Lets Start The Recall Process!!!!!!

[Southernkomfort27]

Originally Posted by ByeByeMI

What do we the citizens need to do to get the recall process started? I also agree that this is just the beginning. Next year they will want more and more money from us.

According to an article in the Free Press, a group called the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance will be launching recalls within the next few weeks. FYI, according to the legislative spokesman for my district, the probability is high that they will be seeking even more taxes from us next year!

[deslok]

Please don't forget to recall Wayne Kuipers, father of the driver responsibility act.

[allbusiness]

What really bothers me is most people are so stupid they think that the income tax increase was only an increase of .45%.

In reality they raised the income tax from 3.9% to 4.35% which is an 11.53% increase in the tax. To call it anything else is a phony public relations stunt.

.45% is the increase in the tax "rate".

And remember, when it was lowered a decade ago, it was because we all agreed to shft the tax over to our property taxes. Now both are way too high!

Bottom line: They are addicted to spending and to the liberal social agenda. The ONLY good thing to come out of this is the potential unraveling of the MEA's strangle hold on teachers health care insurance. Maybe now they'll realize what a $20 to $80 co-pay is -- like the rest of us!

[joedekock]

I too like others on here are upset with the tax increase, and new taxes. What I find amazing is that Michigan's politicians are the third highest paid in the country. From Michigan to the next state, there is a huge gap. I do not remember the exact numbers, but I believe the average Michigan politician's salary is $135,000 a year. Only California and New York are higher in $150,000 - $170,000. Underneath us the next state is at $60,000. The majority of the states in the union pay less than $10,000 a year, and there are a dozen that do not pay their politicians at all. I think we need to start by cutting all the politician's pay before taking more money from the tax payers.

I am a young family man. I work in the technology service industry as a Network Engineer. My company services small and medium sized business'. This new service tax reaches my company. We will now have to charge our clients this tax. I know many of our clients that I work for regularly said they will need to cut back on my services now that we will need to charge them an additional tax to our services. My company is also a small business. This means my company will have overall reduced hours as a result of our clients cutting back because of this service tax. That most likely means we will have to layoff a person. Thankfully It should not be me based on seniority, but I can not be certain.

Michigan is made up of mostly small and medium sized business'. The only big business' in Michigan are auto industry related. We all know the auto industry cannot be depended on anymore to carry us economically. That means we need the small and medium business' to do that. So why would you make it harder for them to do business by taxing them even more?

I know a few clients who have had to close their business' outright based on taxes, and ridiculously tough laws and regulations from Lansing that change every year. I know other clients who owned business' on the Michigan/Indiana border who have closed their doors in Michigan and opened them a few miles away in Indiana and are having far greater success.

My father owns his own small business. It is a generator service company. He does business all over the state of Michigan, and does a lot of work for the state government. The private business he runs into have the same complaints. They are taxed too much and regulated too much. They do not have the freedom they need to be as successful as they could. He knows far more than I do that have closed their doors or moved. My father's company is lucky though. Because they do a ton of business in sales as well as service, they are able to change their company to be a primary sales company with services, instead of a primary service company with sales.

My wife is a school teacher. She has had her degree for three years now, and still has no job. She applies to schools 30 miles away from our home town and only gets calls from our home town school district for interviews. She has had it on four separate interviews where she was their second choice for the job, but someone with more experience beats her out. She has been working as an ESL Aid for these three years in our home town district, so she works has hard as a normal teacher for half the pay and no benefits.

We still have student loans to pay off. We were able to purchase a home when we got married four years ago because our grandparents were gracious enough to help with the down payment. We also just had our first child this year. We are the all to familiar story of a young family that is struggling in Michigan. The taxes are too high and jobs not plentiful enough. Now that we have a child we would like to start saving for his education. That is impossible until my wife can get a full time teaching job. Until that happens, with day care, we basically live on one salary. One $43,000 salary to pay off two student loans, a home mortgage, one car payment, property taxes, doctors visits, grocery's, clothing, and home repairs. We do not have enough to vacation, or save for our own retirement at this point. We can barely scrape enough to put into savings.

Anyway, if our kids have to go to college on student loans like we had too, and they don't have jobs to choose from, the vicious cycle will reach them too.

