MI is now partially shut down

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

With no budget agreement yet, Granholm told 35,000 of 53,000 workers not to come in.  So, we'll see how long this shut down lasts - there's a budget in hte Senate now, but I'm guessing the Reps. aren't going to go for this one either with all the tax increases.

[David S]

Didn't last long. Looks like they gave a deal. Taxes are going up thanks to the Democrats.

[Ban my account ffs!]

OH, boo hoo.  Taxes tend to go up when your state is bleeding jobs and people because corporate interests keep you entrenched in a one-industry quagmire that suffers from major foreign competition.

Republicans wouldn't be able to fix it any better than Democrats can.  They'd be too busy arguing about what you do with your private parts in private to actually pass any meaningful legislation that would actually help Michigan not be the worst state in the country to do business in.

[David S]

OH, boo hoo.  Taxes tend to go up when your state is bleeding jobs and people because corporate interests keep you entrenched in a one-industry quagmire that suffers from major foreign competition.

Republicans wouldn't be able to fix it any better than Democrats can. 

Note that I'm not wearing a blue avatar either.

There is no doubt the Democrats are the tax and spend party and Republicans are the borrow and spend party. I'd be happy to get rid of both of them and replace them with Libertarians.

If people in your state want high taxes that's your business. I leave you with my blessing; May you work hard and become prosperous and may the bureaucrats tax away every penny.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I'm surprised the Dems gave in as much as they did.  The Reps only compromised .5% and the Dems. 2.5%.

But - I'm glad that we came to an agreement.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

You mean they didn't give in 100% to the Republicans? The national Democrats should take notes.

[Verily]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

[Conan]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

[BenchPressKing]

Good thing its fixed - Lord knows how awful things are when the government shuts down

[David S]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

If I want to learn about government corruption I'll ask someone from your state.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

[Ban my account ffs!]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

And why are taxes being raised?  What is the new revenue proposed to be used for?

[Conan]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

Building off of what Verily said, I was just comparing to NJ.

[Verily]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

Building off of what Verily said, I was just comparing to NJ.

Which, incidentally, has a blanket 7% sales tax that covers basically everything except food, medicine and clothing. Oh, and gasoline. New Jersey has a stupidly low gasoline excise tax.

Only California has higher sales tax, though Mississippi has the same level of sales tax.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

MI is a populist leaning state with sclerotic industries so I have zero sympathy for them.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

And why are taxes being raised?  What is the new revenue proposed to be used for?

Granholm's agenda.  I'm really disappointed in our state Reps for caving in.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

Building off of what Verily said, I was just comparing to NJ.

Which, incidentally, has a blanket 7% sales tax that covers basically everything except food, medicine and clothing. Oh, and gasoline. New Jersey has a stupidly low gasoline excise tax.

Only California has higher sales tax, though Mississippi has the same level of sales tax.

Rhode Island and Tennessee are 7% statewide before local option, as well.

And plenty of locales have higher or similar sales taxes as New Jersey because such "local options."  It's 7% in Philly; 7.75% in Las Vegas, NV; 8.375% in New York City; 8.6% in Branson, MO and Denver, CO; 9% in Chicago; 9.5% in Utica, NY; and a whopping 10% in Montgomery, AL.

[Verily]

Michiganders are amateurs at shutting down government. Not only does it last for less than a day, it's also along partisan lines. Pathetic.

And the taxes are probably chump change too.

6% Services tax: landscapers, escorts, storage (eventually this could lead to storing money and banks), barbers, tanning salons, nail salons, packaging, labelling, basically any service w/o a huge lobbyist in Lansing.

Plus other taxes

Building off of what Verily said, I was just comparing to NJ.

Which, incidentally, has a blanket 7% sales tax that covers basically everything except food, medicine and clothing. Oh, and gasoline. New Jersey has a stupidly low gasoline excise tax.

Only California has higher sales tax, though Mississippi has the same level of sales tax.

Rhode Island and Tennessee are 7% statewide before local option, as well.

And plenty of locales have higher or similar sales taxes as New Jersey because such "local options."  It's 7% in Philly; 7.75% in Las Vegas, NV; 8.375% in New York City; 8.6% in Branson, MO and Denver, CO; 9% in Chicago; 9.5% in Utica, NY; and a whopping 10% in Montgomery, AL.

