If your eyes tend to glaze over when reading and making sense of ballot proposals, chances are you’re not alone.
On May 5, Michigan voters will be asked to vote on an important tax increase, which is supposed to help finance badly needed repairs to Michigan roads. To help make sense of what specifically voters are being asked to approve, former state representative Tom McMillin and chairman of Concerned Taxpayers of Michigan, a grassroots citizens’ organization, has put together the following in-depth description of the proposal language:
The complete May 5 tax hike proposal
Legislators love 40,000 word bills, but will the voters support something too long to read or understand? Will we pass it to find out what’s in it?
Newspapers and other groups struggle to describe what exactly the May 5 Michigan ballot proposal actually does.
Most groups correctly note that it raises the states sales tax 17%, from 6% to 7%.
Too often, reports say it repeals current gas taxes, while failing to note that it replaces them with higher gas taxes.
And it was recently exposed that an increase on vehicle registration taxes buried in the legislation will cost Michigan taxpayers an additional $100 million in federal taxes a year.
But the proposal does far more than all of this. The truth is, unless you have studied the proposal, you do not know what is in it!
That’s because the proposal not only amends the Michigan Constitution, it activates ten additional laws, signed by the governor, that were passed in the last day of the legislative session last year, each that end by saying something like “this act does not take effect unless House Joint Resolution UU of the 97th Legislature becomes a part of the state constitution of 1963 [having been adopted by the voters via the ballot proposal.]”
In other words, these ten additional laws go into effect if and only if the ballot proposal to amend the constitution is adopted.
Voters are essentially being asked to amend the Michigan Constitution and pass these ten laws.
Concerned Taxpayers of Michigan is proud to bring you, for the first time, the complete language to be enacted by the May 5 ballot proposal.
Now, are you ready to learn what the amendment and these ten laws do?
Good luck… There are more than 46,000 words of legalese – the length of a novel! – that affect everything from tax rates to when a county road commission can require a competitive bidding process, to what qualifies a child as “disadvantaged,” motor carrier record-keeping requirements, to… well, a lot more.
Here then, is the complete set of laws to be decided by the May 5 ballot question. If you can make sense of it all, consider running for office — you’re more qualified than most of them!
Proposal 1. To be decided by Michigan voters May 5, 2015.
Click here to read the proposal in its entirety.
About Sarah Hovis
Keep it simple! The estimated dollar amount needed for ROADS is $1.2 billion. The tax increase will raise an estimated $2 billion. Our legislators want to SPEND MORE MONEY.