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What do people think of Prop. 1? Polls suggest it'll fail.
I think raising the sales tax is not the best way to fund road repair, but the roads need fixing NOW, and we can't wait for some genius to come up with a way to finance it that is both perfectly fair and politically feasible. Once the state gets going on road repair, a future legislature can rethink how to fund road maintenance and will have a strong incentive to come up with something better.
Raising the sales tax is regressive, so I'm pleased that Prop. 1 also raises the EITC, which shouldn't have been lowered in the first place.
I say we fix the roads today and fix the financing tomorrow.
One problem with Prop 1, from what I understand, is that the money taken in will first pay down debt. It will NOT go toward actually fixing any roads for quite some time. Unfortunately, we need a much more aggressive funding for road repair. None of us may like to hear it, but that's going to come out of our pockets one way or another. If not in taxes to help fund repairs, it will be in flat tires, etc., due to the poor road conditions.
What do people think of Prop. 1? Polls suggest it'll fail.
Hopefully, the polls are right...but I'm not so sure. This has been the most concerted, deceptive campaign that I've ever seen for a massive tax increase. It's simply been a scare campaign funded by the road builders. There are numerous reasons to oppose Proposal 1. I'll try to briefly mention a few.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. First of all, this is an unwarranted amendment to the Constitution for the purpose of making sure that this tax increase can never be changed without another vote of the people. A Constitutional amendment is not the appropriate way to levy a tax.
MAJOR SALES TAX INCREASE. It wasn't that long ago that Michigan had a 4% sales tax rate. The sale tax is a very regressive tax and moving it to 7% will make Michigan one of the highest sales-tax states in the country. A number of states levy no sales tax. It will now cost a couple thousand dollars in sales tax to buy a new car...and if you happen to buy a mobile home--or some other big ticket item--your tax bill will be several thousand dollars. A high sales tax would not be good for Michigan's economic climate. Raising the sales tax is not designed to help Michigan roads...or Michigan residents.
NONE OF THE SALES TAX INCREASE IS TO FUND ROADS!!! This has been the major point that the politicians and lobbyists aren't telling us. The sales tax will be spent on a number of other issues. It is being raised to more than offset removing the sales tax from gasoline and diesel fuel.
THE GAS TAX WILL MORE THAN DOUBLE!! This is another thing they won't tell you. The present tax on gasoline is 19 cents per gallon; the tax on diesel fuel is 15 cents per gallon. The tax for both will be raised to 41.7 cents per gallon--an increase of 22.7 cents/gal for gasoline (219%) and an increase of 27.7 cents (278%) for diesel.
THE GAS TAX WILL AUTOMATICALLY GO UP EACH AND EVERY YEAR!!! This is another major aspect that they haven't mentioned in their ads. There will be automatic cost-of-living adjustments each and every year--but the adjustments will only be upwards, even if cost-of-living expenses go down. According to their formula, there will never be a decrease in the tax amount--it will always continue to go up. This compounding of the gas tax increases will give Michigan the highest gas taxes in the country! Again, this will be locked into the Constitution so that these perpetual increases will be here to stay.
NOT A PENNY OF THE GAS TAX WILL BE EARMARKED FOR MAINTENANCE!! There will be no strings attached to this money. The state highway officials can use it however they choose. State officials have already announced that none of this money is likely to be spent on maintenance until 2017. Paying down road construction bonds is one of their top priorities.
STATE HIGHWAY OFFICIALS ARE BENT ON BUILDING NEW ROADS--NOT FIXING EXISTING ONES. Sure, some of this money will likely eventually go to road maintenance, but there are no assurances in Proposal 1 that that will be the case. The state already has announced BILLION DOLLAR plans to widen I-94 within the City of Detroit, and they have back-burner plans to build a number of new expressways in other parts of the state. Giving them more money, without any restrictions upon its use, will inevitably result in more wasteful highway building projects. We don't need to spend a Billion Dollars expanding an expressway in the City of Detroit!
The lobbying campaign for Proposal 1 is the most deceptive tax increase campaign in memory. They're counting on people not figuring out this very complicated proposal which has been put to the voters. There are numerous alternatives that could and should have been considered. There is absolutely no need to raise BOTH the sales tax AND raise the gas tax to such an extreme degree.
I will definitely be voting NO on Proposal 1! I encourage all to Vote NO, too!
Last edited by jackmichigan; 04-17-2015 at 05:25 PM..
Reason: typo
The money for the freeway projects are already allocated. Even if Prop 1 doesn't pass, I-94 is getting widened either way as well as numerous other freeway projects.
And the thing about sales tax is that it mostly affects those who are big spenders already and they aren't really going to notice the difference unless they aren't supposed to be big spenders to begin with. The most Michiganders spend on is gasoline so it makes sense that the state would raise the gas tax to compensate for the loss of revenue by removing gasoline from the sales tax.
