Let's restore spending levels instead

Background: Jack Lessenberry wants to “restore” a higher income tax rate. Not a big surprise.

Orwell is alive and well at The Metro Times. According to Jack Lessenberry, raising the state income tax from 3.9 percent to 4.6 percent isn’t really a “raise”. It’s merely a “restoration” to 1994 levels. Using Lessenberry’s logic, I have an alternate plan. Let’s “restore” spending to 1994 levels since it’s not really a cut.

Rather than quibble over the manipulation of language, let’s look at the proposed impact. Lessenberry roughly figures an income tax rate of 4.6% would cost me merely about $350 per year. A small price to pay for the privilege of living and working in Michigan is the story I keep hearing from Democrats, progressives, and MEA partisans. Small perhaps except when combined with my stagnant wage and the substantial drop in my home’s value. Then it becomes the straw that breaks this taxpayer’s back.

Before we stick it to us taxpayers, the legislature could restore sensibility to this state’s economy with some very basic steps. Move teachers to defined contribution retirement plans similar to what the majority of taxpayers have. Transfer teachers to the same health insurance plans used by all other state employees. Pass and rescind any laws necessary to allow workers the freedom to choose whether they belong to a union or not. Eliminate the prevailing wage law requiring the state to pay wages higher than the market price. Require the corrections department to privatize up to 10 percent of prison operations.

These reforms would save taxpayers hundreds of millions and reverse the unsustainable trends of today. Of course, the Democrats and Granholm would have to stand up to their sugar-daddy union bosses and make themselves accountable to the people.

[Letter to the Editor - The Metro Times. Submitted 09/27/2007.]