This time she spoke specifically of the gas tax. Raising the gas tax is impossible because of the following: election year politics and anti-tax extremism from the Republicans. Couple that with continued silence and cowering fear from the Democrats, and you are going to be paying big bills to repair your car.
The governor acknowledged the state needs more resources to repair roads and highways but said a gas tax increase is out of the question. She stated earlier she's not interested in raising taxes again after pushing $1.3 billion in tax hikes through the Legislature this year.
"Raising the gas tax now is just impossible because everybody is hurting," she said. "That's a tax everybody pays."
Pretty sure that was a shot right at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce- after all, they spent all year cheering on Republican obstruction when it came to raising taxes for the general budget, using phrases just like that one, but suddenly they have this miraculous change of heart when taxes will benefit them. They support a gas tax increase- but now they find themselves trapped in their own anti-tax rhetoric.
So, take that, Tricia. No soup for you.
No way the Democrats can support tax increases when their jobs are threatened over it. From Peter Luke, "http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-0/119778986319180.xml&coll=6">last Sunday-
There shouldn't be a political price for doing the right thing, but Dillon's caucus members may well pay it. About a dozen, including Dillon, are facing recall efforts for raising the income tax by $4.33 a week on a household with $50,000 in annual taxable income.
But there is a price, and you can thank Saul, Leon and the media that feeds them attention when they pull out their bag of cheap tricks designed only to rouse the rabble. The "jobs clock" has mutated into a "tax check", and soon your town might want to pass sign restrictions before the hideous pig and the blinking check start to bring down property values.
GOP Chair Saul Anuzis said he intended to haul it around to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's public appearances and into the districts of House Democrats facing recall efforts from anti-tax forces or close general election contests next year.
Tacky. But class was never high on Saul's list of attributes. Neither is honesty.
Apparently, the sign won't make an appearance outside the chambers of the Republican-controlled Senate, through which the income and business tax increases passed on their way to Granholm's desk.
Of course not. But the benefits of those increases might make an appearance- if the damn thing happens to catch on fire, there will be a fire department to put it out, for example.
Thanks to the check and the sentiment behind it, there won't be any road repairs though. And if there is any justice in this world, it will fall into a huge pothole.
House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Twp., laughed at the notion of a gas tax increase. A day later, he axed the idea of a higher phone fee to fund police.
Who can blame him? In a year when House Democrats had the audacity to insist that essential public services be funded without one-time fiscal gimmicks or still more borrowing, they could be in political trouble because Republicans intend to hammer them for it.
Somehow Democrats need to make fiscal responsibility fashionable again, and they still haven't figured out how to do that yet. It will take a lot of public support - perhaps the media can help us out with that. Already we have those pro-tax folks at the Detroit News telling us we need to pull out a buck to support our state. Imagine that.
And yet the needs of the infrastructure can't wait. Michigan is famous for putting off tough choices. Leaving the costly work of rebuilding roads and water lines to the next generation of taxpayers isn't an acceptable option.
State residents must accept the fact that they'll have to dig deeper into their pockets to keep their infrastructure up-to-date.
Keep up the reverse psychology, Governor. Perhaps giving the Republicans the world they claim they want is the only way we can get them to stop playing these partisan games and start looking at the reality of supporting the world we all want to live in.