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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Rachel Maddow Exposes Michigan Republicans Secret War On Democracy
March 9, 2011
By Sarah Jones
Last night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, Maddow explained that Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder is pushing a bill through that will give ultimate governmental power literally to corporations, thereby using shock doctrine tactics to create a dystopian government. Synder’s bill not only goes after collective bargaining rights, but does in fact seem to represent the Republicans’ final solution to killing democracy by enabling the replacement of elected officials, dissolving entire city’s government and handing them over to corporations. Snyder calls his “budget bill” a “shared sacrifice,” but it gifts corporations with 1.8 billion in tax breaks while hitting citizens with harder taxes, including seniors and other vulnerables, and cutting essential services to an already suffering region.
Rachel Maddow began her segment on Michigan with, “The Michigan House has already passed and the Michigan Senate is about to pass a bill that sounds like it is out of a dystopian leftist novel from the future. If you think Republican governors across the country are using fiscal crisis as a pretext to do stuff they otherwise want to do, this is something I don’t think I would have ever believed Republicans even wanted to do, but this is what they are proposing. This hasn’t gotten much national attention, but please check this out.”
She described the threat to democracy in Michigan, “Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget in Michigan is expected to cut aid to cities and towns so much that a lot of cities and towns in Michigan are expected to be in dire financial straits. Right now, Gov. Snyder is pushing a bill that would give himself, Gov. Snyder and his administration, the power to declare any town or school district to be in a financial emergency. If a town was declared by the governor and his administration to be in a financial emergency they would get to put somebody in charge of that town, and they want to give that emergency manager that they just put in charge of the town the power to, “reject, modify, or terminate any contracts that the town may have entered in to, including any collective bargaining agreements.”
The bill also has the power to suspend or dismiss elected officials, “This emergency person also gets the power under the bill to suspend or dismiss elected officials. Think about that for a second. Doesn’t matter who you voted for in Michigan. Doesn’t matter who you elected. Your elected local government can be dismissed at will. The emergency person sent in by the Rick Snyder administration could recommend that a school district be absorbed into another school district. That emergency person is also granted power specifically to disincorporate or dissolve entire city governments.”
Maddow said Michigan Republicans want to abolish entire towns, “What year was your town founded? Does it say so like on the town border as you drive into your town? Does it say what year your town was founded? What did your town’s founding fathers and founding mothers have to go through to incorporate your town? Republicans in Michigan want to be able to unilaterally abolish your town and disincorporate it. Regardless of what you as resident of that town think about it. You don’t even have the right to express an opinion about it through your locally elected officials who represent you, because the Republicans in Michigan say they reserve the right to dismiss your measly elected officials and to do what they want instead because they know best.”
What’s worse is that this power to be abolish governments could be handed to corporations, “The version of this bill that passed the Republican controlled Michigan House said it was fine for this emergency power to declare a fiscal emergency invoking all of these extreme powers, it was fine for that power to be held by a corporation. So swaths of Michigan could at the governor’s disposal be handed over to the discretion of a company. You still want your town to exist? Take it up with this board of directors of this corporation that will be overseeing your future now, or rather don’t take it up with them. Frankly, they’re not interested.”
Maddow talked about the power grab behind the fabrication of a fiscal emergency, “The power to overrule and suspend elected government justified by a financial emergency. Oh, and how do you know you’re in a financial emergency, because the governor tells you, you’re in a financial emergency, or a company he hires to do so, does that instead. The Senate version of the bill in Michigan says it has to be humans declaring your fiscal emergency. The House bill says a firm can do that just as well.”
Rachel Maddow concluded, “This is about a lot of things. This is not about a budget. This is using or fabricating crisis to push for an agenda you’d never be able to sell under normal circumstances, and so you have to convince everyone that these are not normal circumstances. These are desperate circumstances and your desperate measures are there for somehow required. What this is has a name. It is called shock doctrine.”
Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine” implies that man made crises are used to push the “free market principles” of Milton Friedman et al, which are pushed through while the citizens are reacting to disasters or upheavals. The perpetrators of the shock doctrine require a violent destruction of the existing economic order in order to achieve their means. In the case of the Michigan governor, Snyder positioned himself in a state already reeling from financial crisis, vulnerable and ripe for a takeover.
This is no different than when George W Bush’s administration terrified a nation after 9/11 with lies of weapons of mass destruction and terror alert levels elevating every time Bush’s approval ratings sank or an election was upcoming. Except that in this case, the Republicans waged a fiscal war on America during the eight disastrous Bush years by killing what they termed “big government”" but is really known as governmental oversight of corporations, which allowed Wall Street to play fast and loose with our money while Bush went incompetently to war on “terror” and left the wars off of the budget all together.
Now that they’ve terrorized Americans with a fiscal recession, thereby hitting us in the heart of our security centers, they are not apologizing or attempting to learn from their mistakes because for them, the financial devastation of the majority of Americans is not a mistake, but a means to an end.
