If I didn’t value having my family so close to me I’d seriously be looking into getting out of this state.
We’re currently #6 in the nation for home foreclosures trailing behind Nevada, California, Florida, Georgia and Ohio. That’s just great. I figure that means one of two things: We’ve got a lot of idiots in this state buying homes they cannot afford, or our economy is in the dumper. Meanwhile our unemployment rate has jumped up to 7.4%, so I’m going to go with the “economy in the dumper” theory. On top of that we can’t seem to get a budget passed in the 11th hour. This may or may not result in shutting down our state government. It seems that the legislature just wants to extend the current one until they can sort things out, but governor Granholm is threatening to veto any extension unless it comes with a built in tax hike.
This is bull shit. We’re losing population along with suffering economic troubles. The two have to be related, nobody moves into an economic clusterfuck but they sure as Hell move out of one. We need to attract successful people in Michigan, and raising the income tax is not going to do that. “Come to Michigan: We tax your wages to solve our problems.” is definitely not a good recruiting slogan, but that’s what Granholm wants.
The 0.7% desired increase in the income tax is not a big deal to me. I won’t be happy about it, but it wont’ be a big deal if it happens. However, the ramifications on the economy are. You increase that and you take away from my employer. You end up increasing the chances of them moving to Indiana, or some other state. In the global economy we repeatedly see companies moving operations to countries where it’s cheaper to operate. Why can’t local politicians see that this can happen on a smaller scale right here in the US?
Michigan is in the shitter. We’re the Mexician version of a state right now: our population is fleeing for better wages and better opportunities. We’ve lost our blue-collar automotive based industry. We’re fucked.
An income tax increase is the last thing we need.
It isn’t ALL Granholm’s fault, but you won’t see me defending her much. In the same vein, you won’t see me gloating about how awesome and smart the House/Senate Republicans are. Both sides are imbiciles.
As for the tax hike, what did you expect? The State Budget is down, as Everyone (Republican and Democrat) has been handing out incentives to corporations left and right to keep them in Michigan, thus the replacement revenue has to come from somewhere.
It’s a mess, but it isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. A great deal of the problems related to the economy and home foreclosures are nothing the State had any power over.
-Abject.
I for one plan on leaving as soon as I finish up this degree…
It isn’t ALL Granholm’s fault,
I didn’t mean to make it sound like that. I got interrupted halfway through and lost my train of thought.
Both sides are imbiciles.
I’m in total agreement.