Dale Vettel, director of the Treasury's bureau of tax policy, told lawmakers Thursday that Michigan is gaining $8 million to $11 million from about 1,000 retailers that are voluntarily collecting the sales tax in the 22 states that belong to the so-called Streamlined Sales Tax Project.

But, at the same time, Michigan is losing an estimated $18 million in revenue each year because, to make its tax laws uniform with the other states in the project, it had to stop taxing some items.

Oh, ouch.  Big dreams of higher tax revenue and it turns right around and bites the governor in the... hand.  Bit her in the hand.  

Funny, that.  The federal government is taking in more tax revenue than at any time in the history of the United States these days, a direct result of the 2001 tax cuts that ended a recession and kick started a booming national economy.

Could be that there's a lesson to be learned here.  A lesson not everyone's learned just yet.  The News concludes with the protests of one of the State Senate's mental giants:

"I don't understand voluntary compliance. Why not a federal mandate? All states must be having the same problem," said Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods.

All states must be having the same problem.  Uh... no, no they're not.  First of all, only 22 states even take part in the program, so 28 states are in the clear right away.  Then there's the whole bit about Michigan having to remove the tax on certain items to conform with what the other states already did.  In other words, they're not losing tax revenue because they never taxed those items in the first place.

But I appreciate where Gilda's going with her rant.  Crazy liberal voodoo tax policy doesn't work out the way you thought and any economist could have predicted?  Just blame the federal government.  Works for the governor.