finally got a bill passed and signed into law both repealing the sales tax on some services 7 hours after it took effect and replacing the lost revenue with a bump in the new Michigan Business Tax. The AP has the story complete with ridiculous headline (once again pushing the false notion the service tax was widely disliked by the public):

The service tax will be replaced by a 21.99 percent surcharge on the taxes businesses will already pay under the new Michigan Business Tax, which takes effect Jan. 1. The surcharge would be eliminated in 2017 if certain economic conditions are met. Many small businesses don't pay the MBT and won't have to pay the surcharge.
At least the bill got a good number of votes from both sides, passing 66-42 in the House and 33-4 in the Senate even if a solution should have come sooner than after the brand new tax had just come into effect, leaving too many businesses in a state of confusion as to whether they would be responsible for collecting the new service sales tax and once again hurting the state's image.

Also, the Democratic National Committee decided to strip Michigan of its delegates due to an effort by Michigan and a select group of states trying to finally strip Iowa and New Hampshire of their undeserved and overpowering influence in the presidential nomination process.
Michigan, with 156 delegates, has scheduled a Jan. 15 primary. Democratic Party rules prohibit states other than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina from holding nominating contests before Feb. 5.
Despite what I think was a noble effort for a worthy cause, it can only hurt Michigan's influence as it is now totally irrelevant irrelevant as not only will it lose its delegates but most of the major players on the Democratic ticket have asked to have their names removed from the ballot and have promised not to campaign, thus accomplishing the complete opposite of the goal to make Michigan more important in the selection of the 2008 presidential nomination process. The presidential primary has become a joke with states jockeying for better position, leaving the schedule up in the air so long and moving the schedule so far ahead that most people will just be starting to pay attention to the race only to find it already decided with an eternal general election to follow that will leave the country despising both major party candidates once again.

7 comments:

el colibri said...

The voters ought to be outraged at what has been going on in Lansing. We send these bozos to Lansing to do a job.... they are well paid, get great fringes like top of the line medical and dental coverage and retirement packages.
I saw in the Banner some weeks ago that suggested that we citisens ought to pass a constitutional amendment or something that sets a specific dead line for them to pass a balanced budget. For everyday they to beyond this date they all get their pay and fringes docked for each day they exceed the deadline. Makes sense to me.
I'll bet good money that there will be a lot of legislatures that won't be returning after the next election cycle.
One of the big problems with Lansing politics is that stupid term limit thingy...... dumb, dumb, dumb..... now we're stuck with a bunch of rookies who don't know up from down. About the time they learn how to get around in Lansing they are booted out the door.
I can't believe that term limits is even constitutional.

lonevoice said...

WP,

I know this is on a different matter, however I know with all your profound writings in the past in regards to 911 you would want to know this.

Now the prosecutor and barry co. barney and his crack det. are after the members of the 911 board for wrongdoing.

I am told they are all being pulled into the jail for questioning and told of possible charges unless they cooperate.

Isn't Barry Co. great.


ts

Jay said...

We are paying $10 million for a worthless contest where the Democrat vote doesn't count, nor the GOP vote, and to top it off, the two parties (private entities essentially) get lists just for them.

Absentee ballots will compete with Xmas mail, polling places will likely have a shortage of workers because they are mostly snowbirds, and overseas voters are screwed due to the narrow time window. It's a rip-off on all fronts.

agnosticrat said...

Spot on, Pol.

DCuz said...

"...once again pushing the false notion the service tax was widely disliked by the public..."

And your polling suggest what proportion of the public was fond of this tax? Perhaps the same 11% who approve of the job Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of the Democrats are doing in Washington?

dm

http://both-right.blogspot.com/

sentinel said...

There is no need for a constitutional amendment to force the legislature to pass a balanced budget. It is already part of the original document! And their deadline is fiscal year to fiscal year. They play a shell game with obligations and revenue to bend the rules to buy time to compensate for their unwillingness/inability to compromise.

el colibri said...

PW R U certain that Mitt has spent a BILLION dollars in Iowa?