Bishop to Queen 9
Friends,
Tax – Hostage Crisis, Day 4. After a long, late weekend of intense, furious House inaction, the Senate convened today. And senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Hero?) has made his move: the Senate has passed a ‘continuation budget’ that would, for one month, spend money using the current year’s budget as the blueprint. But expected tax revenues wouldn’t cover this year’s budget, so copying this year’s budget would still leave a deficit. Basically, the remaining eleven months of the 2008 budget year that begins on October 1 would have to bear twelve months worth of cuts or tax hikes.
Now that the Senate passed the continuation budget, there is more pressure on the Democrat-lead House. Why? If the state government shuts down on October 1, it will be the House’s fault for not passing the continuation budget. This means more pressure on Dillon to get the 18% income tax through his chamber so that the House Dems can blame the Senate for not passing the tax hike and therefore, shutting down the government.
Bishop has made his move on the chess board. Dillon is on the clock.
Expect a long night of constant pressure and bribe offers by Granholm and Dillon to hunkered-down House Republicans – all of whom have so far refused to vote for the tax hike. Call and support them.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Taxpayer’s Alliance, along with Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis, Americans for Prosperity, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and others are bringing support (and applying pressure) on House Republicans to hold their opposition to the tax hike.
The media is doing an ok job of covering the MTA’s efforts to defeat this tax hike.
From Saturday’s Detroit News: “Macomb County Commissioner Leon Drolet, a former state lawmaker and head of the anti-tax Michigan Taxpayer Alliance, watched the proceedings from the gallery. His group is threatening to launch recall campaigns against lawmakers who vote for tax increases.
"We've got phone calls being made, did a big e-mail blast to 100,000 people urging them to contact their lawmakers to urge them to vote 'no' on taxes," said Drolet, who brought the pig, nicknamed "Mr. Perks," to Lansing.”
Also from Saturday’s Detroit News, “The late night session had the elements of a slumber party: Democrats set up cots and brought in food.
But there were none of the high spirits of the usual sleepover: Anti-tax forces parked a trailer with a half-ton Fiberglas pig in front of the Capitol to illustrate what they call a greedy and bloated government. And firefighters, fearing further cutbacks in the state revenue sharing program that pays their salaries in many communities, parked a fire truck in front of the anti-tax pig.”
Full story here: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709150369
From Saturday’s Detroit Free Press: “One of the most unpopular figures in Lansing on Friday was former state Rep. Leon Drolet, a Macomb County Republican who now heads the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and who was responsible for bringing a big pink pig and parking it outside the Capitol. Drolet’s group has flooded some lawmakers’ districts with antitax mail, phone calls and radio ads and has threatened to mount recall campaigns against politically vulnerable legislators who vote for an increase.
Drolet said the effort to head off a tax increase had gone better than he imagined six months ago, but that he would not be shocked if the House approved the income tax hike.”
Full story here: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770915001
On the lighter side, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernaro again attempted to block views of the MTA mascot pig, MR. Perks, by parking a fire truck in front of him. Mr. Perks beat the fire truck back again (the first attempt to block was on Friday), as the fire truck was again blocking the fire lane. For the photo of this little misuse of tax dollars, we have to link you to our very dear friends at MichiganLiberal.com: http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10002
Media is starting to pay more attention to what is going on. The Frank Beckmann Show on WJR 760am radio from 9:00 until 11:30am is doing the best job covering this spending crisis among the electronic media.
Sorry for the length of this update.
Leon Drolet
MI Taxpayers Alliance
www.mitaxpayers.org
Tax – Hostage Crisis, Day 4. After a long, late weekend of intense, furious House inaction, the Senate convened today. And senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Hero?) has made his move: the Senate has passed a ‘continuation budget’ that would, for one month, spend money using the current year’s budget as the blueprint. But expected tax revenues wouldn’t cover this year’s budget, so copying this year’s budget would still leave a deficit. Basically, the remaining eleven months of the 2008 budget year that begins on October 1 would have to bear twelve months worth of cuts or tax hikes.
Now that the Senate passed the continuation budget, there is more pressure on the Democrat-lead House. Why? If the state government shuts down on October 1, it will be the House’s fault for not passing the continuation budget. This means more pressure on Dillon to get the 18% income tax through his chamber so that the House Dems can blame the Senate for not passing the tax hike and therefore, shutting down the government.
Bishop has made his move on the chess board. Dillon is on the clock.
Expect a long night of constant pressure and bribe offers by Granholm and Dillon to hunkered-down House Republicans – all of whom have so far refused to vote for the tax hike. Call and support them.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Taxpayer’s Alliance, along with Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis, Americans for Prosperity, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and others are bringing support (and applying pressure) on House Republicans to hold their opposition to the tax hike.
The media is doing an ok job of covering the MTA’s efforts to defeat this tax hike.
From Saturday’s Detroit News: “Macomb County Commissioner Leon Drolet, a former state lawmaker and head of the anti-tax Michigan Taxpayer Alliance, watched the proceedings from the gallery. His group is threatening to launch recall campaigns against lawmakers who vote for tax increases.
"We've got phone calls being made, did a big e-mail blast to 100,000 people urging them to contact their lawmakers to urge them to vote 'no' on taxes," said Drolet, who brought the pig, nicknamed "Mr. Perks," to Lansing.”
Also from Saturday’s Detroit News, “The late night session had the elements of a slumber party: Democrats set up cots and brought in food.
But there were none of the high spirits of the usual sleepover: Anti-tax forces parked a trailer with a half-ton Fiberglas pig in front of the Capitol to illustrate what they call a greedy and bloated government. And firefighters, fearing further cutbacks in the state revenue sharing program that pays their salaries in many communities, parked a fire truck in front of the anti-tax pig.”
Full story here: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709150369
From Saturday’s Detroit Free Press: “One of the most unpopular figures in Lansing on Friday was former state Rep. Leon Drolet, a Macomb County Republican who now heads the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and who was responsible for bringing a big pink pig and parking it outside the Capitol. Drolet’s group has flooded some lawmakers’ districts with antitax mail, phone calls and radio ads and has threatened to mount recall campaigns against politically vulnerable legislators who vote for an increase.
Drolet said the effort to head off a tax increase had gone better than he imagined six months ago, but that he would not be shocked if the House approved the income tax hike.”
Full story here: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770915001
On the lighter side, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernaro again attempted to block views of the MTA mascot pig, MR. Perks, by parking a fire truck in front of him. Mr. Perks beat the fire truck back again (the first attempt to block was on Friday), as the fire truck was again blocking the fire lane. For the photo of this little misuse of tax dollars, we have to link you to our very dear friends at MichiganLiberal.com: http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10002
Media is starting to pay more attention to what is going on. The Frank Beckmann Show on WJR 760am radio from 9:00 until 11:30am is doing the best job covering this spending crisis among the electronic media.
Sorry for the length of this update.
Leon Drolet
MI Taxpayers Alliance
www.mitaxpayers.org
posted by Leon Drolet at
4:04 PM
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