Short Sighted Repubs seem like a bad movie.

Republicans falsely claim that the reason the incredibly wealthy Americans shouldn't have to pay their fair share of taxes is because they are "job creators." Anyone with half a brain can see through that nonsense. If that were the case, after 14 years of tax freeloading, we should be swimming in jobs. McDonald's would be forced to pay $15 an hour, not by statute but because every person willing to work 40 hours a week was fielding offers from lots of employers. But that is simply not the case.

Upon getting elected, one of the first thing Governor Rick Snyder did was to question a growing business in Michigan and then help drive it out of the state. Solar Panels? Nope. Wind energy? Nope. It was the movie business.

After the generous tax breaks the legislature passed, that were endorsed by then Governor Jennifer Grantholm, things started to happen in Michigan. Movies started to be made here. A lot of movies. Businesses started popping up. Agencies. Caterers. Limo Rentals. Hollywood sat up and took notice. And slowly but surely Hollywood started moving to Michigan. Literally.

What would this have meant in time? Lots and lots of jobs. Lots and lots of employed people paying taxes. A lot more taxes than the tax breaks were giving up.

When the Republicans pulled the rug out from under this program they were being incredibly short sighted. There's a surprise. All they could see was the revenue they were letting get away, while the movie companies were here. I sat down and furiously wrote a letter to every representative in both Houses in Michigan. Their first response? "Where do you live?" In other words, if you don't live in my district, I don't care." But I live in Michigan you idiots!

How short-sighted were they? When Hollywood moved to Michigan, that would have meant the construction of Studios. This is not me guessing. Plans were drawn up to construct a studio on the east side of the state and one on the west side of the state. Construction people would have gotten work. Not just in building the studio, but later in building sets too. Agencies would have opened offices here. Employing lots of people. Union offices would have opened here. Unions for Actors, Directors, Cinematographers, Writers etc..... again, needing lots of people. TV Studios would have followed suit. So would the digital gaming industry. Pixar would have come for example. George Lucas would have been forced to open an Industrial Light and Magic Studio here. The studios would need all kinds of lighting people, sound personnel, Foley artists, editors, grips, stage hands and on and on. There would be a call for Extras, Stunt people, make up artists, stand-in people, and the myriad of technical people that are required to make films. Not to mention Limo services, Hotel accommodations, Drivers, Caterers, Security personnel, and medical personnel required on movie sets. All getting paid very well and then paying taxes.

On March 15th in the Detroit Free Press Mitch Albom noted that on that particular week the legislature drove the final stake into the heart of the movie tax incentives that they had been down-sizing to practical nonexistence anyway. Mr. Albom notes that the legislature argued that they were spending too much water on a little tree. What they failed to note was that when you water a little tree it becomes a big tree. Maybe even a redwood.

But sadly, as Mr. Albom notes, we never got to see it materialize. After 3 years of the tax incentives, (and nearly 650 million spent in the state), Rick Snyder was elected Governor. And although he promised to keep the program, he slashed the guts out of it.

What did that result in? Other states now enjoying what we might have had. One producer who I know for a fact loved shooting all his films in Grand Rapids, once the change was made, pulled up stakes and moved the operation down to Louisiana.

Here are some snippets of what Albom had to say: [reprinted without permission]:

"The new legislature attacked these incentives as if they wore horns. A committee hurriedly recommended their erasure. The house agreed this past week, by a 58-51 vote, largely along party lines.

If only government always worked this fast.

Look. You may like the incentives or hate them, but let's tell the truth. Fifty million isn't making or breaking this state. It's one tenth of 1% of our annual budget. And if Fifty million was being given out it meant that $150 million was being spent."

or

Because the legislature isn't attacking the "fat cats" equally.

Albom notes "The fact is, Michigan has nearly $10 billion in outstanding tax credits. Ten billion! To all kinds of businesses. The film industry is a tiny player, thus an easy target."

Michigan legislators somethimes chide, "If the movies industry leaves because they don't get tax breaks, then they really didn't want to be here." So when is it wrong for industries to want to maximize profits? They sure don't think it's wrong when it comes to oil companies, or even the big three automakers. That's why they are called incentives, to give companies a incentive to work, spend, and pay taxes here. In my town, a major industry didn't get the incentives it wanted and it went to Mexico. That's the nature of business, sometimes rightly, and sometimes not.

Some critics say they didn't produce enough anyway. We didn't get to know. It was gutted and then killed in it's infancy. It didn't get a chance to lay the groundwork and let it flourish. Yes, some say it was too much water on a little tree. But little trees become big trees.

