Damn, she's good. Long range plans that build our future.
Nice interview- go read. Here's an excerpt on the tax issue- of course the News is all for just eliminating it with no thought to the consequences. Once again I want to point out that Jennifer is willing to work with these people if they can be responsible about spreading the tax burden fairly. I get the impression that Republicans would happily shift the burden to the people and let business get off scott-free.
Q . Looking out 10 years at the kind of Michigan economy you want to see, would your tax plan get us there?
A . I've done that. And my plan wasn't adopted. I need a Legislature that works with me.(Bingo. It's just that simple.)
Q . Aside from the single Business Tax, what specifically has the Legislature blocked in your economic recovery program?
A . They haven't done the Merit scholarship or the curriculum yet. I'm hopeful that they will. On the diversification (investment fund) effort, they have done that.
Taxes are the toughest. I'm not opposed to cutting taxes. But taxes are not the only answer to a state's economic development. I've signed into law and we have $1.7 billion less tax revenue due to tax cuts than we did during the most robust time of our history recently, which was in 1999. We have cut and cut and cut. And you would think that with all that tax cutting we would be growing jobs at the fastest clip around.
Some of that maybe has to do with the Single Business Tax structure. But it has to do with the fact that we're the domestic auto capital of the world, and we've lost jobs because we're competing with countries that are paying 50 cents an hour.
Q . What specifically do you want as part of an economic stimulus policy that the Legislature hasn't given you?
A . I would like to lower the rate (of the Single Business Tax). Call it something else. Get rid of the SBT.
Q . Have you put an elimination proposal on the table?
A . I have told them repeatedly: I don't care what you call it, but what we should have is a tax system that treats taxpayers fairly, business taxpayers as well as others. That means lowering the rate, flattening the base. That means that all of those darn loopholes that have appeared over time that end up costing more for those who are paying, those have got to be eliminated too.
Q . So do you support what Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is proposing -- a ballot initiative to eliminate the Single Business Tax?
A . And? And? What's the next part of that? You can drop one shoe. What's the second (one)?
Q . Under your plan, the Single Business Tax would still be there as a value-added tax.
A . I'd be happy to move away from a value-added tax, but we have been bumping up against this constitutional spending limit for years and year and years. We are now $5.8 billion below the Headlee limit as a state because of the tax cuts and because of the economy. I say that as an example of how we have attempted to make government smaller, to make the business climate competitive. So if Brooks is willing to work with me on something, I'd be happy to do it.
But right now that proposal stands sort of on the same footing as the K-16 proposal (for guaranteed school and university funding), which is: Here's the solution but no way to pay for it.
Q . So the Legislature is stopping you from lowering the rate and flattening the tax?
A . That's what we proposed last year and that's what they ran away from it because it had loophole closings. There are all sorts of bizarre loopholes.
Q . If the two parties can't agree on the business tax in Michigan, then shouldn't the voters eliminate it? That certainly would force the two parties to come up with an alternative and break the gridlock.
A . I wouldn't assume there has to necessarily be gridlock. This is an election year, which is the most difficult of times to get an agreement on something as sensitive as a tax cut. But if people were willing in good faith to remove it from the political process and work quietly on a solution that really was a rational solution....
And because it is an election year, I can almost guarantee you that anything that smacks of cooperation will be frowned upon by the big money (hint hint -you know who) donors of the Republican Party.
They will put their own interests above the best interests of Michigan every time.
We need a Democratic controlled legislature. Now. Then we will see progress.
The Detroit Free Press has an interview also, not as combative, and they let her talk a bit more about her plan. Also worth a read.