And like any good bully or dictator, the time to strike is when you’ve sucker punched your victim and he or she is lying on the ground helpless, barely clinging to life; people will give up all kinds of personal liberties when they’re desperate. So now they are striking at us by deploying Republican governors as missiles of economic warfare around the country; taking away collective bargaining, taking away Medicaid, pushing for state militias ruled by the Republican governor, and now in Michigan, literally giving the government to corporations. All of this will result in a Republican dystopia; a negative utopia often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government which entails a repressive and controlled state.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is calling this power grab a “$45 billion cost-cutting budget,” thereby attempting to package an unprecedented power grab as the answer to fiscal woes. Governor Synder suggests these cuts are part of a “shared sacrifice”, as he tries to appeal to the renowned work ethic of heartlanders. Of course, that “shared sacrifice” raises taxes on Michiganders while cutting services and changes the state’s corporate tax structure so only large “C” corporations pay business taxes while all other corporations get off scot-free. This amounts to a 1.8 billion dollar tax break to business. This “shared sacrifice” eliminates tax breaks for seniors and low-income workers and gets kills many other income tax deductions for individuals.
And all of that financial devastation wreaked upon the already suffering citizens is topped by Synder handing government over to the corporations. Synder’s “shared sacrifice” is simply an attempt to package dystopia as utopia – the solution to woes, when it is in fact, the final Republican “solution” to democracy.
The shame Governor Snyder and his fellow Republicans are heaping on this great land is staggeringly breath-taking. The fact that Snyder’s bill will essentially obliterate democracy in Michigan while at the same time putting an already suffering citizenry into the poor house doesn’t seem to bother him one whit; in fact, he says “I hope we all look back and say: ‘This was a defining moment.’” Yes, it is a defining moment, Governor Synder. It is the moment Republicans drove their corporate tankers right through hard-working, devastated Americans and stole their liberties along with their food and shelter.
But Snyder, like his fellow Republican Governor in Wisconsin, has underestimated is the spirit of heartlanders. While Senate Democrats are outnumbered in Michigan 26-12, and hence their attempts to amend Synder’s dystopian bill were roundly ignored, more than 1,000 protesters rallied yesterday at the Capitol and into the rotunda chanting “Kill the bill.” The Republicans may be able to push their dystopia on Michiganders, but they are wrong if they are counting on willing submission to their take-over. Michiganders might be down, but they are never out.
Michigan GOP anti-democratic agenda exposed - Rachel Maddow Show
msnbc.com presents... The Rachel Maddow Show. MSN Home; |; Mail; |; Sign Out ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/41999505
Tuesday, March 8th - msnbc tv - Rachel Maddow show - msnbc.com
'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Tuesday, March 8th, 2011. Read the transcript ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41993010/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/
Rachel Maddow Exposes Michigan Republicans Secret War On Democracy
Mar 9, 2011 ... Last night on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show, Maddow explained that Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder is pushing a bill through that will ...
http://www.politicususa.com/en/rachel-maddow-michigan - Cached
The Rachel Maddow Show | Facebook
The Rachel Maddow Show. This story gets bigger and bigger. #Michigan goes # Wisconsin, too. maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com. Spend a little time looking at the ...
http://www.facebook.com/therachelmaddowshow - Cached
The Rachel Maddow Show: Michigan GOP anti-democratic agenda exposed
Mar 10, 2011 ... Rachel Maddow reports on the passage of a Michigan bill that allows the ... MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show is a politically based news and ...
http://www.clicker.com/tv/the-rachel-maddow-show/Michigan-GOP-anti-democratic-agenda-expos...
Michigan Links: Rachel Maddow says emergency financial manager ...
Mar 9, 2011 ... Rachel Maddow dedicated a portion of her MSNBC news show on Tuesday to discussing Michigan's emergency financial manager bill, which passed ...
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/michigan_links_rachel_maddow_s.html
Rachel Maddow Exposes Michigan Republicans Secret War On Democracy
Last night on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show, Maddow explained that. Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder is pushing a bill through that ...
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/rachel-maddow-exposes-michigan-republicans-secret-wa... |
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Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:03 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Tuesday, March 8th - msnbc tv - Rachel Maddow show - msnbc.com
'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Tuesday, March 8th, 2011. Read the transcript ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41993010/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/
Excerpt:
But it‘s actually in Michigan where this is maybe the most stark and the most amazing. In Michigan, the new Republican governor is a man named Rick Snyder. Rick Snyder does not get a lot of national attention, but boy, howdy, he ought to.
What Governor Snyder is doing, I think, tells you in particular how clueless the Beltway press has been about what is actually happening in the states in Republican politics. If you listen to the Beltway press, even those who are willing to be critical of the Republicans, they say things like—well, real fiscal conservatives would consider raising taxes as well as cutting spending to address their state‘s budget shortfalls. That is actually happening in some places. Look what they are trying to do in Michigan.
