Finally, a tax hike that doesn’t strike me as needless: New 911 charges likely coming to cell phone users
Backers say the bills would stabilize funding for 911 services and hold down surcharges on landline users, noting that funding has dropped significantly in some counties as more landline users migrate solely to cell phones.
Makes sense to me.
This actually sounds like a much more business friendly idea to me, but it still doesn’t sit well. Why the fuck didn’t they do this back in April when the budget issues were first raised? Now businesses have been carrying on presuming they wouldn’t have to pay any such surcharge. A little lead time would have been helpful.
What also gets me is that the budget shortfall was $1.75 billion. Where the hell is the other $1 billion coming from? I don’t see any reports that they cut spending any further so it looks like we’re still facing a deficit which isn’t permitted under the Michigan State Constitution any longer.
Are we headed for another government shutdown or am I missing something?
At this point I’d be content with the State of Michigan pulling up the voter registration logs, figuring out what each individual person needs to pony up to cover the deficit, send out bills to those people, and call it the “You Elected Morons Tax.”
Fellow Michiganders, I say we make our mantra for the 2008 state elections “Not One Single Incumbent.” Let’s vote every one of these incompetent shit heels out and send a message. Sure, some of them are doing a good job, I don’t doubt that, but that message will make it clear that this nonsense must stop for any future legislator to have any hope of holding onto their position.
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It’s a movement to get Michigan’s new service tax repealed by referrendum if the state government doesn’t do it on their own, which is already underway.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.
Just yesterday I wondered if the new sales tax would affect my company. I was in the office today and got a chance to chat with the owner about this. Our company’s lawyer’s take on this: He’s not sure yet either.
Figures.
Basically, IT consulting is covered, but there are excemptions here and there. It’s not clear if all of our services will be taxable, but it seems that some will be.
In totally unrelated news: I think the kittens have destroyed my laptop’s power cord. If true, this will be the fourth one I have lost to my pets. Little bastards.
So, part of the plan to fix Michigan was to increase the income tax. I’m not happy with this, but in all honesty “Welcome to Michigan: We only gank 4.35% of your income off the top” isn’t a whole lot worse than the previous 3.9%.
The real bitch is going to be expanding the sales tax to some of the services industries. I admit, I didn’t care too much about the issue because I trusted the media when I heard reports that they’d only be taxing a “few” services more. Then I see the list:
·Carpet and upholstery cleaning services·Business service center services
·Consulting services
·Investigation, guard and armored car services
·Investment advice services
·Janitorial services
·Landscaping services
·Office administration services
·All of the following personal services:
-Astrology services
-Baby shoe bronzing services
-Bail bonding services
-Balloon-o-gram services
-Coin-operated blood pressure testing machine services
-Bondsperson services
-Check room services
-Coin-operated personal service machine services
-Comfort station operation services
-Concierge services
-Consumer buying services
-Credit card notification services
-Dating services
-Discount buying services
-Social escort services
-Fortune-telling services
-Genealogical investigation services
-House sitting services
-Social introduction services
-Coin-operated rental locker services
-Numerology services
-Palm reading services
-Party planning services
-Pay telephone services
-Personal fitness trainer services
-Personal shopping services
-Coin-operated photographic machine services
-Phrenology services
-Porter services
-Psychic services
-Rest room operation services
-Shoeshine services
-Singing telegram services
-Wedding chapel services, but not churches
-Wedding planning services
·Other travel and reservation services
·Scenic transportation services
·Skiing services
·Tour operator services
·Warehousing and storage services
·Packaging and labeling services
·Specialized design services
·Transit and ground passenger transport services
·Courier and messenger services
·Personal care services
·Service contract services in which the seller, in exchange for the buyer’s single payment, agrees to provide repair, maintenance, or replacement of 1 or more items of tangible personal property during a specific period of time, which services the buyer is not required to buy in connection with the purchase of tangible personal property.
·Security system services
·Document preparation services
·Mini warehouse services and self-storage unit services
Still with me? Good.
A former coworker shot me links today on this topic, as were both confused as to our status under “consulting services.” I must say, after following up I think the company that I’m employed with will most definately fall under that umbrela. We both work in IT (Information Technology) and we’re basically geeks for hire. You want a customized solution to problem X? We’ll build it! That kinda thing. This seems to fall under the larger umbrella of “consulting” accoring to the Michigan state government.
