I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Facing a staggering drop in state revenue that has pushed Michigan’s budget hundreds of millions of dollars into the red, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is proposing several new taxes in order to make up the shortfall without cutting crucial services. The Detroit News reports:
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed a revenue hike of nearly $700 million — including an entertainment tax, another 25-cent boost in the cigarette tax and a penny levy on water bottles — to help erase next year’s budget deficit.
Sources closest to budget negotiations said the plan also would slightly reduce the state’s film tax credit and an income tax break for low-income families, and the governor would phase out the widely unpopular 22 percent surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax over three years starting in 2011.
The revenue increases, which would generate about $685 million a year, have not been endorsed by legislative leaders. The plan was offered in closed-door budget talks, sources said.
A spokesperson for the Senate Majority Leader seemed to indicate that they are open to increases in these particular taxes in lieu of a general increase in a major tax like the income or sales tax:
Matt Marsden, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said general tax increases “are a non-starter for us. But we understand this is a process of negotiations and compromises will have to be made.”
On my radio show Thursday night, capitol reporter Tim Skubick related that his sources say that Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop was taking a strong public stand against any new taxes but had empowered others to negotiate some increases in particular taxes because, in the end, the state simply had to have more revenue.
If true, that might pave the way to a compromise plan to come out of the budget negotiations, one that would combine spending cuts with revenue increases that don’t increase the basic taxes that fund government.
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