Rick Snyder has proposed an actual tax increase. Michigan has a budget problem. So, he‘s going to do the responsible thing, right? He‘s going to raise taxes.
He is going to raise taxes on seniors and on poor people -- $1.7 billion in tax hikes for Michigan seniors and Michigan‘s poor people, and for people who want to make tax deductible donation to public universities.
Sorry, you know, Michigan has a budget problem. We‘re going to have to raise a whole lot of money from you. Poor people, old people, people supporting public schooling, you have to take the hit because the state needs to save that money.
Is the state saving that money? No, the state is not. Governor Snyder is taking all of that money that the state will gain and he is not using it to close the budget gap. He is giving it away in the form of $1.8 billion in corporate tax cuts. He is taking in $1.7 billion in higher taxes from poor people an old people and giving it away, $1.8 billion to businesses.
Net short term effect on the state‘s budget? Zero or worse.
Advertise | AdChoicesIt is not about the budget. It is really not. It is not about the budget in Wisconsin, it is not about the budget in Florida, it is not about the budget in Ohio, it is not about the budget in Michigan.
But what Michiganders know and what Michiganders have been trying to get the rest of the country to pay attention to is that what these Republicans are doing in the states is not just not about the budget. It‘s about something way worse than that.
Stay with me for a moment here. There is more to this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Why are these people in Michigan so loud? Why are these people in Michigan so mad?
It‘s not just because they haven‘t won yet, like the protesters in Wisconsin have, it‘s because Michigan Republicans are telling them that they are about to lose their right to elect local government. The governor is going to take care of that from now on. See? The governor knows best.
This whole democracy thing turns out, it‘s very inefficient. And haven‘t you heard? There‘s a crisis. Big government conservativism gets really, really, really astonishingly big—that‘s next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Advertise | AdChoicesMADDOW: The Michigan house has already passed and the Michigan Senate is about to pass a bill that sounds like it is out of a dystopian, leftist novel from the future. If you think that Republican governors across the country are using fiscal crisis as a pretext to do stuff they otherwise want to do, this is something I don‘t think I ever would have believed Republicans even wanted to do.
But this is what they are proposing. It hasn‘t really gotten much national attention. But please, just check this out. Governor Rick Snyder‘s budget in Michigan is expected to cut aid to cities and towns so much that a lot of cities and towns in Michigan are expected to be in dire financial straights. Right now, Governor Snyder is pushing a bill that would give himself, Governor Snyder, and his administration, the power to declare any town or school district to be in a financial emergency.
If a town was declared by the governor and his administration to be in a financial emergency, they would get to put somebody in charge of that town, and they want to give that emergency manager they just put in charge of the town the power to, quote, “reject, modify, or terminate” any contract the town may have entered into, including any collective bargaining agreements.
So, this emergency person who gets put in charge of a town deemed to be in financial crisis by the governor‘s administration, this emergency person gets to strip the town of union rights, unilaterally, by their own personal authority. But this emergency person also gets the power under this bill to suspend or dismiss elected officials. Think about that for a second. It doesn‘t matter who you voted for in Michigan, it doesn‘t matter who you elected, your elected local government can be dismissed at will.
The emergency person sent in by the Rick Snyder administration could recommend that a school district be absorbed into another school district. That emergency person is also granted power specifically to disincorporate or dissolve entire city governments.
What year was your town founded? Does it say so like on the town border as you drive into town? Does it say what year your town was founded? What did your town‘s founding fathers and mothers have to go through in order to incorporate your town?
Republicans in Michigan want to be able to unilaterally abolish your town and disincorporate it, regardless of what you as a resident think about it. You don‘t have the right to express an opinion about it through your locally elected officials who represent you, because the Republicans in Michigan say they reserve the right to dismiss your measly elected officials and to do what they want instead because they know best.
The version of this bill that passed Republican-controlled Michigan house said it was fine for this emergency power to declare a fiscal emergency invoking all of these extreme powers. It was fine for that power to be held by a corporation.
So swaths of Michigan could, at the governor‘s disposal, be handed over to the discretion of a company. You still want your town to exist? Take it up with the board of directors of this corporation that will be overseeing your future now. Or rather don‘t take it up with them. Frankly, they are not interested.
Instead of thinking of Michigan as the Upper and Lower Peninsula, let‘s think about Amway-stan, right? The area between Pontiac and Flint could be a nice Dow Chemical-ville, maybe.
The power to overrule and suspend elected government justified by a financial emergency. Oh, and how do you know when you‘re in a financial emergency? Because the governor tells you you‘re in a financial emergency. Or a company he hires to do so does that instead.
Advertise | AdChoicesThe Senate version of the bill in Michigan says it has to be humans declaring the fiscal emergency. The house bill says a firm can do that just as well.
This is about a lot of things. This is not about a budget. This is using or fabricating crisis to push for an agenda you‘d never be able to sell under normal circumstances.
