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By RightMichigan.com Posted in Barack Hussein Obama | Breaking News | John McCain | Michigan | tax hike | taxes — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

And you thought the Democrats in Lansing were done raising your taxes.  Silly you.  They're may have promised that they were done for this term in office but just like the Governor's promise in 2006 not to raise the sales tax on services, the promise now looks like it was more hot air than anything else.

Let's jump in the way-back machine and revisit December 2007.  Two-plus months after Jennifer Granholm and her cronies in the House and Senate Democrat caucuses (plus Valde Garcia and Ron Jelinek) decided it'd be a smart idea to take $2.4 billion out of a struggling job market suffering under the weight of a single-state recession all of the language and verbiage and promises out of Lansing were that the tax hikes were over.

But they weren't.  A measure moved through the legislature allowing individual counties to impose a tax hike on cell phone usage.  Effectively the Dems decided that they'd let your County seat grab X million dollars in extra revenue sharing cash without having to go through the typical Lansing appropriations process.  Now we're into a new year and the blood sucking has resumed.  First up, no surprise, is Wayne County.

According to the Ivory Tower, cell phone users are about to see a 176% tax hike thanks to the Wayne County Commission as empowered by Lansing Democrats.

Wireless phone users have been paying a 29-cent monthly surcharge to help pay for 911 services, while landline phone users pay an 80-cent fee.

The commission voted 12-3 to make everyone pay a 75-cent monthly surcharge. The Michigan Public Service Commission still has to approve the change. If it does, the increase would take effect in June.

The money from the surcharge -- expected to be about $16 million -- is to defray the cost of 911 services in Wayne County, estimated at up to $46 million a year. The county's communities share in the remainder of the system's costs.

In other words, they're going to use the cash to pay for services they should be providing anyways.  A taxpayer wouldn't be out of line asking, "what do our regular taxes pay for anyways?"  Something tells me there might be $16 million worth of waste and corruption revolving around the Wayne County Commission alone!  

Now I'd entertain the argument that the most liberal county in America reaps what they sow and don't have the right to bellyache about a tax hike.  Surround yourself with bees and you're going to get stung.  But Wayne County is just the tip of the iceberg.  The Detroit News reports that there's likely going to be $26 million in new taxes across fifty-five different counties.  

That's most of them, by the way.  We've only got eighty-three counties total.

Thanks to a bill passed in December, counties for the first time can assess 911 surcharges on cell phones as well as land lines starting July 1. The legislation was sold as a more equitable way to spread the cost of emergency services given the increasing use of cell phones and other devices. It was expected that in many cases, the new assessment on cell phones would be offset by a drop in charges on land lines.

But that's not the case in 55 counties, which expect a revenue increase as a result of the new law, the telecommunications group's analysis shows. Counties that plan to assess the surcharge had to submit proposals to the Michigan Public Service Commission by Feb. 15. The commission has until March 17 to approve or reject the increases. No action means the surcharges are approved.

"These are tax increases on the backs of phone customers that violate the intent of the law," said Scott Stevenson, president of the Telecommunications Association of Michigan. "There wasn't supposed to be a tax increase.

Agree and disagree, Scott.  I don't think anyone could make the argument that the spirit of the law was anything but an excuse to allow other people to raise taxes so they'd bellyache less about a lack of revenue sharing increases in the next budget.  I mean, lets get real.  This is the same Lansing establishment that continues, year after year, to shatter all-time records for budget size and then approved the biggest tax hike in the history of the State of Michigan.  You want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assert that they weren't trying to raise taxes again?  

Yikes.  Wake up, man.  Wake up.  If you can't take a step back and take an honest look at things then you might as well not bother.  Nobody likes a Dem zombie.  In fact, I think I prefer real zombies.  At least all they want is to eat.  And they've got a good excuse... only minimal brain function, though I suppose I'm on thin ice with that one and there are folks who'd argue the same thing about Democrats.  

Oh, and by the way... the Republican front-runner for the Presidency of the United States of America was in Michigan yesterday!  The AP reports:

The candidate then went to Troy, where he met with General Motors Corp. Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson, Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Chrysler LLC Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Nardelli. Before the tour he met with Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas, and Joe Hinrichs, Ford group vice president of global manufacturing.

The Detroit Three executives worked hard to impress on McCain the industry's economic importance and to highlight the push they're making toward building more fuel-efficient cars and ones that don't use gasoline, including electric cars.

"It's really to make a point that we can be a solution to some of the nation's priorities, particularly with energy," GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

Still not a visit or a peep from the Dem front runner unless his surrogates are trying to overturn our elections or devise ways to keep our delegates out of the national convention.  But who can blame him.  It's hard work reading old movie scripts to find speeches he can steal.  

Memo to Barack:  Actually coming to Michigan and listening to what we have to say would represent CHANGE on your part.  There.  Does that make it more palatable?