How many times has DeVos used the excuse, "we don't have the information", or, "we need to look at other states" as a dodge for not revealing his plans?
Skubick calls him out on the SBT, but he has used this slippery denial on more than just this one issue. Anytime Dick doesn't want to answer a question, you get some variation of the same 'ol song and dance.
With money to spare you would think somebody in the DeVos camp could scrap together 50 cents to call the state treasurer.
Treasurer Bob Klein is standing by to take that call.
But the DeVos folks apparently don't want to talk with Klein because it may serve their own political agenda to keep him on hold until after the election.
So what's going on?
When the DeVos team issued its Turnaround Plan, reporters wanted to know how they would pay for the elimination of the Single Business Tax.
The essence of the response was, Golly gee whiz, we can't respond because the Granholm administration won't give us the tax revenue data we need to draft one.
At the time it seemed like a plausible excuse.
No, it didn't. This has been talked about for well over two years now, you can't tell me that the information isn't out there.
DeVos aides even salted that notion by reporting that the GOP House Speaker couldn't get his mud hooks on the data either despite his warm and fuzzy working relationship with the governor. Right.
DeVos media mouthpiece John Truscott hammered home the point again after the GOP legislature wiped out the unpopular SBT on August 8th. He told an unsuspecting Detroit newspaper that the DeVos folks couldn't play the SBT replacement game because they didn't have the details from the state.
Once again, DeVos isn't telling the truth. Anyone surprised?
"I have not been sitting on it. They never asked," explains Mr. Klein for the first time.
Would you give it to them, if they did ask?
"I would," he matter-of-factly asserts.
In fact, Klein fired off a 55-page memo to the aforementioned Speaker Craig DeRoche with all the tax data one would ever need to draft a replacement for the SBT. And on top of that, while DeVos and company were crying crocodile tears over their inability to figure out their tax policies, yet another GOP source had the numbers since last June!
And the ultimate truth-
From this corner it looks like they are not excited about doing that. If they got the data, there would be no more excuse for not drafting an SBT replacement program. Such a plan might result in somebody paying more taxes and those folks could turnaround and vote against DeVos for doing that.
And another ultimate truth- someone is going to end up paying more. If the Republicans have their way, it will be you.
But before the Granholm gang reaches for some quotes from this column to attack their opponent, they, too, should look in the mirror.
They've had the tax data from the get-go. They used it a year ago to draft their first plan to overhaul the state's business tax. And even though the GOP legislature rejected it, the governor continues to boast that she has a plan and she's sticking with it because she doesn't want to hack anyone off either.
She did hack someone off, that being DeRoche and his buddies in Big Insurance, and probably a few others, too, but I didn't see any compromise plan put forth from the Republicans. This probably could have been settled with a little give and take, but remember- someone needed the campaign issue.
And now look at all the time we have wasted, and all the time DeVos continues to waste with his stall tactics. Gee, for someone who runs around saying, "Git it done", he is not in any hurry to actually get anything done.
Not that he will tell you about anyway. That will come after. When it's too late to change your mind.