The squabble over the '08 budget starts .... now. The magic number is $1.5 billion.
Lawmakers attending the conference said the $900 million raised by the tax hike could be combined with $300 million raised by applying a 6-percent sales tax on entertainment and other services. Another $300 million source of revenue could come through loophole closings.
The magic date is July 1st.
Expect the budget to be done on June 29th, sometime in the evening.
Why? Vacation starts the 1st. The wife and kids will be packed in the car in the parking lot, ready to go.
And there is this little statement that indicates that it will probably not be any sooner....
Senate Majority Leader Michael Bishop, R-Rochester, said a half-percent increase in the income tax rate was too high.
Now starts the argument over the size of the income increase and which entertainment services have donated the most to lawmakers will face a new tax.
... aaaaand off we go, to a new round of "You Bet Your Life", where the stakes are much, much higher.
Mike pleads ignorance.
"I don't know if we truly understand what that would do to our state."
Let's think about this for a minute... what it would do to our state... well, it would maintain the public school funding, restore cuts to universities, protect public safety and abate the need for more local tax increases with revenue sharing to cities, provide health care so that burden doesn't fall on business and personal insurance premiums, keep the prison system functioning, restore Wall Street's confidence in us, restore investor's confidence in us, restore our own citizen's confidence in us, create a decent state to live in, and...
...oh yeah, this one small thing...
... help pay for all the BILLS YOU JUST GOT DONE PUTTING OFF to the '08 budget year.
Did I leave anything out?
Let's hope that Mike finally understands what this "would do" to our state.