Hmm... Apparently I was misinformed about Rhode Island and Tennessee. Of course local sales taxes drive other areas up further; as far as I'm aware no New Jersey towns have local sales taxes (since half of the state tax goes to the municipalities), so New Jersey may be lower than some other states, too.

I don't generally object to New Jersey as a high-tax state (and honestly think our tax rates are mostly just fine), but I do have a particular grudge against sales tax as a highly regressive tax. The only advantage of sales tax is that it is less immediately noticeable to the public how much they are paying in taxes, which is a stupid reason for any taxation scheme and especially stupid for a scheme that hits the poor harder than the wealthy.

[Flying Dog]

People are acting like the Tax increases are the end of the world. Only so much money can be taken from education and Health services. They're already cut bone-dry. People need to remember that the income tax was at up to 6.5% in 1983. Its still pretty low compared to other states.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Abolish social security and cut the US's military down to the size of say Belgium's if you want to solve our debt problems.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Abolish social security and cut the US's military down to the size of say Belgium's if you want to solve our debt problems.

We'll just sell Texas to China.  That oughta take care of our problems.  And George Bush would no longer be a U.S. citizen.  Hope he likes chop suey!

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

We really should return Texas to Mexico the day after we get off of oil.

[Lief 🗽]

Sales tax is like 8.25% here, but state property taxes are unconstitutional.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Sales tax is like 8.25% here, but state property taxes are unconstitutional.

Now that's an inconsistent ruling.

[David S]

People are acting like the Tax increases are the end of the world. Only so much money can be taken from education and Health services. They're already cut bone-dry. People need to remember that the income tax was at up to 6.5% in 1983. Its still pretty low compared to other states.

But who said they are cut to bare bones? According to this article by the Mackinaw Center, state employees get higher pay and benefits than their counterparts in the private sector. In other words they get better compensation than the people who pay the taxes that fund their salaries.

http://www.mackinac.org/print.aspx?ID=8207
"Meanwhile, according to the BLS, total government employment in Michigan, which includes federal, state, local, higher education, and public primary and secondary schools, is up 3.9 percent over the last decade. Non-farm employment is down 1.7 percent during the same period (both figures are seasonally adjusted).

More importantly, Michigan has crossed an employment Rubicon of sorts. The BLS shows that 2006 was the first full year that total government employment in Michigan exceeded the number of manufacturing employees (this BLS data set goes back to 1956 and also is seasonally adjusted). Michiganians working for the automobile and other manufacturing industries are now outnumbered by government workers supported by taxpayers.

Michigan reached this dubious milestone even though the number of full-time state civil servants is down slightly in recent years, to about 52,400, according to the Michigan Civil Service Department, having fallen 2.5 percent depending on how one calculates the change from January 2003 through December 2006.

Funding state and local government institutions is an expensive endeavor. The salaries and fringe benefits granted to government employees often greatly outpace the compensation received by those taxpayers who foot the bills of government. Maybe the state has a higher concentration of professionals that raises the cost of funding government. On the other hand, the composition of employees may not explain compensation differences, particularly when you consider the fringe benefits enjoyed by every level of classified employee.

According to data from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth, the average private sector employee in Michigan earned $41,128 in fiscal 2005, compared to $48,421 for the average state civil service worker. State government employees, in other words, earned about 18 percent more than private sector workers. Fiscal 2006 numbers have not yet been released, so it remains to be seen if the gap widened or narrowed.

The difference in compensation becomes even more pronounced when you factor in the value of fringe benefits. In fiscal 2005, Michigan-classified state employees’ benefits averaged almost 54 percent of base payroll, whereas in the private sector, nationwide benefits averaged almost 41 percent of base payroll (Michigan-specific private-sector statistics were unavailable). These compensation calculations include employer contributions to FICA, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance.

The average Michigan state employee receives a salary and benefits package worth nearly $75,000. If Michigan private-sector employees received the national average for fringe benefit compensation, their total "pay" would be $58,000. It is possible that those private employees may enjoy higher fringe benefits than the average; however, in order to equal the average total compensation of state employees, the value of their fringe benefit package would need to be 82.5 percent of their base payroll — which is more than twice the national average."