And so, you have to convince everyone that these are not normal circumstances. These are desperate circumstances. And your desperate measures are therefore somehow required.
What this is has a name. It is called shock doctrine.
Joining us now is Naomi Klein, columnist at “The Nation,” fellow at The Nation Institute, and author of the book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster, Capitalism,” which is in effect book-length warning of all this.
Naomi, thank you for being here.
NAOMI KLEIN, “THE SHOCK DOCTRINE”: Glad to be with you, Rachel.
MADDOW: Do you see disaster capitalism at work in these state budget fights? Because I do.
KLEIN: Yes, I definitely do. And—but it‘s important to remember that these guys have been at this for 30 years. I mean, they‘re part of an ideological movement and they believe in a whole bunch of stuff that‘s not very popular.
You know, there are some policies in the ideological Republican playbook that a lot of people like: everyone likes a tax break. But if you talk about you‘re privatizing the local water system, busting unions, privatizing entire towns, things like this, if you run an election and say this is what I plan to do, you—chances are you will lose that election. And this is where crises come in. They are very, very handy, because you can say we have no choice.
You don‘t have to win the argument any more. You just have to say the sky is falling in. We have to do this. You can consolidate power.
Advertise | AdChoicesWe remember this from the Bush administration. They did this at the federal level. After 9/11, they said, we have a crisis, and we have to essentially rule by fiat. |
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Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:08 pm |
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Dave Starr
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What part of there is no money and equality of sacrifice doesn't Radical Madcow understand? As a senior citizen, I'll take a big tax hit from Snyder's plan. What makes public employee union members exempt from any sacrifice for the good of all?
ADD - Where are the riotous demonstrations in Washington protesting Federal employees not having collective bargaining? |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:06 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Maddow  who listens to that guy anyhow? |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:00 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:24 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| I din't like them being able to take away our right to elect our public officials. |
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Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:42 am |
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Adam
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Gov. Snyder v. Rachel Maddow
Maddow: “Rick Snyder has proposed an actual tax increase … on seniors and on poor people.”
Reality check:
“He is taking away exemptions on pensions and the earned income tax credit,” Hohman said. “This is not ‘raising taxes’ so much as removing special tax treatment. In fact, his plan lowers the actual tax rate on everyone from 4.35 percent to 4.25 percent, obviously including seniors and poor people. ‘Raising taxes on seniors and poor people’ implies that he’s carving out special niches for higher taxation, when the proposal removes special treatment.”
Maddow : “He (Snyder) is giving it away in the form of $1.8 billion in corporate tax cuts.”
Reality check:
“The Governor proposes to eliminate the entire state’s tax credit and exemption regime (many of which are subsidies and thus, corporate welfare) and replace them with a smaller and direct tax,” Hohman said. “Michigan’s business tax system is complex and hated, and the governor’s proposal simplifies it and lowers it to encourage growth.”
Maddow: “The governor tells you that you are in a financial emergency.”
Reality check:
The bill lays out objective criteria for judging the finances of a municipality.
“There are 18 explicit events that would trigger a financial review,” says Hohman. “These can be avoided by elected officials well before an emergency is declared.”
Maddow: “Michigan Republicans are telling them they are about to lose their right to elect local government. The Governor is just going to take care of that from now on. You see, the Governor knows best. This whole democracy thing? Turns out it is very inefficient.”
Reality check:
The Local Government Fiscal Accountability Act has been in place since 1990 and was signed by a Democrat governor – Jim Blanchard. Six cities, one village and one school district have operated under an EFM and declarations of financial emergency were made by both Republican Gov. John Engler and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
“This law actually encourages local governments to fix their own problems so that the state doesn’t have to do it,” Hohman said. “If local leaders continually choose to ignore or hide their financial responsibility, then the state has a process to help the local government avoid bankruptcy. If the local unit continually refuses to follow the plans laid out, then the state government can appoint a short-term Emergency Manager. “
LaFaive said the existing law permits the elected officials to thwart the needed reforms.
“It was the elected governments that failed to respond effectively in the first place and may have actually caused the problems that brought the unit into fiscal disrepair in the first place,” LaFaive wrote. “The state law also gives that unit fair warning about the consequences of not solving its own fiscal problems.”
Maddow: “Big government conservatism gets really, really, really astonishingly BIG.”
Reality check:
“Maddow is apparently trying to suggest that state involvement in solving a municipal financial crisis is making government more powerful and that this translates into bigger government," said LaFaive. "This bill is designed to offer temporary oversight of a city, and in all likelihood will result in local units becoming smaller and more effective thanks to the ability to set aside union contracts and save money. Lou Schimmel used his (EFM) powers in Ecorse and Hamtramck to sell city assets and contract out services with private, for-profit firms that removed government employees from the payroll and saved millions.”
Maddow: “Cut aid to cities and towns so much that a lot of them are expected to be in dire fiscal straights.”
