There’s no escaping the clutching tentacles of government.
Both the federal and state government assert their “right” to the fruits of your labor via income taxes.
Unless you’re homeless, you pay for the “privilege” to live on land, directly or indirectly, as property tax.
And of course, just about every purchase you make in Michigan is taxed, often in more ways than one.
The language in the May 5th ballot proposal reinforces that you are a subject, not a citizen, with numerous references to your being required to pay taxes for the “privilege” of engaging in business.
Yes, the act of exchanging one commodity for another – without which civilization could not exist – is a “privilege” in the warped worldview of our lawmakers.
According to the Tax Foundation, the average Michigan resident must work from New Year’s Day through April 17 every year, just to pay all the federal, state, and local taxes levied on them.
January 1 through April 17. Nearly a third of your productive life.
And even that is only part of the picture. There are also the unseen effects of taxation: that when we all have less money to spend, we have less wealth to create through exchange. We have less disposable income.
And guess what? Even that is not enough for the political class.
Proposal 1 would take an additional $200 from every man, woman, and child in Michigan, every year.
That’s $800 per year for a family of four.
Two billion dollars a year, for more government spending. Supposedly, mostly for road maintenance, although that only testifies that too much money was spent elsewhere in the first place.
And if Proposal 1 is passed on May 5, you can bet it won’t be long before more tax increases are demanded.
Because no amount is ever enough money for the government. Ever.
Folks, we are being outspent by the Michigan lobbyist establishment, of that there is no question.
Yet on a shoestring budget, we’ve been able to effectively steer public discourse our way, and polls indicate public opinion is moving in our direction, too.
But public opinion will not win the election. It will take grassroots mobilization, in a big way.
This April 15, when federal tax returns are due and most Americans feel the worst bite of taxation, we are calling for a day of action and of contribution to help us win this election.
Because that’s the only way we can win this fight.
Perhaps you would pledge $200 – the average amount of new taxes each person in Michigan will pay every year if Proposal 1 passes.
Or if only half of that, $100, is asking a lot of you, we understand. Either way, every dollar will be spent as wisely as possible, mobilizing the most likely voters whose votes are in play on May 5.
And of course, any level of support is deeply appreciated.
Concerned Taxpayers of Michigan has been fighting at the forefront of the effort against Proposal 1 since the beginning of the year.
We have worked in Lansing to get the best ballot language possible that exposes the myriad aspects of the proposal and got much better language than we might have otherwise.
We have called upon the legislature to be responsible and introduce legislation to remove roads from the “hostage negotiations” and ensure they are funded one way or the other, and seen bills introduced in the state House to do so.
We have exposed the hypocrisy of the heavy-handed scare tactics employed by the lobbyists pushing for these tax increases.
We have given volunteers the lists of highest-priority voters to reach out and defeat Proposal 1 at their own voting precincts.
And, we have prominently debated the “yes” side: in person and across the media.
But we need your support to prevail in the last weeks of this effort.
If you can, please click here and pledge your support on April 15.
We’re doing all we can, right now, but we cannot win the understanding and vote of hundreds of thousands of voters without necessary resources.
And for those of you who have made the effort to prevail locally, thank you for all you do. We encourage you to make April 15 a Day of Action.
Get together and contact voters. Knock on doors, or make phone calls.
There are less than five weeks remaining before the May 5 election.
We’ll do all that we can, and we appreciate all your support in this effort.
Together, we can succeed on May 5 and then perhaps finally work to bring Michigan back on the path to prosperity without raising taxes.
Perhaps, if we dare to dream, even reducing them one day.
Thanks for all you do for prosperity in Michigan,
Rep. Tom McMillin
P.S. This April 15, it’s time for the taxpayers to strike back.
About Sarah Hovis