Needless to say, we are looking at moving to Florida. I had a client I know who owned a business in Michigan, and had a branch in Florida. He closed his the branch here in Michigan and moved everything to Florida two years ago. He contacted me with an opportunity that pays $20,000 more in salary. The job is in Kissimmee. They seem to have comparable real estate prices there. And the teaching jobs in Florida are so plentiful, my wife can hired over the phone today. (Literally)

We have called Michigan home our entire lives. I love this state. I am very much a "home body". I have Season tickets to Michigan State football, I go regularly to MSU basketball, Pistons, Lions, and Tigers games. We love traveling up North to Traverse City or Mackinac Island for long weekends. We love all four seasons. We love that we live 15 minuets from Lake Michigan. Just thinking about leaving makes me sick to my stomach. However, the economy is that bad for people who are young, married and starting a family.

Sorry if this seems depressing... I did not mean it to be. Just ranting I guess. I really am a very happy up beat person. I have just been doing a lot of though about this Florida move and whether or not to do it.

Take care!

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by joedekock

Needless to say, we are looking at moving to Florida. I had a client I know who owned a business in Michigan, and had a branch in Florida. He closed his the branch here in Michigan and moved everything to Florida two years ago. He contacted me with an opportunity that pays $20,000 more in salary. The job is in Kissimmee. They seem to have comparable real estate prices there.

It sounds like you would be foolish not to take the extra $20k, but I would double check the price of real estate. I have a classmate from grad school who is on the faculty at FSU. With his wife, who's on the law faculty, they pull in over $150k/year. That said, their mortgage payment takes a giant bite out of their budget and their house is nothing special - cookie-cutter, brand new construction at triple the price of our comparably-sized house in Royal Oak -in the Panhandle! I'm not sure how expensive the Orlando area is, but I would bet it's more expensive than Tallahassee.

[mich2fla]

Originally Posted by Cato the Elder

It sounds like you would be foolish not to take the extra $20k, but I would double check the price of real estate. I have a classmate from grad school who is on the faculty at FSU. With his wife, who's on the law faculty, they pull in over $150k/year. That said, their mortgage payment takes a giant bite out of their budget and their house is nothing special - cookie-cutter, brand new construction at triple the price of our comparably-sized house in Royal Oak -in the Panhandle! I'm not sure how expensive the Orlando area is, but I would bet it's more expensive than Tallahassee.

Last year we looked into Seminole County FL, which is located north of Orlando. In FL, property taxes are assessed at 2% of the purchase price ($300,000 = $6,000/yr taxes). Home owners insurance is pretty expensive. Take a look at the Florida board, lots of people moving out or complaining the high cost of living.

[jimdhen]

Let me be clear to all of you who have been sucked into believing the "why can't we all just get along and love the tax increase" because compromise occurred and it's only $200 for a family or it's only on services you don't use, so it's always someone else's burden:

- Increased taxation does not result in growth, so re-read your Economics books.
- Governments use money less efficiently than individuals.
- Socialism and entitlements become expected. (What's yours is mine if I need it.)
- More and more spending occurs because politicians cater to voters.
- Enough with all the comparisons, this is today and we need to deal with today's realities. I could care less what Engler did or didn't do and Granholm is left standing with no chair at the end of the song.

You are the Borg, and have been assimilated.

Michigan needs growth.

[joedekock]

Originally Posted by jimdhen

Let me be clear to all of you who have been sucked into believing the "why can't we all just get along and love the tax increase" because compromise occurred and it's only $200 for a family or it's only on services you don't use, so it's always someone else's burden:

- Increased taxation does not result in growth, so re-read your Economics books.
- Governments use money less efficiently than individuals.
- Socialism and entitlements become expected. (What's yours is mine if I need it.)
- More and more spending occurs because politicians cater to voters.
- Enough with all the comparisons, this is today and we need to deal with today's realities. I could care less what Engler did or didn't do and Granholm is left standing with no chair at the end of the song.

You are the Borg, and have been assimilated.

Michigan needs growth.

You are very right.

My job takes me all over West Michigan and I work with medium and small business. There is not one business owner in the sector I work in, or regular joe citizen that is glad the budget is balanced by way of taking more money from their, and their employers pockets.