Voters and taxes. Always a difficult relationship. Always causes strong feelings and debate amongst voters.
Snyder's tax plan business tax plan gets mixed reviews | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
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I believe that Gov. Snyder is on the right track with this plan. As mentioned in the article the elimination of the Michigan business tax would make the state more competitive at attracting business. Given the state of our economy the fact that Michigan manufacturers pay on average 29% more than other states in business taxes doesn't seem to be a wise policy to continue. Michigan needs to continue to look attractive to business opportunities, eliminating this tax would be a good first step.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to understand the mixed reviews stemming from Gov. Snyder's plan. Essentially all they have in this article is 6%, we're not sure if it is a universal 6% or for most or just for some. This is a pretty small picture. I would also like to find out how the 1.5 billion dollar loss was calculated. Does this number assume no new businesses come into the state following the tax reduction? I believe more information would be needed to form an opinion on this issue. I think we can all agree with Mr. Hadden's statement that taxes should be spread around, and still be able to cover the bill for important public services. A bit of vague over-optimism never hurt anyone.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience as a business owner I can honestly say that the Michigan business tax structure is one more reason that doing business in Michigan can be considered burdonesome. It seemed at the time that the state was consistently coming up with new legislation that made it more difficult to conduct business in the state especially for those small business people. Taxes on industry should probably not be above average in the state, I think it would be wise to set a timetable to make the state more competitive. I think the governor should assume he/she is going to succeed in the governors office and institute an eight year plan to make the state more competitive with the top fifteen states in the nations.
ReplyDeleteA 3.3 billion dollar modification to a 47.5 billion budget does not sound too dramatic but given the cost of those cuts I think it may be too much of a jolt to the consumer in this fragile economy to grossly increase the unemployment rate in the state. Wide scale layoffs at the state level will have an immediate impact on small businesses across the state. Currently the state is in need for the remaining industry to thrive and expand in order to support an incrementally larger number of employees.
I liked Illinois Governor Quinn’s approach of communicating through the use of graphs and tables as well as dialect the current situation in Illinois. I feel it provokes meaningful discussion instead fear of draconian policy implementation. I hope that Governor Snyder employs short term, mid term, and long term approaches to curing Michigan’s problems
I agree that the MI business tax should be more comparable to the average of the rest of the country. We do need to be more inviting and competitive; this state has a lot to offer. However, The Detroit Free Press states that the tax plan would cost the state “$1.5 billion in revenue.” The Press says this could double the deficit to “$3.3 billion.” That doesn’t sound nice to me. I like taxes, so I think Snyder ought to come up with a plan of whom or what else will be taxed to make up for the lost revenue and possibly more. Taxing and voting trends are peculiar. People want services but aren’t willing to be taxed for them, it’s kind of paradoxical, but some people need services and absolutely deserve them. We live in a world and a country where no one should go without certain human necessities. My wise Democratic old granny always said, in regards to taxes, “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class pay for it all.” It shouldn’t be that way. I wish people weren’t greedy; especially those that live ridiculously lavish lifestyles. Sharing IS caring. (Go ahead and get mad, some of you…I expect this).
ReplyDeleteWell Tara, I'll accept your invitation to get mad. First off, the rich have a role in society- just like the middle class and the poor. The lavish lifestyles, which is the product of greed, has also inadvertently created everything that makes your life comfortable. Even the poorest of the poor live much better then the rich did 100 years ago. That is the power of greed and the engine it's built upon- Capitalism.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct in that the shortfall in the budget, caused by massive business tax cuts, need to made up somehow. While raising more revenue from taxes could be a solution, I'd caution against growing the government even bigger. The best way to recoiver that revenue is to keep this state as buisness friendly as possible. A bigger Michigan economy will make up for the deficit. In the mean while, spending cuts will need to be made. They'll hurt, but it'll be hurt much less than if we raised taxes. That would just lead us into a cycle of failure.