Reality check:
“Falling property values and increased employment costs will give fiscal stresses to local governments regardless of state aid,” Hohman wrote. “Local government revenue grew at a time when the state’s did not. This was because local government relies on property taxes to a much greater degree. According to the bill analysis and the executive budget, Snyder's plan cuts local government revenue-sharing by $107 million, only a 9 percent cut from last year. Schools are cut 4 percent. According to the Census Bureau, total Michigan tax revenue fell 4.3 percent from 2000 to 2008, adjusted for inflation. Total property tax revenue, on the other hand, increased 18.9 percent.”
LaFaive said some cities were on the verge of collapse before Snyder took office. Detroit, for example, had to borrow large sums of money to pay its general operating costs. |
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Adam
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Mysearchisover.com
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FB
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Jobs
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Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:01 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Michigan Messenger
Study: Snyder budget shifts tax burden to poor
By Ed Brayton | 03.09.11 | 7:21 am
View Comments Share17 A new study highlighted by the Michigan League for Human Services concludes that Gov. Snyder’s budget proposals, despite dropping the state income tax rate from 4.35 to 4.25 percent, will increase the tax burden on the poorest Michigan residents more than the wealthy.
Michigan has a regressive tax system, meaning that lower-income people pay a bigger share of their income in state and local taxes than higher-income people. Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan would make it even more regressive, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank. In fact, the impact on Michigan’s poorest households will be more than 10 times greater than the impact on the wealthiest households.
The study also notes that Snyder’s plan would reduce business taxes by 86 percent while raising personal income taxes by 31 percent — all while eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit and the child deduction, thus raising taxes on working families and the poor. |
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Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:14 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Tax Foundation
Pension Income
The most dramatic change, in terms of additional revenue for the state, is the taxation of pensions. Both private and public pension income are currently exempt from tax in the state, one of only three states not to tax either form of pension income. However, a number of states exempt at least some form of pension income.
There is little economic rationale for taxing pension income differently from other types of income.
However, employers made contracts with workers with the understanding that pension income was exempt from state taxes. This means workers likely accepted lower wages and pension benefits based on their understanding of the tax code.
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Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:18 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Peter Luke - Booth Newspapers
Snyder tax plan would be costly for thousands of Michigan residents, including many seniors
Topics: Business Review, Government, News
197 CommentsShare this article Print Email Share390
Posted: Feb 27, 2011 at 5:59 AM [Feb 27, 2011]
The tax overhaul plan proposed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, shown speaking at the at the University of Michigan earlier this month, could be costly for thousands of Michigan residents.
Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com
LANSING -- However “simple, fair and efficient” Gov. Rick Snyder says his overhaul of Michigan’s personal income tax is, it’s still a whopper of a tax increase for hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents.
For politically active seniors, the increased tax bill could easily run into the thousands of dollars -- sticker-shock territory.
Michigan is only one of four states with an income tax that exempts retirement pensions from the levy. Economists have said it is fundamentally unfair to tax the income of wage-earners, but not the retirement income of seniors who rely on many of the same state services as everyone else.
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Given the demographic trends of an aging population, moreover, the percentage of Michigan residents with no income tax liability is growing.
Gov. Snyder's tax plan
Gov. Rick Snyder’s $1.8 billion plan to eliminate the Michigan Business Tax and replace it with a new tax on corporation profits would be financed through an equal level of change in Michigan’s income tax code.
Rate: Currently 4.35 percent under present law, scheduled to drop to 3.9 percent by 2015 Proposal would lower it to 4.25 percent and freeze it.
Retirement exemptions: Current law exempts all Social Security, public pension payments, IRA, annuity and employer-contributed 401(k) withdrawals from income tax. Private pensions up to $45,120 for single filers and $90,240 for joint filers are also exempt. Under proposed law, all retirement income, except for Social Security, would be taxed at a 4.25-percent rate. Eliminates exemption, $20,115 for joint filers, for dividend, interest and capital gains income receive by seniors.
Homestead Property Tax Credit: Current law provides refundable credit on property tax bills that exceed 3.5 percent of household income, up to a maximum of $1,200. Non-seniors get a 60-percent credit; seniors, 100 percent. Credit is fully phased out when household income exceeds $82,650. Proposed law would provide an 80-percent credit to all filers, keep the maximum at $1,200 and lowers the income threshold to $70,000.
Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit: Three-year-old law provides an average of $432 annually to some 800,000 low-income wage earners. It equals 20 percent of the federal EITC. Proposed law would eliminate it.
Exemptions: The $2,300 senior exemption, the $600 dependent children exemption and the $3,700 personal exemption for single filers over $75,000 and joint-filers over $150,000 would be eliminated.
Credits: Tax breaks for city income tax payments and donations to universities, public broadcasting, food banks, community foundations, libraries, museums and historic preservation projects would be eliminated.