If I was convinced that MDOT wouldn't waste the money, I'd be in favor of raising taxes. Unfortunately, based on past practices, I am convinced MDOT will waste the money.
A few examples of waste:
Relocation of I-94 near Telegraph Rd (in Taylor). Completely unnecessary and caused the increase in noise level on the north side, necessitating the building of a sound barrier wall.
Building of a ridiculously extravagant bridge on I-94 over Telegraph Rd. ostensibly to impress visitors to Superbowl XL.
The lighting of trees and bushes in the median or to the sides of expressways.
The changing of street lighting from the median barrier to the sloped sides of the expressways. This is being done on I-94 on the east side of Detroit. I don't see how providing a pole for drivers to crash in is safer than one that is virtually crash-proof.
The changing of street lighting from two fixtures (bulbs) to one. This was done on I-94 in southern Macomb County. If the argument is that one bulb uses less energy that two, then why not just leave one burnt out bulb on one side.
Putting in mileage markers every 2/10th of a mile instead of 1/2.
Repaving under-uses roads the full width instead of right-sizing them. Example: If an under-used road has 5 lanes (two in each direction and a center turn lane), the state could save 20% by switching it to a 4 lane road (two in each direction, eliminating the center turn lane). The never (or rarely, if at all) do this.
Paving or widening roads in new subdivision when we can't even maintain existing roads in older neighborhoods (that people are moving out of because they cannot maintain infrastructure due to the state cutting off revenue sharing.
Changing traffic signals from "center-turn-lane-turns-after-traffic-clears" to "all-through-traffic-sitting-at-red-lights-waiting-for-center-turn-lane-traffic-to-turn-even-if-there-is-no-center-turn-lane-traffic". This second method causes traffic congestion.
I could go on, but what's the use? MDOT will overspend even if we gave them ALL of our income.
P.S. Don't bother informing me that any of the above were required by Federal Mandates. That's even more egregious.
Hopefully, the polls are right...but I'm not so sure. This has been the most concerted, deceptive campaign that I've ever seen for a massive tax increase. It's simply been a scare campaign funded by the road builders. There are numerous reasons to oppose Proposal 1. I'll try to briefly mention a few.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. First of all, this is an unwarranted amendment to the Constitution for the purpose of making sure that this tax increase can never be changed without another vote of the people. A Constitutional amendment is not the appropriate way to levy a tax.
MAJOR SALES TAX INCREASE. It wasn't that long ago that Michigan had a 4% sales tax rate. The sale tax is a very regressive tax and moving it to 7% will make Michigan one of the highest sales-tax states in the country. A number of states levy no sales tax. It will now cost a couple thousand dollars in sales tax to buy a new car...and if you happen to buy a mobile home--or some other big ticket item--your tax bill will be several thousand dollars. A high sales tax would not be good for Michigan's economic climate. Raising the sales tax is not designed to help Michigan roads...or Michigan residents.
NONE OF THE SALES TAX INCREASE IS TO FUND ROADS!!! This has been the major point that the politicians and lobbyists aren't telling us. The sales tax will be spent on a number of other issues. It is being raised to more than offset removing the sales tax from gasoline and diesel fuel.
THE GAS TAX WILL MORE THAN DOUBLE!! This is another thing they won't tell you. The present tax on gasoline is 19 cents per gallon; the tax on diesel fuel is 15 cents per gallon. The tax for both will be raised to 41.7 cents per gallon--an increase of 22.7 cents/gal for gasoline (219%) and an increase of 27.7 cents (278%) for diesel.
THE GAS TAX WILL AUTOMATICALLY GO UP EACH AND EVERY YEAR!!! This is another major aspect that they haven't mentioned in their ads. There will be automatic cost-of-living adjustments each and every year--but the adjustments will only be upwards, even if cost-of-living expenses go down. According to their formula, there will never be a decrease in the tax amount--it will always continue to go up. This compounding of the gas tax increases will give Michigan the highest gas taxes in the country! Again, this will be locked into the Constitution so that these perpetual increases will be here to stay.
NOT A PENNY OF THE GAS TAX WILL BE EARMARKED FOR MAINTENANCE!! There will be no strings attached to this money. The state highway officials can use it however they choose. State officials have already announced that none of this money is likely to be spent on maintenance until 2017. Paying down road construction bonds is one of their top priorities.
STATE HIGHWAY OFFICIALS ARE BENT ON BUILDING NEW ROADS--NOT FIXING EXISTING ONES. Sure, some of this money will likely eventually go to road maintenance, but there are no assurances in Proposal 1 that that will be the case. The state already has announced BILLION DOLLAR plans to widen I-94 within the City of Detroit, and they have back-burner plans to build a number of new expressways in other parts of the state. Giving them more money, without any restrictions upon its use, will inevitably result in more wasteful highway building projects. We don't need to spend a Billion Dollars expanding an expressway in the City of Detroit!
