Michigan legislators want citizens to vote on whether to rob ourselves to the tune of more than $2 billion in tax hikes that we’re supposed to believe will fix our roads. This ballot proposal will be brought to you on May 5, and you should vote ‘no.’
Michigan legislators will ask us if we want to increase our sales tax from six percent to seven percent, which is a 17-percent increase in the price of everything we buy, have the highest gasoline excise tax in the nation, forcing the price at the pump up, pay $60 million in Internet sales taxes and force drivers to pay more in registration fees. They want to take more money from us than what they already have planned in their existing $52 billion budget to raise the money because they’re too irresponsible to work with what we’ve already forfeited over. Instead of looking for ways to cut wasteful spending and subsidies, and as the average Michigander budgets their own income, legislators crafted a bill full of giveaways for certain groups looking to monopolize on such an offer.
Back-room deals were made to get these groups on board with the plan to make it sound more favorable to voters. For example, calling it a plan for “better roads and schools” after handing out $300 million to the education establishment or non-teaching public school staff. It’s also a giveaway for Detroit politicians, promising them $130 million for more government mass transit failures.
Road builders also love their billions in taxpayer funds because they’re not being forced to increase quality service by competition. That is, if the funds we send to Lansing even get used on Michigan roads.
Currently, out of the six percent sales tax charged at the gas pump, not a dime is used to fix our roads. Instead, it goes to school staff pay raises, inefficient city buses, D.C., and irresponsible local governments.
The Michigan legislature had over two years to fix this appropriations problem and instead they want to sacrifice the hard-working taxpayers’ because they don’t want to make the hard decisions necessary to manage our money better. According to State Budget Solutions, we are the ninth most in-debt state in the nation. Is that a path we want to continue to go down?
Representatives in Lansing should find the funds needed to fix our roads within our existing budget. They shouldn't be spending our money on things that don’t go toward fixing our highways and they need to start dedicating our current gas taxes for road repairs here in Michigan instead of handing this revenue over to the federal government – or Wasteland Central.
Instead of asking us for a bailout, our politicians need to start budgeting like every middle class family does. They could cut corporate welfare, ensure competitive road building contracts, end tax breaks to failed enterprises, privatize state prisons – the list goes on.
So mark your calendars, or it’s going to be a sad 2016 tax season.
