Lady Hawke's Page

Hi Betty , Pres. Obama loved having our state's Gov. Jennifer Granholm around him prior to his inauguration. Why his positive impulse over someone whose ideas of leadership and fiscal discipline have been found lacking? (Maybe it's her artful rhetoric?) For too long we Michiganders have been victims of our legislators' big-spending policies made possible by an income tax code rife with poltical favor-making - enhancing their own power, but making our families and businesses poorer. Most recently, under the guise of fixing Michigan's tax system, the legislature enacted the Michigan Business Tax. Trouble is, the MBT still remains a gross receipts tax, levying a tax even if a business isn't profitable - which was the problem with the Single Business Tax it was designed to replace. The MBT continues to penalize entrepreneurship and productivity, and Michigan is rapidly losing businesses, jobs, and families - daily !

When I learned about the Michigan FairTax plan, I decided to quit feeling like a victim, and decided to do something to help change Michigan's economic environment - and I'd like to invite you to join us! Thousands of us are working hard to get the word out about a fairer, progressive consumption tax - the Michigan FairTax. Our goal is to SCRAP the Michigan income tax because the system is broken. In order to give Michigan voters the power to choose, we are laying the groundwork for a ballot drive to get the Michigan FairTax on the 2010 general election ballot.

The Michigan FairTax will both simplify, and stimulate, Michigan's business / jobs climate in a dramatic and ongoing manner. It will replace the income tax and current sales tax, with a consumption tax (sales tax at point of retail sale) while un-taxing all purchases up to poverty level - this means no more withholding of state tax from Michigan wage-earners' paychecks.

What's more, every Michigan resident-family will receive a monthly "prebate" check, in amount based on family size (.0975 x $ [ poverty level per family size] ). This will ensure that NO Michigan family will EVEN BEGIN paying the MI FairTax on goods / services unless, or until, they exceed poverty-level spending. Thus, the MI FairTax rate would effectively be 0% on all monthly family spending up to the monthly poverty level, thereafter it would be 9.75%. A reasonable average effective rate, inferred, would be about 5.5% (that's without putting anything away!) Monies placed into savings are not available to spend, and therefore would result in a further effective tax rate reduction.

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~ Become a part of this citizen-based movement! ~

(We seldom email state-wide, generally notifying members nearby to events or initiatives.)

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Under a FairTax system, points of collection will be dramatically reduced (from millions of individuals to considerably fewer retailers, many of whom are already collecting sales tax). With a Michigan FairTax, income tax-- returns, audits, interest, and penalites vanish.

Currently, goods / services prices and fees carry income / payroll tax compliance costs - "a hidden tax," ultimately paid by us. The FairTax will externalize these costs, making them visible. Michigan exporters will then be able to jettison the FairTax, prior to shipment, making Michigan products more competitive, globally. The MI FairTax is NOT applied to non-retail, business-to-business purchases, as this inseparably embeds taxation costs in prices of finished goods and services.

This plan is revenue neutral, as it-- ends "first fruit" confiscation of wages, stops the practice of hiding consumer taxes in retail prices, makes the true cost of gov't visible, and properly pays for gov't as we meet personal and family needs. Take action! - JOIN OUR TAX REFORM ARMY to bring Michigan back!

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Made popular by the federal FairTax bill (H.R. 25, which was either co-sponsored or otherwise endorsed by several 2008 presidential candidates), this approach to taxation reaches across the political spectrum

Mike Gravel (D) - Mike Huckabee (R) - Ron Paul (Libertarian R)

Why the FairTax idea is right for America's working families.

Dr. Laurence Kotlikoff believes that it will take the FairTax to reverse unfunded U.S. gov't obligations, about $53 $88 trillion and counting !!