Source: House Fiscal Agency
Snyder is citing both the fairness and those trends in justifying a new tax on pensions that would also generate half the money he needs to finance a $1.8 billion business tax cut.
But politics, not economics would well drive the votes of lawmakers being asked to reformulate the tax code for some 1.1 million seniors that for some could amount to the largest single tax increase in modern Michigan history.
A senior couple with $77,500 in overall retirement income, $48,000 in pension, $2,500 in other income, and $27,000 in Social Security benefits -- that would remain untaxed -- would pay $1,840 in new income tax, according to examples crafted by the Michigan Department of Treasury. That couple would also lose about $720 in refundable homestead property tax credits because Snyder’s plan ends eligibility for the credit at $70,000 in household income, down from the $82,650 current cutoff. It adds up to nearly $2,600 in new tax liability.
A couple with $42,000 in total retirement income and a $2,250 property tax bill would pay about $700 more, including $544 on $20,000 in pension income. While they’d still qualify for the homestead credit, it would be $156 less under Snyder’s plan.
Ten days after Snyder proposed nearly $1.9 billion in income tax changes to finance a similar level of business tax reduction, Republican lawmakers taking concerned calls from seniors back in the district haven’t rushed to endorse the plan.
“I don’t think it’s going to pass at all,” said Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg. “I don’t even know if it will come up for a vote. For the last two years, I’ve said I wouldn’t stand for new taxes.”
“The governor’s probably right on the fairness issue, but I just don’t want to tax seniors, period,” he said.
In relying on higher taxes on seniors to finance a business tax cut he says would transform Michigan’s troubled economy, Snyder is essentially asking for sacrifice from grandparents to improve the job prospects of their children and grandchildren.
“When people talk about how they’re affected by this tax act,” Snyder told state association executives in a speech last week, “what I ask you to do is empathize with them that they may be asked to give up something.”
“But after that change is made, are they being treated fairly? Are they being treated in a fair fashion with the rest of the citizens of our state?” Snyder asked. “I think you’ll find the answer is yes.”
Indeed, a married couple with one child, $45,255 in income and a $2,250 property tax bill would gain $134 in homestead credits through the change. Under current law, non-seniors get a 60 percent refund on the amount of property tax that exceeds 3.5 percent of their income, but seniors get 100 percent back. Snyder’s plan would equalize that so every credit recipient would get 80 percent.
But a family of four earning $25,000 would see an $856 increase in taxes, according to an analysis by the Michigan League for Human Services. They’d pay $450 in income tax that gets refunded now under the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit that Snyder’s plan would eliminate. And they’d lose another $406 in cash back that the credit currently provides.
There is Republican support for eliminating the MEITC, which costs about $355 million in fiscal year 2011, but the toughest aspect of Snyder’s plan will be taxing seniors.
“When you’re an elected official, at the bottom of the list of constituencies you want to take on is seniors because they vote frequently and they have time on their hands,” said Jeff Padden, a former legislator who runs Public Policy Associates in Lansing. “Senior citizens matter a lot in elections.”
AARP Michigan is mobilizing its 1.4 million members to phone and write their legislators in opposition to both the pension tax and the elimination of the MEITC.
It’s unclear whether the business groups whose members would be the biggest tax beneficiaries of Snyder’s plan will mount the lobbying effort required to push through the less popular income tax replacement revenue.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce backs all aspects of Snyder’s plan, says the chamber’s chief tax analyst Tricia Kinley.
“We can support the direction the governor has taken on the budget and all the tax reform. The attitude is that it’s the right and fair thing to do.”
Republican leaders in the Legislature are still studying the plan, to be introduced in the House on Wednesday in one single bill to cover both the business tax cut and the income tax changes.
Lawmakers who oppose the pension tax will be told to fill the resulting hole some other way, through specific spending cuts or other revenue.
“The pension part is going to be the most politically difficult, but the governor’s proposal is focused on the policy side of things and that’s how we’ll try to address it as well,” said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall.
“Some (seniors) might be opposed, but we’ve heard from others who are willing to help out,” he said. “We are taxing the youngest generation and there are no jobs for them, so no wonder they’re moving out of state.”
You may reach reporter Peter Luke at pluke@boothmichigan.com. |
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Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:21 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:15 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:14 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Bill would let emergency financial managers take over public entities
Comments 21
February 24, 2011 9:04 PM
MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposal has people across Michigan in a frenzy.
Union members and public safety workers have staged two days of protests in Lansing. They're rallying against deep cuts meant to rein in spending.
Governor Snyder says he's trying to trim the fat and get Michigan back on track. One way to do that is cutting funding to schools and cities. Those struggling to make ends meet could get taken over by an emergency manager.
Newschannel 3 spoke with education leaders about what it could mean for local school districts.
A bill that passed through the House on Wednesday could change things in Michigan forever.
Four school districts in Detroit already know what it's like to forfeit all power, and many more public entities could follow.
