The Tax Foundation also ranks states' business tax climate based upon their corporate, individual income, sales, unemployment insurance, and property tax rates. Michigan ranks high in the individual income and sales tax, but we're tanking on the corporate, UI, and property tax indices.

Given that Michigan wants to attract new industries to our state, and seeing that corporate taxes make up such a small percentage of our total tax revenue, our ranking of 48th in the corporate tax index is out of line with our goals. It's even plausible that an elimination of corporate taxes would pay for itself through the additional tax revenue generated by job creation.

According to Michigan's UIA, our employer unemployment tax "is more closely based on the actual benefit charges to its account, and the size of payroll, than employers in most other states." If you read the explanation of how the tax is computed, you would be amazed that anyone even bothers to own a business in Michigan. It's not only our tax rates that need to be addressed, it's also the sheer complexity of our tax code.

We can relieve the property tax burden by simply extending the burden to everyone. Currently, non-profits, such as universities, hospitals, and cultural centers, do not pay property taxes. For example, in Ann Arbor, 40% of the land is exempt from property taxes. This creates an enormous burden on home and business owners. So much so, that the city is considering an income-tax. Even a small property tax on non-profits would be a boon to both residents and businesses.

But what about all those tax credits for the film and battery industries? Those targeted tax credits do not help businesses currently struggling in Michigan and they do not encourage businesses outside of those industries to look at our state. Instead of offering millions in refundable tax credits to specific industries, save that money and lower the burden on all industries. We want to diversify our economy; tethering our fortunes to the auto industry started this mess in the first place.