Chad Dewey for Liberty

I keep seeing Michigan politicians patting each other on the back about the personal income tax going from 4.35% to 4.25% to 3.9. Then eliminated the “Business Tax” only to turn around and create a “Corporate Tax”. Then they try to explain how the 6% sales tax will sustain these “huge” decreases in revenue. None of these high taxes are truly necessary – just look at Wyoming and South Dakota.

A little information about Wyoming and their taxes:

• Wyoming sales tax rate is currently 4.0% with prescription drugs and groceries exempt from sales tax.
• Wyoming has no personal income tax.
• Wyoming has no corporate income tax.

A little information about South Dakota and their taxes:

• South Dakota sales tax rate is 4.0%.
• South Dakota has no corporate income tax.
• South Dakota has no personal income tax.
• South Dakota has no personal property tax.
• South Dakota has no business inventory tax.
• South Dakota has no inheritance tax.

Both of those states enjoy some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country because people and businesses get to keep more of their money. When people and businesses get to keep more of their own money, rather than let government take it from them and squander it, prosperity occurs. Businesses and people are more free to invest and use their money wisely.

Michigan politicians could learn something from this simple economics lesson.

Please share my message and help send me to Lansing this November so that I can present this lesson personally.

For those who have not heard about Michigan Senate Bill 919, it is essentially a very large and unnecessary tax increase on all drivers:

Introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn (R) on January 26, 2012, to increase the state vehicle registration tax by 67 percent. The tax is levied based on the weight of commercial trucks, and on the “list price” of cars. (For example, the annual tax on a car with a $20,000 list price would go from $103 to $172.). The weight-based levy on trucks would increase by 25 percent. This would extract approximately $500 million more from motorists each year. The bill would distribute a greater proportion of the increased road funding to heavily-traveled “commercial corridor” roads rather than less-traveled rural roads. This is part of Gov. Rick Snyder’s road and transit tax proposal.

While big government establishment candidates are fine with continuing the spending, raising taxes in any way is not what’s good for the overall financial well being of the people of Michigan. Here’s a novel idea to create a surplus of cash – how about cutting state government? How about looking at duplicate programs, unnecessary regulations, and tax subsidies that would save the state a considerable amount of money? This bill represents the wrong type of thinking in Lansing and is exactly what I would fight against if elected.

• “No” if it is not permitted by the U.S. Constitution and Michigan Constitution.
• “No” to tax increases.
• “No” to bills that don’t follow free market principles.