Not so fast there, bub. It's not over. It's never over. Not when there are Republicans around.
The House Republicans, who wouldn't vote for cuts, wouldn't vote for revenue, wouldn't do a darn thing except get in the way, but somehow DID find the will to vote to spend that money that other people negotiated, sweated, slaved over and put their careers on the line for, are now trying to screw this all up.
Yesterday, before the ink was even dry on the budget, House Republicans released a list of "cuts" in hopes of having an excuse to justify repealing the business service taxes.
While the House Tax Policy Committee will hold its first public hearing on the controversial 6 percent use tax on services Thursday, House Republicans Wednesday said they were introducing legislation that would repeal the tax and make more than enough cuts to the budget to cover for the $614 million loss in revenue.
Check these "cuts" on some big ticket items - once again they use all the favorite Republican buzzwords to make you think they actually have some sort of responsible plan.
Michigan Business Tax transition windfall - $219.4 million.
Reexamine state employee benefits - $100 million.
Competitively bid corrections services- $50 million.
Streamline the Department of Community Health - $92.8 million.
Department of Human Services reform - $109.5 million.
Stop new appropriations to 21st Century Jobs program - $75 million.
That MBT money seems to have been counted about three times over by now. Going to renegotiate all the state employee contracts? How can you tell what the savings will be there, and how long will that take? Bidding corrections services is no guarantee of saving money either. And to simply say "streamline" and "reform" health and human services for the sick and the poor probably means "throw them in the street". Also, Republicans are doing this under the guise of "creating jobs", so they want to stop the program that is doing just that. Sounds like a plan.
None of this stuff flies with the Governor or the House Democrats, but the Republicans will waste our time with it anyway. Why? Already the Small Business Association is pointing to this as a solution. They have printed up 100,000 petitions to repeal the tax in hopes of getting it on the ballot next November.
Todd Anderson, SBA of Michigan's vice president for public policy, said that while he hopes the Legislature replaces the tax quickly, his group would likely move ahead to circulate petitions anyway -- because "it would give legislators more incentive to act."
-snip-
Anderson said he favors a plan outlined by House Republicans to make up for a tax repeal with just state spending cuts, although he added that position "is clearly in the minority."
All of this just sets the stage for what is to come next. Petitions, you say? The SBA has nothing on the master of disaster himself, the one, the only, give it up people and get ready for the return of the original petition-pusher himself... Brooks Patterson! (insert scary music here)
You knew he was out there, waiting to mess with us once again. Find out how, and what happened last time he did this, over the flip...
First of all, the Governor and Democrats are open to suggestions, with a few conditions.
"I am and have been in discussion with the business community about what that could look like. My criteria for the replacement are that it is revenue-neutral, and bipartisan and it's not temporary."
Bombastic Brooks begs to differ, and watch the wording.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is to kick off a petition drive today to repeal the levy, which expands the 6 percent sales tax on goods to a mix of services starting Dec. 1.
Patterson represents the business Coalition to Ax the Tax.
"She's wrong on all three points," Patterson said. "We should repeal it and not replace it with any new tax on business, because you can't tax your way to prosperity."
You can't cut your way to prosperity either.
You get the impression that the way Republicans and people like Brooks want to run their "business" is to hire uneducated workers, let the street in front of the store be full of potholes, let the building crumble around them, put faulty and unsafe products on the shelves, short staff the joint so there is no customer service, complain when the government doesn't help with all of the above, and then turn around and blame "taxes" when they can't succeed.
When Patterson talks about launching a petition drive, he's got Lansing's attention. Last year, he spearheaded a petition effort that collected more than 370,000 signatures to repeal the hated Single Business Tax, which had been the primary state commercial levy. Granholm had earlier vetoed legislation to wipe out the tax, but the petition drive allowed the Legislature to pass a veto-proof measure that scuttled the SBT.
And what happened there? He destroyed investment and job creation in the Detroit area for a full year.
Business growth in Metro Detroit -- new ventures and expansion of existing ones -- fell dramatically in the past 12 months compared to the previous year, reflecting the region's slumping economy and uncertainty for much of the year over the state's plans for a new business tax.
Do we let Brooks do this again? Probably not a wise idea. Go away Brooks.
Chances are this is all just bluster to get the lawmakers to do something, and do something fast. Not only do these new taxes kick in on December 1st, the utmost issue of importance to our Legislature is... vacation! Yes, they have yet another vacation starting soon, and we all know they won't want to miss that.
Senate Republicans hope to move on the issue next week, before the Legislature breaks Nov. 8 for deer-hunting season, which begins on Nov. 15.
"The uproar from the business community over this new tax is apparent and justified," said Matt Marsden, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester. "We need to get working on this as quickly as possible. It will be our priority before the Nov. 8 break."
Yes, "priority" and "break" seem to always go together for the Senate Republicans. Kind of sums up the whole year for them. It would be nice to think that they could get this done in a week- the problem might lie in their own party's obstruction.
Isn't that a laugh. Or not.
Some have suggested Republicans might not want to work toward a replacement tax, in part because they could use it against Democrats in next year's elections. The service tax was passed with only a handful of Republican votes.
So, they will work on it, but they might obstruct themselves in the process.
Thankfully calmer heads are looking at this issue, and perhaps something will be worked out to the satisfaction of everyone, and they can all go on vacation just as soon as they fix all the mistakes it took them 10 months to make.
Stay tuned to the story that never ends...