While Granholm protects consumers, DeVos wants to protect the shareholders.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed into law stiffer fines for gas station owners who intentionally cheat the public with inaccurate pumps.
Owners who purposely deliver less fuel to customers than indicated on pump meters will face a civil fine of $5,000 for a first offense. A second offense will cost $10,000, and a third offense will cost $25,000.
The law, sponsored by Republican Rep. Fran Amos of Waterford and signed Tuesday, also gives the state Department of Agriculture the authority to shut down violating stations until problems are corrected. The department is required to annually inspect any station with three or more intentional violations.
The Agriculture Department received about 1,000 formal complaints about the accuracy of fuel pumps in 2004.
Granholm also told reporters at the bill-signing ceremony that she supports another bill - which has passed the House and is in the Senate - that would give her the authority to lift the 6 percent state sales tax on gasoline and diesel fuel during an emergency.
Um...is there some emergency coming that we need to know about, Jennifer? You know something that we don't?
When I first read that, I thought.... Iran. You think gas prices are high now, baby, you ain't seen nothin' yet. We go into Iran and watch what happens. The saber rattling has reached new heights in the past few days.
I wonder why she wants that power when Dickie is just drooling to cut state revenue. It would be a dangerous weapon in his hands.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, Granholm's likely opponent in the November election, said he supports the governor having the power to suspend the sales tax on gas.
He wants the state to collect the 6 percent tax on only the first $1.95 per gallon. The move would save motorists 6 cents for each dollar that gasoline prices move above $1.95.
When asked about the potential effect on education funding, DeVos said Tuesday: "That's very theoretical and I don't happen to think the consequences would be substantial. ... We need to look at getting the people of Michigan with money in their pocket, and doing something tangible to reduce the price of gasoline in this state, not just talking about it."
And there is Dick's whole campaign- cut now! with no way to stop the bleeding, no thought of the future. "I don't think the consequences would be substantial". You don't think? But you don't know? What if they are "substantial", Dick? What then?
And, just how much money would go back into our pockets? Wait, don't answer. Fortunately someone has crunched those numbers for us.
Jim Stansell, an economist with the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, estimated that a motorist who drives 15,000 miles a year in a car getting 20 miles per gallon would save about $45 a year if the sales tax is capped.
$45 bucks a year! Wow! That's a whole carton of cigarettes and a cup of coffee! Gee, thanks, Dick! That will go far!
Your city, your state and your kids might feel a little pinch though.
Meanwhile, the state would see its revenues drop by about $285 million if the price of gasoline averages $3 per gallon for a year, Stansell said.
Roughly $210 million less would go to the $12.8 billion school aid fund, revenue sharing funds that go to local governments would take a $30 million hit, and there would be $45 million less for the state's nearly $9 billion general fund.
Ouch. They can have my $45 bucks. 5¢ a gallon isn't going to make or break me. How about you?
There is also a constitutional issue involved, and potential headaches for gas station owners with Dick's plan.
Critics of capping the sales tax on gasoline say it would be hard for service station owners and the state to figure out how much tax is owed, since it's easy to track how much gasoline is sold but not the price it at which it was sold. There may also be constitutional issues involved in charging sales tax on some portion of gasoline sales but not on others.
Sounds like it would create more problems than it's worth.
Dick's real goal is to protect the investors.
"What's the damage to the shareholders, the investors, the retirees who have investments in these companies, who are the beneficiaries?" he said.
Won't somebody PLEASE think of the SHAREHOLDERS?
Something tells me that the shareholders, after record setting profits every quarter, aren't hurting too much. Just a hunch.
One beneficiary of the Big Oil bounty- the Republican Party. According to opensecrets.org, the Oil & Gas industry has given predominately to the Republicans- this election cycle it stands at 84% to 16%.
Go sign Granholm's petition if you haven't already done so. It can't hurt. I doubt anyone in the Rubber Stamp Congress will listen to us- but this is an interesting tool for the future. Maybe someday when we get responsive representation these things will come in handy- let's get some numbers behind it now.
Personally, I think the only answer to all of this is alternative energy. No one is sticking more oil in the ground. China is not going to reduce it's demand on supplies anytime soon. Neither are we. This is only going to get worse as the years roll on- and all the petitions, tax cuts, rebates and drilling the Earth dry are not the answer to the overall problem. But, if we are stuck playing the political game, let's not hurt our state and our quality of life in the process.