Posted on 03/18/2004 6:21:13 AM PST by ClintonBeGone
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State House Speaker Rick Johnson said Wednesday he supports increasing the state cigarette tax by 81 cents instead of the 75 cents proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The Democratic governor proposed raising the tax on cigarettes from $1.25 to $2 per pack to help make up for lost federal dollars and encourage people to stop smoking.
Granholm's proposal would make Michigan's cigarette tax the nation's second-highest behind New Jersey's $2.05-per-pack tax.
Johnson, a Republican from LeRoy, said Michigan should have the highest tax on cigarettes in the country.
"Number 1!" he shouted from his desk toward reporters seated a short distance away on the floor of the House chamber.
Johnson said an 81-cent increase in the state cigarette tax would help prevent young people from starting to smoke.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd would say Wednesday only that the administration is looking forward to the Legislature approving a higher tax on cigarettes.
Raising cigarette taxes to help balance the state's bottom line isn't a new trick. Michigan raised its cigarette tax from 25 cents to 75 cents per pack in 1994 and from 75 cents to $1.25 per pack in 2002.
Johnson may have to go around House Commerce Committee Chairman Clark Bisbee, R-Jackson, to get the cigarette tax bill to the full House. Bisbee said this week he wouldn't allow his panel to send the bill to the full House.
"I am against the increase in sin taxes, as are the majority of Republicans on the committee," he said in a news release. "It is a financial nightmare for all businesses in the state, especially in our border counties."
Despite Bisbee's opposition, Johnson said he's committed to moving the bill to the House, where Republicans have a 63-46 majority and there is one vacancy.
"I'll do what I have to do to get the bill to the House floor," he said. "We'll look at that next week."
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, has not said whether the 75-cent cigarette tax hike would win the support of Senate Republicans who have a 22-16 majority in that chamber.
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The cigarette tax bill is House Bill 5632.
DeRossett is no Mike Rogers, but I think he might be the best in that pathetic primary.
Nah... This would work much better:
Put a $75 tax on all abortions and see the hypocrisy start to flow.
The dollar projections on the cigarette tax hike assumed a 15% decline in the number of taxed cigarettes purchased in Michigan. Whether that's sufficient to cover the actual decline in taxed cigarettes purchsed is unclear.
Sweeeeeet!
State House Speaker Rick Johnson = R I N O
If your climate is right. The founders had a tea party, maybe a few tobacco plants in each yard would send a message.
Please treat me like a child, oh Great GodGov, I deserve it.
Boy, Steve! I have never seen the likes of such a war on a LEGAL product. Have you? I think we are all seeing what is going on here. And it sure isn't about HEALTH and the KIDDIES!
Mears! I KNEW this would happen! When the lawmakers saw the taxes from cigarettes fell, they would gleefully say "Oh Look! Our smoking campaign is WORKING! People are QUITTING!" They are such dumb azzes, I tell you!
AIEEEEE!!!
No, please, no, don't buy into that artful agitprop!
Her Majesty has a plan, and she alluded to it early in her campaign, but then wised up and then shut about it.
Remember the early talk about "tweaking" the property tax reform?
Since she took office, she has been engaged in a one bitch war on education. This is not to be taken at face value. It is imperative that you put on your hegelian spectacles before viewing it!
Look at it like this: First, create a "problem" with "education". A money problem.
Squeeze "education" so hard that it hurts.
Then, keep squeezing.
Harder.
Then, squeeze some more.
Keep squeezing until all quarters are crying out for mercy.
Then, deliver the mercy.
The coup de grace will be delivered in the form of "'property tax reform' reform".
Remember when Michigan "reformed" its property tax by moving much of the education budget to the general fund (i.e., income tax), thus lowering property taxes?
Well, brace for impact. It'll be expanded back to property taxes, with no income tax relief.
The accurate term for this maneuver is a four-letter word beginning with the letter "F" -- a word I dare not speak during the Family Hour.
That, IMHO, is her plan.
You heard it here first.
Kiss your money goodbye.
It won't be the first time Michigan has used "education" for a handy dandy "tax football" either.
Remember the lottery? The promise was that the state should go with a lottery, because the revenue would go "to education". It was one of those "look, don't trust us, look, you don't have to trust our mere word for it, see? We put it in writing!" deals.
Yeah, they put it in writing, alright. Lottery money goes to education. Education will receive a windfall. Blah, blah, blah.
What they didn't put into writing, though, was the agenda.
Yup, you guessed it.
They took the same amount of money out of education -- from the general fund -- with the net result being that the lottery money was going into the general fund.
In other words, the precise reason people resisted a lottery was precisely what happened.
Money is fungible. And legislators and governors are [insert epithet of choice].
Gee, how sad, what a tragedy.
But, all the more reason to "tweak" the "property tax reform", eh?
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?
You're not nearly cyincal enough for life in the PRM, my friend. Not nearly cynical enough...
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