Of the 848 public and charter school districts in Michigan, 43 of them ran a deficit at the end of the 2010 school year. If all of Governor Snyder's proposed revenue sharing and education cuts go through, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) says that number would balloon.
“These cuts are going to be hugely detrimental to communities, to students, to schools,” said Doug Pratt MEA Director of Public Affairs. “Every school district would see about $470 per student cut, some school districts could see much more than that.”
However, the Michigan House of Representatives has a plan. House Bill 4214 delineates how and when an emergency financial manager would take over any public entity in financial emergency.
“The state's causing a crisis that it then wants to go in and fix on the backs of public workers and the backs of the community,” said Pratt.
Governor Snyder says that's not the case.
“People somehow think we're pushing people there,” said Snyder. “Most of those jurisdictions could avoid it by, again going to best practice.”
For Snyder, best practice means eliminating benefit-laden public contracts.
“In terms of simplicity, clarity and ease, a defined contribution plan is significantly preferred over a defined benefit plan,” said Snyder.
If districts in crisis can't right the ship, Bill 4214 gives the EFM broad powers to rectify the financial emergency, including the modification, rejection, termination and renegotiation of contracts.
“They're actually doing boot camps to train these people to go in and be local take-over czars,” said Pratt.
4214 explains that when an EFM takes over he or she could; determine the power of elected officials, eliminate their salaries, ban them fro elected office for ten years and even stop collective bargaining for five years.
Between Snyder's proposed cuts and the timing of 4214, some wonder if abolishing collective bargaining contracts is the goal.
“I would hesitate to say that Governor Snyder would be part of some coordinated plan to cause fiscal emergencies,” said Pratt, “but have some people connected the dots, I'm sure they have.”
Snyder says the only goal is a better business climate.
“I don't want to have a financial manager situation,” said Snyder. “If you look at my budget message, in fact I said we're asking for concessions, but I look forward to sitting down with the unions in collective bargaining to work through what those cuts should be.”
Snyder says his biggest focus is on recapturing a AAA bond rating for Michigan. He feels his cuts and House Bill 4214 is a big step.
House Bill 4214 easily passed the Republican-led house on Wednesday. Now it must get through the Republican-led Senate. |
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Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:13 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Arguments within this link discuss how the state has withheld $4 billion in State shared revenue from local units of government in the past decade.
The saste now proposes to withold another third of the Revenue Sharing Program-another $307 million. Communities on the brink of collapse could fall with further revenue losses.
This Revenue Sharing Program was established 35 years ago when the state asked local units of government to relinquish their authority to levy business taxes because the state was creating the Single Business Tax. The trade off was the state would share with these local uits if government via the evenue Sharing Program.
The state not only kept that promise, they passed along unfunded mandates that cost $2,2 billion according to the legislative Commission on Statuatory Mandates on December 9, 2009.
Expect lawsuits to Bill 4214 as there is an argument as to it being unconstitutional. This bill allows the EFM to abrogate contracts in violation of Arrticle 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution that prohibits states from passing laws to impair lawful contracts.
There is no local oversight.
The EFM can take over publicly owned utilities.
The EFM could be a corporation or a firm, which could lead to serious issues of accountability. Firms are changeable such as in their leadership, address, board of directors etc. The firm that had oversight of the Detroit Police department is being sued because the individual in charge had a person affair with Kilpatrick.
Against: Opponents of these bills offer six main arguments. First ...
Opponents of the bills argue that collectively bargained contracts are protected ... note that the definition of "municipal government" in House Bill 4214 ...
http://www.mpffu.org/docs/reasonstoopposeHB%204214.pdf - - Cached - Similar pages |
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Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:40 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Michigan Messenger
Emergency Financial Manager bill on the verge of passage
Despite union protests on Tuesday
By Todd A. Heywood | 03.09.11 | 8:07 am
View Comments Share907 LANSING — With over 1,000 union members and supporters on the lawn, and hundreds packing the Capitol dome chanting “kill the bill,” the GOP-controlled state Senate pushed the controversial Emergency Financial Manager legislation to the precipice of passage on Tuesday.
The chamber is expected to pass the legislative package Wednesday morning. Following passage, the bill will go to a conference committee of both chambers to hammer out differences in legislation passed in each body. Both bodies will then vote on the conference committee legislation. It will then go to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is expected to sign it.
Unions and others oppose the legislation because it would give broad new powers to emergency financial managers, who are appointed by the state treasurer. Those powers include the ability to nullify collective bargained agreements, imposition of new agreements for those bargaining units which will have effect for as much as five years after the EMF leaves office and the ability for the manager to dissolve local governing bodies of schools and cities. The EMF would also have the power to eliminate any local ordinance or law he or she decides to eliminate.
Critics argue that the deep cuts in school funding and revenue sharing proposed by Snyder and Republican legislators could push many cities over the brink into bankruptcy, dramatically increasing the number of cities under the control of state-appointed emergency managers that will, after the passage of this bill, have unprecedented and — many argue — unconstitutional powers.
