Good morning Michiganders! I hope today finds you well - even after late-night trips to the Post Office to mail in your taxes.
Leon Drolet writes in the Detroit Free Press about several Michigan business owners who discovered that the elimination of the state's hated Single Business Tax (SBT) only resulted in higher taxes. The advent of the new Michigan Business Tax (MBT) and the addition of a 22% "surcharge" puts Michiganders in a worse position now than last year.
"A Ferndale electrical contractor who paid $142,000 in SBT in 2007 is now required to send Lansing $215,000 under the MBT -- a 52% increase. One Livonia excavating company has it worse; last year's $76,000 SBT has tripled into this year's $239,000 MBT liability."
If that weren't enough,
"Edward Rose & Sons, one of Michigan's most respected residential leasing companies, rents affordable apartments to 28,000 Michigan families. The firm reports that the MBT has increased its state tax burden by more than 300%! Michigan housing providers are struggling to keep apartments affordable while paying this massive tax increase."
Add the additional 12% hike in the personal income tax, and it's no wonder job providers want to set up shop elsewhere and our college grads are going out ot state with them.
Maybe these new tax burdens, passed only to sustain a massive state bureaucracy with extremely generously compensated public employees, will move more citizens to action...