Today the skin gets pealed from the budget onion and CEOs across Michigan are hoping to cash in on big bonuses this year courtesy of Governor Rick Snyder and paid for by the rest of us.
What Snyder is proposing in his budget is a massive, job-killing shift in wealth that robs from the poor to give to the rich. Insurance companies, big banks, big oil companies and other big corporations will get an obscene $1.8 billion tax break.
Who’s paying for this? The rest of us in the form of huge proposed budget cuts that will result in larger classroom sizes, fewer teachers, police and fire layoffs. But low-income workers will especially be hurt by a big tax increase on their income and more than $700 million would be raised from taxes on retirees. Moreover, charities that provide services to the poor will get hit by the elimination of tax deductions for charitable contributions.
This is what Snyder means by “shared sacrifice”?
Instead of real tax reform that makes it easier for Michigan small businesses to create jobs, Snyder is proposing a huge tax giveaway to his CEO friends. Instead of leading by example and cutting their own pay, perks and lifetime health care benefits, Snyder and other Lansing politicians want to eliminate funding for cops, firefighters and schools.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to grab the pitchforks and torches and head to Lansing.