Democrats, who are outnumbered in the Senate 26-12, attempted to attach over a dozen amendments to legislation. The amendments were voted down on generally party line votes. One measure, intended to cap the pay of EMF appointees to no more than that of the governor, was initially approved by the chamber, but then on a reconsideration vote was shot down.
That move led Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) to chastise the GOP leadership. She said Democrats agreed to the reconsideration after GOP leaders promised the vote was being opened to allow more Republicans to vote in favor. She was gaveled down by Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Grand Rapids) who was chairing the body’s committee of the whole meeting to consider the bills and amendments.
“Go ahead and gavel me,” Whitmer told Jansen to cheers from protesters in the Senate gallery.
The legislative battle highlights what union leaders say is an assault on collective bargaining.
“We are Wisconsin on the installment plan,” says Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO. “Collective bargaining in Michigan is dying a death by a thousand cuts.”
Messenger asked Gaffney, in an exclusive interview, if Gov. Rick Snyder was being honest with his claims that he is interested in bargaining with unions, or if he was really playing a tactical game of “good cop, bad cop,” allowing the legislature to play the bad guy to his nice guy.
“He’s both. There’s no other way to answer that question,” Gaffney said.
Gaffney then lists a litany of seemingly contradictory statements and actions by Snyder and his administration. He points to public statements that he does not believe Right to Work is a priority for his administration, but then says he would sign it if it makes it to his desk.
On the one hand, Gaffney points out, Snyder says he wants to work with unions, but then supports legislation such as the emergency financial manager bills or the plan by the House to gut project labor agreements which require a prevailing wage be paid for all construction contracts.
Gaffney also points out that it was Snyder’s administration — under the direction of Maura Corrigan, director of the Department of Human Services — that stripped legal recognition of the child care worker’s union.
In the end, Gaffney said, Snyder is going to have to make a decision about who he is politically. He points out that Snyder appeared to many to be a William Milliken Republican, even garnering the former GOP leader’s endorsement, but Gaffney think most voters are beginning to realize that they may have elected a right wing ideologue, rather than a moderate Republican.
But that could change, Gaffney says.
“I think it (the assault on collective bargaining) can be stopped by the governor deciding he wants to govern from the center, not the far right,” Gaffney says. “He needs to quietly, behind the scenes stop the right wing, or he has to publicly say he will veto those bills.”
Without that action, Gaffney says voters will “revolt.” That revolt will be supported by union members and nonmembers who support unions, he says, and will come if the GOP-dominated state government steps over a proverbial line in the sand. He says that is what happened in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana where anti-union legislation has drawn huge protests to the respective capitol buildings.
That time, Gaffney says, is near for Michigan, too.
“Some of us,” he says of unions, “are already over that line.”
I don't know how this can be constitutional under the state constitution, to usurp the choices made by voters and give power to an unelected official.
Flag jgee55 and 25 more liked this Like ReplyReply
Walter Smirth 5 days ago
You don't know how it can be constitutional? If you are Republican, you don't respect the constitution.
Flag jgee55 and 12 more liked this Like ReplyReply
The Angry Fag 4 days ago in reply to Walter Smirth
Not only that, they use it as toilet paper too
Flag jgee55 and 3 more liked this Like ReplyReply
Michelle Sheffer Cook 5 days ago
Wow looks like Roger Fraser won't be out of the City of Ann Arbor very long.....he will be back to bust the union contracts because we all know the City of Ann Arbor doesn't have any money?! Give me a break
Flag jgee55 and 7 more liked this Like ReplyReply
Aaron Justice McCartney 5 days ago
Absolutely frightening. Even if it goes against the state constitution it will take a couple of years to take it through the courts which is plenty of time to do the damage that it will cause and the people need to be able to afford the legal action to fight it.
Flag jgee55 and 9 more liked this Like ReplyReply
David Myron 4 days ago
You assume the corporate owned MI Supreme Court would rule in favor of the Constitution. They will make a "one time" exception to allow fascism to take root and then begin taking no bid contracts for the Great Lakes. Wake up people!
Flag jgee55 and 9 more liked this Like ReplyReply
Ross B 4 days ago
State law trumps local ordinances. Always. Where's the constitutional question about that?
Flag 1 person liked this. Like ReplyReply
jgee55 3 days ago in reply to Ross B
What do you mean?
Flag Like ReplyReply
Kelly Pinkerton Best 4 days ago
This is the same thing they are doing to us in Wisconsin. People need to unite and organize before they take down the working class man in every state.
Be mad, Be vocal, BE civil, but Be heard.
Flag jgee55 and 6 more liked this Like ReplyReply
The Angry Fag 4 days ago
Let's see some recall notices going...
Flag jgee55 and 2 more liked this Like ReplyReply
Jedi Rich 4 days ago |
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Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:03 pm |
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