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 IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 22, 2012

Chad Dewey Signs Americans for Tax Reform “Taxpayer Protection Pledge”

BAY CITY, Michigan – Chad Dewey announced this week that he signed the ATR pledge to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes”.

“In addition to not increasing taxes, I will also work to lower and eliminate taxes. This includes reducing the personal income tax to zero and eliminating the Michigan corporate income tax.” says Dewey. “The people of Michigan earn their paychecks and should keep their hard earned money rather than have it wasted by their government due to pressure from special interests.”

Dewey explains, “Michigan is a very heavily taxed state and could learn quite a bit from South Dakota and Wyoming; two states that enjoy some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and they don’t have a personal income tax or business tax. When you get the burden of the government off the shoulders of people and business, the free market will flourish and it is then you will see prosperity.”

Chad Dewey, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s 96th House district, has also pledged to vote only within the guidelines of the U.S. and Michigan Constitutions, vote in favor of preserving personal Liberties, and vote in favor of free market principles.

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Chad Dewey is a pro-Liberty, Conservative Constitutionalist candidate for the Michigan State House, 96th District. Learn more about Chad Dewey at his web site http://chaddewey.org and Facebook campaign page http://facebook.com/ChadMDewey.

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.

Politicians are going back and forth on how to bring jobs back to Michigan. Most of your typical politicians in Lansing want to give tax breaks or tax-funded grants to businesses to bring their business here. Some are only temporary as we witnessed with the Michigan Film Incentives, in which some reports show the film industry took in more than they gave back. Temporary business is not what we should be looking for – we need permanent jobs from businesses who are willing to come to Michigan and stay.

However, with a high, unnecessary business tax that punishes businesses for staying in Michigan, why would they want to come? Currently, sales tax and income tax are the two primary sources of Michigan tax funding by far. 56.4% to be exact versus only 8% in revenue from the business tax. So how can more of the two primary sources of income for the state be generated without raising income and sales taxes? Simple – remove the business tax completely, which will bring businesses, and the jobs that come with them, to Michigan. As we all know, when businesses sell a product, they charge a 6% sales tax on the majority of items purchased by consumers. When people go to work for those businesses, they pay an income tax. When more businesses come to Michigan, they will generate more sales tax and more income tax (with no raises to either) and will easily make up for the “lost revenue” by the removed business tax.

I have had people ask “So are we just going to not tax businesses at all?!” They’re already being taxed on several levels already, so the business tax is no more than a tax for doing business in Michigan. Penalizing businesses to stay here is not the way to keep businesses here. They’re already being taxed and pay taxes, so why add another? They pay property taxes just like we do on our homes, or their landlords do if they rent. They collect and pay income taxes on employees. They pay capital gains taxes. They pay taxes on their profits. They collect and pay sales tax on purchases by consumers. Then on top of that, they pay a business tax. Currently, Michigan ranks 48th out of the 50 states regarding corporate-friendly tax rates according to taxfoundation.org. That won’t bring businesses or jobs to Michigan.

Besides, we would not be the only state who does not have a business tax. Texas, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming do not have a business tax. In fact, Texas, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming go one step further – they don’t have an individual income tax either. Now putting that into perspective, the unemployment rate in Michigan is at 11.2%. The unemployment rates for the other states with no business tax or individual income tax are:

• South Dakota: 4.7%
• Texas: 8.5%
• Washington: 9.1%
• Wyoming: 5.8%

So remove the business tax and businesses will come to Michigan with jobs? The simple answer is…yes. However, changing the name to a “corporate tax” and taxing pensions will NOT bring businesses to Michigan and will NOT stop the mass exodus of people leaving Michigan in search of jobs.