Michigan State Government Shutting Down

Originally Posted by Arainach

Please. We've known we were bankrupt every since Engler slashed taxes and drained the rainy day fund just before leaving. You didn't notice that we've had to make extreme cuts to pass budgets for the last 6 years? Even this has been debated for an entire month now. For you to not notice, you must have no less than had your head up your ass.

What is this, democrat rhetoric about how Engler is to blame for Granholm's mess?
She's been hemorrhaging jobs from the state for years now, she keeps pushing companies away. And another thing, the big corporations that are still actually left in Michigan, GM and Dow Chemical especially, are given so many tax breaks anyway it's as if they aren't even there. You can't support a state on workers' income taxes alone.
The state's done a terrible job collecting income, giving too much away in welfare, and allowing too many corporations to cut out the middle class and time-bomb the state economy.
What's even worse is that the state thought they could get away with denying the public universities money, which raised tuitions at least %10 statewide. I wonder how Lansing thought screwing over the future workforce of Michigan before they even got out there was going to help?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

GM isn't failing, they're just taking advantage of NAFTA and shooting themselves in the foot in the process.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Wow Diversion, thanks for that link to the FAQ. I wasn't aware of the impact that the shutdown was going to have on all of the various aspects of the state (I heard before that it was just going to be the legislature). I'm appalled at it all, really. State Police going to emergency assistance only? State Parks shutting down? Non-reservation casinos halting gaming operations?
It's like they're cutting out all the money making operations of the state government and jeopardizing public safety all at the same time.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the State Legislators are planning on increasing personal income tax from 3.9% to 4.35% and applying the state’s 6% sales tax to a number of services like cable TV. The one thing that I was disappointed to not see were special provisions for upper class taxpayers such as AGI floors and the like. What they need to do is create a tax model akin to the IRS'. With the IRS Tax Rate Schedules, taxes are computed differently based on what someone's taxable income is. If it's under $30,000 it's a lower taxable rate than if it's over $32,000. The state's flat income tax rate is one of the major problems here, and it needs to be adjusted to compensate for the huge gap in income between the rich and the poor of Michigan.

On an aside, I'm hoping that the shutdown doesn't last more than three weeks. I don't want my university to have to shut its doors and force me out of class for this debacle after I paid thousands of dollars to attend classes at a public university.

How ya doing, buddy?