Quality Weenie

Michigan Is Open For Business

It was been a nerve wracking week here in Michigan, our state budget was ending and a new one couldn't be agreed upon.

So all weekend all we heard about was how the government would be shut down today if the budget hadn't been agreed upon.

I see they agreed upon a budget and royally screwed the residents of Michigan.

Or should I say the dumocrats royally screwed the residents of Michigan.

The dumocrats only wanted to raise taxes and add sales tax to services, they refused to look at the budget for cuts. The republicans wanted to look at the budget first for cuts then see if taxes needed to be raised.

"This budget agreement is the right solution for Michigan," Granholm said in a statement. "We prevented massive cuts to public education, health care and public safety while also making extensive government reforms and passing new revenue.

None of the cuts proposed by the republicans involved cutting education, health care or public safety, but the dumocrats played it up saying they were going to massively cut stuff "for the children".

Lawmakers took the state past the midnight deadline for a shutdown, but moved to avert the full impact of the crisis by approving a flurry of bills this morning including a boost in the state's income tax from 3.9 to 4.35 percent and sales tax expansion.

So starting today I will be earning less take home pay because of the raise in the state income tax.

Thanks a lot Dumocrats.

The deadline slipped by with the House approving Republican-sought reforms of public employee health care that were seen as a key to a deal. The Republican-led Senate gave final approval to that legislation at 1:04 a.m. today.

It's funy that teachers and goberment workers were yelling the most about UAW health care and wages and how "outragious" they were but when talk came up about cutting their own wages and health care they were screaming poverty. Even though Michigan Goberment workers are some of the highest paid employees in the nation. They get lifetime health insurance even if they only work 1 year as a goberment employee, where the UAW workers have to wor 10 years to earn a pension.

The Senate passed the sales tax bill on a 20-19 vote, with Lt. Gov. John Cherry casting the tie-breaking vote. The bill headed to Granholm. All told, the tax hikes would raise $1.35 billion. No significant action was taken on cutting government spending, with $400 million in cuts to be made in coming weeks.

So the goberment can spend like there is no tomorrow while the citizens suffer with another loss of income. I guess they follow the dumocrats motto fully, it's do as I say and not as I do for them.

House Republican Leader Craig DeRoche of Novi called the tax hikes "a victory of the bureaucracy and special interests and a loss for families struggling to makes ends meet. This is one of the largest spending sprees in Michigan history."

This truely was a dumocrat vs republican stand with the dumocrats wanting to raise taxes only.

"Now all eyes should turn to the Senate," Dillon said. He chastised House Republicans for failing to put up votes to save the state from shutdown.

"Republicans refused to put up votes to pass anything," he said.

All we heard all weekend from Dumocrats was how it was the Republicans fault if we went into a shut down as they wouldn't approve a tax increase.

And you know what I really couldn't believe was the opinion pages in the paper with everyone writting in say we should increase taxes. I couldn't believe it, people want to give more of their money to an incompetent governor and legislature.

Of course there were a couple to write in saying if we weren't in Iraq we wouldn't be having a budget crisis in Michigan, wow, people are blaming Bush for Michigans budget problems.

Republicans had demanded the teacher insurance reform bill in exchange for casting votes in support of tax hikes. But by Monday morning, Republicans had failed to put up any votes for a tax increase. Granholm had said she wouldn't sign the emergency budget without new revenue in place, and she maintained that stance into the morning. She has said the state needs revenue increases immediately to avoid plunging deeper into deficit.

So basically, Granholm was blackmailing the Republicans into approving a tax increase. They had to vote for the tax increase of they would be responsible for the state shutdown. And the tax increase only passed by the exact minimum required for it to pass, the republicans would rather see the state shutdown then to make Michigan citizens pay more for the dumocrats mistakes.

And of course the dumocrats had to throw a tantrum

After the votes failed earlier in the day, a clearly frustrated House speaker lashed out at House Republicans.

"We need some adults in the Republican caucus," said Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township.

So we ended up with a income tax increase and sales tax being levied on services now, like haircuts, tanning, carpet cleaning, landscaping, etc.

Well Granholm did say earlier in the year that a vote for her was a vote for a raise in taxes.

Michigan citizens are screwed royally.

Posted by Quality Weenie at October 1, 2007 09:52 AM | TrackBack