Posted on 01/07/2015 12:11:56 PM PST by MichCapCon
When Republicans swept control of the Michigan House, Senate and Governor's office in a November 2010 electoral "trifecta," the national media took notice.
In early 2011, the New York Times wrote a story titled: “Michigan Governor Proposes Budget Cuts and Lower Taxes.”
However, in four years of Republican governance under Gov. Rick Snyder with GOP majorities in both the House and Senate, state spending from state taxes and fees has increased by $2.7 billion. The overall budget (including federal dollars) has spiked by $4.7 billion.
In the first budget enacted under GOP control in 2011-12, state spending from state sources rose $1.1 billion from former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s last budget, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. Nevertheless, total spending fell about $500 million due to the loss of $2.2 billion in federal "stimulus" funds.
In that 2011-12 budget, state spending (no federal dollars) stood at $27.3 billion; it has increased to $30.0 billion in the current 2014-15 budget. Total spending (including federal money) has increased from $47.6 billion to $52.3 billion over that same span, which now includes four annual budgets.
Many grass roots activists are unhappy.
“We worked ourselves to death at our own personal expense to get them to the position where they can stop this,” said Sheri La Fave-Wiggins, a member of the Onaway Tea Party. “And what did they do? They just continued on business as usual. … We did not elect them to continue on the Democratic path to spending us into oblivion. We elected them to stop the madness. I am so disappointed.”
According to James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the economy is a larger driver of spending increases than changes in tax policy.
Overall, Michigan residents are earning more and are buying more things so the sales and use and income taxes are increasing, giving those Republican-controlled appropriations committees more wealth to distribute, Hohman said.
“This shows that Lansing has more money to spend than ever before,” Hohman said.
The GOP-controlled legislature wants to spend even more. Politicians in Lansing recently passed a proposal that would hike Michigan's sales tax to spend more on roads, education, and the low-income. The ballot proposal goes before voters on May 5, 2015.
despite?
lol
just yankees being yankees!
Yes, because of. It’s more accurate.
“This shows that Lansing has more money to spend than ever before,” Hohman said.”
I think I see the problem.
Is it possible that tax revenue has increased due to job growth and tax spending up due to 0bamacare?
bump
Not a dime’s worth of difference.
Oh right, the Bush years!
There is actually some good news in that.
Its good that there is more money but bad that they think it must be spent. Pretty much standard for government anywhere.
Looks like another uniparty success story to me. Two factions, one uniparty, same script.
Hmmm... maybe Michigan has too many Republicans and not enough Conservatives.
Actually what we have is Michigan Capitol Confidential. I don’t see any other similar publications from other states being posted at FR every day.
Which is why the GOP is dead.
Why have almost total slime when one can go for the complete slime package effortlessly provided by dim-bulb-crats?
“Not a dime’s worth of difference.”
That is completely false!!!
There is about a billion dollars in this case.
We need to flush the parasites that rely on government to succeed and give the tax money back to the rightful earners. Be they rich middle income or poor.
The state senator in my district ran a dirty campaign were he criticized his opponent for doing exactly what he was doing. Than god we have tern limits in Michigan is all I have to say about this crap.
where does crony capitalism come from? It comes from Democrats buying business off just like it buys public employees and minorities and everyone else they can. That puts the GOP in the position of losing its biggest block or trying to one up the bloodsuckers.
Actually the problem is America has sent far, far too many jobs to China and other countries.
What we need, is to stop buying stuff imported.
Bring back American manufacturing. Big time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.