I could be totally wrong on this one. I’m sure I’l find out if I am, seeing as my employer will surely learn the ramifications of this legislation shortly as well as other people I associate with.
It’s easy to see what happens when your local dry cleaner needs to up your charges by 8% becaue of the law. Figure 6% for the actual tax an 2% for compliance. A pittance on a $30 bill, really.
What happens when you’re talking about a $150,000 deal? Yeah. Things change. You can’t really send your dry cleaning out of state, but you can damned sure send your IT projects out of state. What about the “use” taxes that are an extension of the sales tax? Will companies in Michigan that receive services now subject to the sales tax have to pay up on that even if they’re in Indiana? Or India?
I sure hope I read this thing wrong.
I got a letter from the IRS today. It seems that back in 2005 when I was buying and selling stocks like they were candy I filed incorrectly.
I bought, and sold, just over $10,000 in stocks that year using $5,000 of capital. My actual profit was in the neighborhood of $100, and I did my level best to make sure I paid taxes on that. However, due to some mishap on my part, the IRS now thinks that I made $10,000 in stock sales and wants a little north of $3,000 in taxes.
Hopefully it won’t take too much to sort this out.
Over at Ars Technica they’ve got an article on The Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007.
It’s in response to the Boston Police Department collectively shitting their pants upon finding a Lite Brite and calling in the bomb squad.
Be careful not to confuse that incident when they shit themselves again over a traffic monitoring device was found and they blew it up.
Here’s what caught my eye:
However, that did not placate city officials who remained outraged at the incident, promising to push for harsher punishments in the future for incidents that waste government resources.
Emphasis mine.
Ahem, US Senate?
Here’s an idea that floated to my head some months ago with regards to state’s rights.
You know where you find a lot of the pork spending in our nation? In the transportation budget. This is the bullshit pork spending that leads to bridges to islands with 50 people in them in Alaska and bridges named after Robert Byrd. This is also used by the federal government to dictate highway regulations back to the states.
You see, the federal government doesn’t have the power to set such rules. They cannot mandate our speed limits. They cannot pass a law that says we must wear seat belts. They cannot set the legal blood alcohol content level for drivers. Hell it’s the very reason that every state in the union sets the drinking age at 21 years of age.
What they can do is tax us. I’m talking here about the federal gas tax: 18.4 cents per gallon. Failure to comply with the federal guidelines means you jeopardize getting that money back. Play nice and you get your money, right?
Wrong.
Michigan, along with plenty of other states are donor states. Michigan gets back 92 cents on the dollar for every $1.00 we pump into the system. Washington DC gets back around $5.00 for every $1.00 they put into the system. I wonder why that area gets special treatment.
If I had my way the solution to this would be rather simple: Michigan tax payers should just quit paying into the system. Just increase the state gas tax to take in the same amount of money and stop sending it to DC. What are they going to do? Send the Army in after us?
Now, I understand perfectly well that there’s a reason that some states get more in tax dollars than others. For instance it makes sense to give Illinois an amount out of proportion with the amount that they donate. They need that money to keep up the interstates around Chicago because a metric crapload of vehicles that don’t ever bother buying gas in Illinois pass through there. Any state with a disproportionate amount of through-way traffic needs extra funding.
That would be understandable.
My beef is that Michigan’s roads suck and we’re getting shafted by the federal gas tax program. Less than fifty people in Alaska are getting a new bridge while I drive to work on roads so full of potholes that I’m glad I drive an SUV so I don’t bottom out on them.
I like to drive. A lot. If I want to get somewhere I prefer to do it by automobile. I’ve trucked my ass from Michigan to Maine to Montana to Missouri to New York City to Kentucky and God knows where else I’ve forgotten. Hands down Michigan’s roads are the worst. I’ve checked. When you see a sign in Michigan that indicates a “Dip” in the road you put both hands on the steering wheel and grit your teeth. When you see one in Illinois you simply remember not to take a drink of your coffee until after you hit it.
It isn’t that we get less money back that pisses me off.
It isn’t that a bunch of yahoos in Washington demand I put my seat belt on that pisses me off.
It isn’t that our roads suck that pisses me off.
It’s when you put them all together that things start to irritate me.
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