the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 8, 2007
After a long drawn out drama about a threatened government shutdown, the Michigan legislature and Governor Jennifer Granholm went ahead and did what they intended to do all along.
They increased the state income tax from 3.9% to 4.35%. They expanded the 6% sales tax to cover more services such as landscaping and janitorial services. Then they agreed in principle to cut social programs, public services and school funding by 440 million dollars. And they declared that state workers–whose contract is being negotiated right now–will have to take cuts.
They did this all under the guise that the state had a “budget crisis.” They should know–they created it!
They were the ones who repealed the state’s Single Business Tax, just over a year ago. At the time, they did not replace it with anything. After a nearly year-long debate about what to put in its place, they passed a new business tax. The new tax included all the same tax breaks to the corporations as the old one had–but it added 600 million dollars in new immediate tax cuts to businesses, as well as billions more over the years.
It’s obvious, the politicians were too embarrassed to give business a break while raising our taxes, so they played out the “budget crisis” and the threat of a state shutdown for nearly a year.