Blowing the Liars Out of the Water: Granholm, Shifty Michigan Republicans, and the Battle Over the Taxes.

On Tuesday Nov. 15th, a letter to the editor from Jerry Kooiman and Bill Huizenga appeared on the "featured letter" spot- the top spot on the Opinion page of the Grand Rapids Press. For whatever reason, this letter does not appear on the web at MLive- all the rest do. It was titled "Waiting for Granholm on economy bill".

Maybe the Press just wants me to practice my typing, I don't know. I almost blew the whole thing off, but something didn't sit right- and I woke up thinking about it this morning.

It's the timeline. Kooiman and Huizenga play fast and loose with the way the events went down. They also totally ignore the sticking point, the SBT tax.

So, here we go- excerpts from the letter.

Recently the Press wrote an editorial on the current status of our efforts in Lansing to rejuvenate Michigan's economy. ("Back to the jobs bill" Oct 30th)

Since that time, Speaker Craig DeRoche along with Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema and the Governor, struck a new deal that was a compromise between the previous plans.

At this point the letter goes on the describe the tax cuts, tobacco money, blah, blah, blah. OK, fair enough.

But, it's not relevant to the issue of "who agreed to what when". Here's the problem, Jer. Watch the dates.

On Nov. 10th The Senate concurred with the House vote to pass the plan on to the Governor for her to sign into law. She has stated publicly that the plan has somehow changed since she presented it alongside Sen. Sikkema and Speaker DeRoche.

Yes. The plan did change, and yet here you infer that it was the same plan that she agreed to.

The agreement was announced Nov. 4th.

A quote from that announcement. "The ink isn't dry, but this is our first step- a great, bipartisan step on the path to a bright economic future for Michigan."

Here is where Jennifer might have screwed up- she trusted you guys on your word. You'd think that she would know better, but after all, there was Sikkema and DeRoche standing right there with her on the 4th, announcing praise for the deal and patting themselves on the back.

What happened between Nov. 4th and the 10th?

An article on the 4th from the AP about the announcement foreshadowed what was to come the following week.

LANSING, Mich. (AP)State leaders announced an economic recovery plan Friday that's heavily tilted toward helping manufacturers with lower taxes and more incentives for moving jobs to Michigan.

The plan, unveiled by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Republican legislative leaders, won't cut the state's single business tax until 2009. Even without that, it's expected to save businesses $97 million in 2006 and $175 million in 2007, said GOP Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema.

Another part of the plan will gradually change how the single business tax is figured so it is based solely on sales and leaves personnel and property out of the equation. That change could encourage businesses to move more jobs to Michigan, since they won't get socked with more taxes if they do, state Treasurer Jay Rising said.

"It's important that the House and the Senate has accepted our premise that manufacturing in Michigan pays most of the (tax) burden in Michigan" and needed the most relief, he said. Eighty percent of the immediate tax relief will go to manufacturers, while 75 percent of the relief from the single business tax cut will go to non-manufacturers.

Here Sikkema makes his first appearance, and so does the SBT. In fact, it's very prominent in the story. Next up, DeRoche.

Republican House Speaker Craig DeRoche said some budget cuts also might be needed, but added the budget will have to be sliced even more if factories start closing because businesses don't get tax relief.

He also said the new agreement does not mean the end of tax reform discussions in Michigan.

"This doesn't give any politician a hall pass to take the next year off from worrying about the struggle that we're having in Michigan's economy," he said. "We got this far today and that is great, but we need to get all the way."

The speaker said legislation reflecting the new agreement will move through the House and Senate and be signed by the governor next week.

Alright, DeRoche is on board, but with a caveat. Again, fair enough.

Towards the end of the article, storm clouds loom.

Some conservative Republican House members were unhappy with the plan because they don't think it goes far enough to help the economy. They may try to change the plan as it goes through the Legislature next week.

"We're not going to sit down and accept a plan that will do next nothing to create jobs. The 15 percent personal property tax credit is nothing better than a tiny start," said Rep. Leon Drolet of Macomb County's Clinton Township. "I call on Sikkema and Granholm to get back to the table to make something meaningful out of this. It will have trouble in the House getting out the way it is."

It's unlikely that Granholm or GOP legislative leaders are going to allow anything to upset their carefully crafted agreement that took months of negotiating. Although all had to make compromises, they were unanimous in wanting to do something to boost Michigan's economy.

"We needed an agreement so there was some certainty for job providers and we could start getting Michigan back to work. The worse possible scenario was gridlock," Sikkema said in a statement.

Keep in mind that was the 4th of Nov. The plan detailed the SBT, or how else would the reporter know about it, hmmmmmm? Did she just pull that information out of thin air?

No.

The plan changed between the announcement and the actual passage of the legislation. But Kooiman and Huizenga plow ahead in their letter, blaming the Governor for trying to shift the deal.

The House and Senate approval of the plan clearly demonstrates that the Republican leaders are in accord and and that it is Gov. Granholm who is attempting to shift the terms of the deal.

We stand united in imploring the Governor to follow through on her word.

Right. You guys go back on your "word", and expect the Governor to just accept it. Furthermore, you imply that she is the one being devious and somehow hurting Michigan. For what reason would she do this?

You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, but you won't be.

As a matter of fact, I'm starting to believe that DeVos did pull some strings on the whole play. The more you guys whine, the more I think something did go down here.

Why won't you just put the SBT issue into writing so she can pass it? If it's that simple, and we can "work on it later", as you all claim, why not just write it up now?

She is asking for one thing only (as far as I know)- protection on $2 billion dollars in revenue, a burden that will shift off of business onto the backs of individual Michigan taxpayers unless it is addressed.

Unless that was the plan all along. Make the poor and middle class pay more.

Sounds familiar. It's the unstated Republican platform.