We had a chance for Redwoods, and our Republican representatives let us down. The first step to creating jobs is to stop kicking them out of the state.

Proposal 1 Goes Down

Proposal 1 was seen as the fraud that it was. 80% of the electorate said, no, we aren't buying it.

Dear Lansing, Figure out how to do your jobs. Figure out how to work together. Learn how to lead, contribute, and govern. If you have to raise taxes to fix roads, and I don't believe you do, go ahead and do it. And then we'll deal with you accordingly. One has to wonder though, that if we cut just two of the upper echelon positions of fat in the government, say two jobs that pay 300 K a year, how many roads we could fix with and extra $600,000 dollars a year for a few years?

Here's another thing. When are we going to re-evaluate why we allow trucks to carry more weight than any of the states around us? We live in the frost belt. Allowing so much weight and subsequently trucks grinding our roads to pieces in a few years? What is the point? When you cross the state line you instantly notice the difference.

Our roads seem to be always under construction anyway. You want to know what kills the tourism dollars? Road repair. I once came back to Michigan from Ohio and passed through TWO road constructions sites BEFORE I REACHED THE WELCOME CENTER! My friends in Ohio tell me they avoid this place like the plague, because they try to come here and are stuck in constant traffic stoppages at construction sites. This is ridiculous.

And then the proposal said "the money is guaranteed to go to transportation. NOT roads. Duh!
Transportation can mean more weigh stations that are never open, more Department of Transportation Muckity-Mucks making $300,000 a year. It doesn't necessarily mean Roads as the ads tried to imply.

And dare I ask? This is 2015. We can make phones that allow the entire knowledge of the whole world at our finger tips, our TVs show every pore on an actor's face, and we love to pay 4 bucks for a cup of coffee. Are you telling me we can't come up with a material that will last 20 years once we lay it on a road? How about silicon/fiberglass roads? How about acknowledging our frost-line and building roads like the Autobahn? The Autobahn is, count 'em, 4 [FOUR] feet thick. It's been there for 50 years. No problem.

There are effective ways to deal with this problem. But temporary band-aids so that some Lansing official's brother-in-law can to continue to make a fortune are a total waste of time.

Ads with "school bus drivers" and pictures of cute little kids, and the phrase "if it cost me a penny more, I'm all for it." are sickening. It ain't a penny, honey. It's a tax that would have killed sales of high ticket items like cars and homes. And we did not buy this. The Repubs wanted us to hurt ourselves, so they could campaign on the fact that they didn't raise taxes, we did it to ourselves.

Not this time. Learn how to do your jobs.

PROPOSAL 1

I have been ranting around my house for weeks about lame ass representatives that wanted a job but don't know how to do it. They can't figure out how to work together with others from the other party, how to negotiate, how to compromise, how to get things done, and how to lead and govern. Specifically they have tossed Proposal 1 on the Ballot, so we can vote on it, and then they get to run on "We don't raise taxes, you did it to yourself." Local Business Owner Mike Huckleberry recently sent a published letter to the "The Daily [Republican] News" and he said everything I was thinking. I didn't ask Mike for permission to reprint this, but next time I see him, I will. I am fairly confident he'll be okay with it, but if not I'll delete and then you can consider yourselves "the enlightened ones."

Here's what he had to say"

"House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, said, "the longer we wait to fix the roads the more it cost."

Advertisements correctly point out roads are dangerous, they cost us auto repair and they are hurting our economy. This being true, why did it take five years of complete Republican control of government to address this dire situation?

Their solution? "We the People" voting another tax increase on top of the 1.4 BILLION already imposed! The election will cost $10 million to cover their incompetence......the average family will pay out about $500 if passed. The total tax increase from the "ANTI-TAXERS" will be $2.3 Billion on Michigan Families.

Remember when Governor Engler raised sales tax from 4% to 6%? Remember President Reagan raised 11 taxes? How about "Read My Lips, no new taxes" from Bush I before raising them? Gov. Snyder and legislators are following the same path. Next time a Republican politician tells you "they are against taxes" or "they can run government without taxes" think of their record and broken promises.

I am voting NO on Proposal 1. After proving they know how to win an election, the Republicans seem to have trouble with the "governing thing." It's time they are held accountable."

Now ME: Yeah, that about says it all Mike. These folks wanted the job, but have no clue on how to do it. Hey folks, reach out to someone across the aisle and figure out how to get things done. But you'll never get it. Most of Michigan Repubs get elected on glitz and not credentials.

I hope you all vote NO on this ridiculous Proposal. Say NO. Make these elected idiots figure out how to actually do the job they wanted so badly they ran to get.