The lobbying campaign for Proposal 1 is the most deceptive tax increase campaign in memory. They're counting on people not figuring out this very complicated proposal which has been put to the voters. There are numerous alternatives that could and should have been considered. There is absolutely no need to raise BOTH the sales tax AND raise the gas tax to such an extreme degree.
I will definitely be voting NO on Proposal 1! I encourage all to Vote NO, too!
Most of this seems like it was copied and pasted from some email campaign, most of which is false and exaggerated. Tell us what you really think.
But the part about other states not charging any sales tax? What states are those? Did you forget to mention that many states have county and municipal sales tax tacked onto their state sales tax? Unlike Michigan? That's why you pay a whopping 9% in Chicago (Illinois + Cook County sales tax) or why you pay 7.5% in Denver (Colorado + county sales tax). Please be honest in your comparisons.
"It wasn't that long ago that Michigan had a 4% sales tax." LOL, try 1994, which was 21 years ago. Twenty...one...years ago. Footloose was out that year I think.
"If you happen to buy a mobile home." - If you're buying a mobile home, you probably won't pay property tax like the rest of us. You can pay that extra 1%.
The fuel tax WILL be raised, almost doubled. But sales tax on gasoline will disappear. It works out to about the same.
Gas tax has always been adjusted with inflation. Why would it be fixed? Road costs aren't fixed.
Part of the sales tax increase WILL go to pay down debt/bonds we've used for past road construction, yes. Because Lansing has been trying to come up with a sales funding solution for what, 5 years now? 10? They've been borrowing money because there is none.
I love all of these opponents who have absolutely no solution to the issue. And a solution is put forward, that gives taxpayers the actual voice to vote on it, and they think it should be voted down with no plan b, c, d. nothing.
Most of this seems like it was copied and pasted from some email campaign, most of which is false and exaggerated. Tell us what you really think.
But the part about other states not charging any sales tax? What states are those? Did you forget to mention that many states have county and municipal sales tax tacked onto their state sales tax? Unlike Michigan? That's why you pay a whopping 9% in Chicago (Illinois + Cook County sales tax) or why you pay 7.5% in Denver (Colorado + county sales tax). Please be honest in your comparisons.
"It wasn't that long ago that Michigan had a 4% sales tax." LOL, try 1994, which was 21 years ago. Twenty...one...years ago. Footloose was out that year I think.
"If you happen to buy a mobile home." - If you're buying a mobile home, you probably won't pay property tax like the rest of us. You can pay that extra 1%.
The fuel tax WILL be raised, almost doubled. But sales tax on gasoline will disappear. It works out to about the same.
Gas tax has always been adjusted with inflation. Why would it be fixed? Road costs aren't fixed.
Part of the sales tax increase WILL go to pay down debt/bonds we've used for past road construction, yes. Because Lansing has been trying to come up with a sales funding solution for what, 5 years now? 10? They've been borrowing money because there is none.
I love all of these opponents who have absolutely no solution to the issue. And a solution is put forward, that gives taxpayers the actual voice to vote on it, and they think it should be voted down with no plan b, c, d. nothing.
What do people think of Prop. 1? Polls suggest it'll fail.
I think raising the sales tax is not the best way to fund road repair, but the roads need fixing NOW, and we can't wait for some genius to come up with a way to finance it that is both perfectly fair and politically feasible. Once the state gets going on road repair, a future legislature can rethink how to fund road maintenance and will have a strong incentive to come up with something better.
Raising the sales tax is regressive, so I'm pleased that Prop. 1 also raises the EITC, which shouldn't have been lowered in the first place.
I say we fix the roads today and fix the financing tomorrow.
People want something for nothing, and have a well founded mistrust in the state government that they seem unable / unwilling to control. So no funding to fix the roads, because we don't want to pay, and because the funds will likely be misappropriated while voters are busy pulling buggers out of their noses and voting for the same crooked politicians they keep complaining about, time after time. Perhaps the best thing would be to dissolve MI and merge it with a better functioning state
Bottom line is vote NO on prop 1 and make legislators find budgeted money to fix MI roads. This current proposal money grab will make you pay dearly to live in MI. oh, don't forget the higher propane, natural gas, Detroit mass transit dream, higher car registration fees, sales tax increase. Don't believe the Snyder shepple .And on the note of me coming up with solutions, it's not my JOB. We voted for legislators to act on our behalf and they failed. I'll tell you one thing, if I was sitting in Lansing , I'd sure be making some decisions.
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VOTE NO!! on Proposal 1
