I found this today on our company’s intranet: AxTheTax.com
It’s a movement to get Michigan’s new service tax repealed by referrendum if the state government doesn’t do it on their own, which is already underway.
So, I’ve signed up for a petition sheet and I’ll see if I can get a few signatures to send their way.
Lansing needs to wake up: Michigan is going into a recession. You can’t tax your way out of that. You have to cut costs just like we’re doing in the private sector. My employer just cut operating costs by about 45% in recent months. The proposed 2008 budget for Michigan is asking for $9.7 billion dollars. The shortfall is a projected $1.75 billion. That’s 18% of the budget.
That’s a tough cut to make, but it can be done. Hell “we” just did it three times over. Yes, some people lost their jobs. That’s unforunate, and I wish it wasn’t that way, but that’s what happens when you’re in a recession. I hope everybody landed safely in new positions.*
Now, here’s my proposal, and I know nobody in politics would touch with a 10′ pole. It’s things like this that I’m posting here that’ll forever keep me from elected office:
Take a look at the Health and Human Services budget. There’s $2.25 billion in there for “Income assistance” which I previously thought the amount spent in checks laid directly into the hands of people of low income, but taking a 2nd look at it a good chunk is for food stamps, child care, and things I’d hate to see people go without. But…
If we took $1.75 billion from there to cover the shortfall and used the rest for vouchers to move people into states that weren’t as fucked up as Michigan, where they could maybe get a better job, then we’d be in the clear. That solves the problem for the next year too.
Cruel? Hell yes it is, but that’s exactly what we do in the private sector. If you can’t bring enough to the table to convice Company A that you’re worth your salary they dump you and you’re off looking for Company B. Why not apply that at the state level? If you’re “overhead” for the State of Michigan maybe it’s time that you try being a citizen of Louisianna or Florida. You might actually be able to find a job there that’ll keep you off welfare. It’s a win-win-win situation if that works out. Michigan stops paying for your basic needs, you get a better job, and your new state starts using you as a revenue source! We’ll pay the moving costs too! That’s the kind of deal you won’t usually find in the private sector.
You know, the more I compare this to what happens in the private sector in my mind, the less cruel it sounds.
*: I’ve only made contact with one of the people laid off by my company and he found employment within days it seems. It was with one of our clients, working on the same project that they contracted with us to complete, and they’re directly across the street from us. He still comes over for lunch some days, so I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t any hard feelings there. Oh, and that client is still with us and kicking work our way, so that guy is still working with the same people in our company that he used to work with.