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Some of the highlights are:
To sum up the article:
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Some will never happen, others are intriguing. Some could even get enacted.
The ones that should get careful consideration:
- Replace State Police road patrols with county sheriff patrols. (this is actually a good idea)
- Release more prisoners. (again, a good idea especially for offenders involved in victimless crimes)
- Consolidate school districts and local governments. (Good idea #2)
- House Speaker Andy Dillon's proposal for a single health-insurance pool (Best idea to come out of the legislature in years, seriously.)
A lot of state troopers could be hired in as county troopers in scenario #1. Releasing prisoners is a no brainier, Michigan has way too many prisoners and too few resources to keep them contained. Lots of school districts cold be consolidated into larger ones, and many inner ring suburban governments especially should be looking at consolidation with the "mother city".
To those that are unlikely:
- Cappping superintendent pay (never going to happen, and isn't needed)
- Drop the state's business tax and its surcharge in favor of a higher sales tax (Partisan hail mary that shouldn't see the light of day)
- Reduce state employee ranks; cut their pay and benefits (one more partisan long shot, although this could be accomplished by consolidation, and health insurance restructuring)
- A sales tax on services and entertainment. (More partisan b.s that will only lead to stalemates in the legislature)
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If the Michigan GOP is adamant about replacing the income tax with a sales tax, they'll lose the senate too. Its not as popular as they think, and it's too regressive to catch traction in a state that has so many economic problems. If we had more tourism it might make some sense, but Michigan tourism is not strong enough to justify only having a sales tax.
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Some personal ideas:
On taxes:
- Kill the state sales tax in favor of county/regional based sales taxes (controversial, but you'll see why I like it in a moment)
- Eliminate revenue sharing, which is being replaced by county sales taxes
- Adopt a progressive state income tax
- Eliminate municipal income taxes
- Eliminate business taxes for companies smaller then 25 employees, or less then 250K in profit.
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Not only does this weed out the poorly performing counties, but it gives much more power to the counties / region. It also eliminates municipal income taxes, and charges the counties to distribute sales taxes to the municipalities. I believe that this plan also fosters much needed government consolidation. It could also lead to county cooperation to make sure no one county has a higher tax then the other, it also puts more accountability on county and city officials who sometimes have seats for life since they really don't have many duties, and as long as they are affiliated with a party the people like will stay in power as long as they please.
The business tax proposal I recommend might be exploited by companies just under 25 employees who might stay under 25 to avoid taxes, but thats why I include the revenue plan.
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On Government restructuring:
Eliminate township governments.
Townships have really turned into nothing more then HOAs who collect property taxes. Get rid of them, and put property tax law into the hands of the county, this would reduce property taxes for most, and raise it for a few.
Hold a constitutional convention
To get many of these reforms passed, one is going to have to be held anyway. Lets get rid of many of the useless proposals put in by the public like Proposal 04-02, and others that cause impediments to real reform.
Consolidate consolidate consolidate.
Merge merge merge the local governments. That should be a rallying cry.
Kill term limits
It's insane whats happened to the state government over the past 8 years. Term Limits have effectively turned the legislature (the senate especially) into a JOKE. Kill term limits, and allow law makers to gain experience. It also fosters fewer good state wide candidates as a whole, as none of them can get experience in government, and dilutes the quality pool (again as evidenced mostly in the senate)
Reduce new highway construction by 25% over 5 yrs
Reducing highway construction allows funds to be redistributed elsewhere* (see below)
New economically stimulating programs:
Create a state funded entrepreneur benefit program.
If major federal health care reform isn't passed, this is an excellent alternative. Like an SCHIP program, it would help self employed entrepreneurs to get major medical coverage (doctor visits, and the like wouldn't be covered) from the state. This creates a program where self sufficient plumbers, tradesmen, consultants, etc have coverage, and can do their job without the fear of losing their business because of an on the job injury.
Combined with the elimination of taxes on the super small companies this could foster an entrepreneurial explosion in the state. While most will fail a few will succeed, and hopefully stay within the state.
* Reallocate the highway savings to mass transit
This is a no-brainer. Increasing transportation options will only help Michigan.
Discuss.
Edited by snoogit, 14 September 2009 - 09:28 AM.
