Another day, another load of mixed signals to job makers
By RightMichigan.com Posted in Breaking News | Carl Levin | jennifer granholm | Michigan | senate | Stimulus | tax break | tax hike | tax refund — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
Discussion ramps up this week in Washington, D.C. and Lansing, Michigan over various budget and stimulus plans aimed at getting various economies out of various stages of recession. The national economy hasn't entered a recession just yet but fears are running high and the Republicans and Democrats are all trying to hurdle one another on the road to one plan or another. Here in Michigan we've been in a single-state recession for the last six years or so and the Governor is racing back to that same old bag of tricks that have failed to correct the ship her first five years in office.
While the Democrats in Lansing slap Michigan families across the mouth with $2.4 billion in new taxes last year alone, and a state budget that has ballooned $4.3 billion (with a B) since Jennifer Granholm took office, Congress is actually making a little bit more sense. And when Congress makes more sense than, well, almost anything, you know you're looking at a sad situation.
That said, I should probably try to be a little more magnanimous. On the up-side, here in Michigan, the Governor tacitly admitted during last week's State of the State speech that tax breaks, credits and incentives work. She's hoping to mortgage our grandkids futures (literally) to generate a few extra bucks that she can use to off-set decreased "revenue" from job-luring operations. Not sure why she's only now coming to the conclusion that businesses are more likely to grow if they are less inhibited by the government, not more, but with that woman I suppose we should take what we can get.
Especially when you hold it up against the rest of her "plan." Billions in new spending, hundreds of millions in loans future generations will have to repay, the government picking winners and losers in the marketplace, twenty-four new government programs or spending explosions, meddling with the free market, an abject refusal to actually reign in any portion of government... these aren't good things. But hey, even if you're hitting .125 that means one of the last eight trips to the plate you managed an infield single. I mean, that's something, right? And Congressional Democrats are in the same boat.
The feds are hoping to provide tax "rebates" in the form of checks written to taxpayers and a lot of non-taxpayers (you can go ahead and call that one a line drive single, right up the middle). Taking money that they shouldn't have had in the first place, sending it to regular every-day Americans and asking them to spend it on something nice to boost the economy. That's the (largely) good news. The bad news is that the Senate Democrats are stepping even further away from sound economics this week by attempting to extend unemployment benefits a full 50%, incentivizing folks not to work. See? Nobody's perfect. Just when they get on base they go and try to get themselves picked off first. The Associated Press reports:
People without jobs in states where the unemployment rate has averaged 6.5 percent or more for three months could qualify for an additional 13 weeks of benefits, or 52 weeks altogether. Only Michigan would qualify for the extra 13-week extended benefits now; more states could join it if the job market continues to worsen.
The plan before the 100-member Senate will need 60 votes to prevail. It would cost $14 billion and extend unemployment payments for 13 weeks nationwide to people whose 26 weeks of regular benefits have run out.
Nice to know they're thinking about us, isn't it? We're talking now about paying people for an entire year to sit at home and do nothing... errr... look for a job? Yowzas! To misquote Don King, "only in Michigan!" Doesn't exactly encourage folks to join the workforce, does it now? Then again, there are probably a few folks in the retail sector who think it sounds pretty good. The Detroit News reports that Value City is going to be shuttering a couple dozen stores nationwide and five of them are right here in Michigan. For the math majors out there, Michigan represents a full one-sixth of their nationwide closing plan.
In Livonia, patrons said closing the Value City would likely spell the end of the Livonia Mall, which has slowly declined since the loss of anchor tenant Crowleys, which went out of business in the late 1990s. Mervyn's also closed its Livonia location, and the chain eventually left the Michigan market.
Stores in Roseville, Wyoming, Warren, Livonia and Saginaw are among 30 nationwide scheduled to close. The Westland, Taylor, Flint and Lansing stores will remain open, VCHI spokeswoman Robin Hepler said. She didn't know how many employees would be affected by the Michigan store closures, but said Value City has 8,600 employees nationwide...
Have no fear. Each of the displaced workers will get a tax rebate check come June or July, a full year's unemployment and then come March of 2009 they might be able to go to work in the movie industry. The Lansing State Journal reports this morning on the efforts in Lansing to make Michigan the biggest and the best in film production outside of Hollywood.
Michigan offers a tax rebate of up to 20 percent to production companies that shoot movies, TV shows and commercials in the state. But that no longer has the bling it once did, film industry insiders say.
"Twenty percent isn't going to do it. You really need to have a headline," said Mike Binder, a Detroit native who wrote and directed "The Upside of Anger," a 2005 film starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. Although the plot was set in a Detroit suburb, the movie was filmed in London.
Now, state lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm are looking at increasing the size of the rebates and adding other incentives to leapfrog Michigan ahead of states such as Louisiana, New Mexico and Connecticut.
Apparently Binder KNOWS that 20% won't do it. Didn't do it for him. He wants 40%, by the way. But here we are again right where we started. The State wants to lure businesses and create jobs and what do you know, it looks like it's going to take lower taxes to do it. After last year's budget disaster I thought the only way to lure jobs was to grow spending by over a billion dollars and to increase the tax burden by two point four billion. Now they're telling me that the opposite is true? That we need fewer taxes? Dramatically fewer?
And then they wonder why Michigan is the first State on the list when chains are closing locations and why no one else wants to put down a stake to start a business. The only consistency job makers ever see under this "leadership" is the willingness to garner headlines until it threatens the left's ability to grow government. That's a poisonous message to send to the rest of the world. But at least we'll get a full year's unemployment.