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"My dear guests, I am Speaker Dillon, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island"By leondrolet, Section News
Sadly, Ricardo Montalban, the actor who starred in the classic 1970s TV series, Fantasy Island passed away yesterday. Montalban's character greeted new guests to his island resort with the words, "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island".
Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon played the role of Mr. Roarke yesterday at the Capital in Lansing. Dillon welcomed 46 newly sworn-in state lawmakers, who began their first legislative day in traditional fashion - lobbyist receptions, buffets of food, pomp, and ceremony. Dillon welcomed these new lawmakers with a speech promising a House agenda focused on reform; including tax cuts, politician salary cuts, and new state programs - all with no loss in government tax revenues. Basically, Speaker Dillon welcomed the new lawmakers to Fantasy Island. The alchemy that Dillon hopes the House can use to maintain state spending, add new programs and still cut taxes is called, "restructuring". By "restructuring" the tax burden, Dillon thinks he can find a magic formula that makes everyone happy by reshuffling the tax code without actually cutting taxes or cutting spending. Dillon believes that somewhere, out there, is an absolute perfect way of keeping people happy while making them pay high taxes. Maybe people don't like high sales taxes? OK. Dillon is willing to lower them as long as people pay higher income taxes. Don't like that? OK, how about higher business taxes instead? No? Ok, he'll cut business taxes, but hike fees by an equivalent amount.
Dillon wants people to believe the fantasy of tax alchemy to avoid having them confront reality: Michigan's net tax burden is simply too high and, to reduce that burden, Lansing must cut spending.
Remember Lansing's last tax restructuring? They "restructured" the old Single Business Tax into the new Michigan Business Tax, then slapped on a 22% "surcharge". Then Lansing "restructured" your income tax with a nice 12% increase. Speaker Dillon knows those moves were unpopular so, in yesterday's speech on the House floor, he promised to try again; to legislatively walk through the mines he'd laid and restructure Lansing's last restructuring. All while complying with Governor Granholm's mandate that government revenues must not be reduced. Friends, if there ever were a "get real" time in Michigan, this is it! House Speaker Dillon, Governor Granholm and Senate Majority Leader Bishop must stop dabbling in fantasies and start enacting real-math government cost reductions to allow a true easing of Michigan's onerous tax burden. They can start by reading the new publication from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy called "101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan" http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=10154.
Leon Drolet
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"My dear guests, I am Speaker Dillon, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island" | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
"My dear guests, I am Speaker Dillon, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island" | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
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