On April 2, 2009 the Detroit News headline exclaimed,
"LEAVING MICHIGAN BEHIND':

Eight-year population exodus staggers state."

Reporters French and Wilkinson ferreted out some shocking facts, "Since 2001, migration has cost Michigan 465,000 people, the equivalent of the combined populations of Grand Rapids, Warren and Sterling Heights-- the state's second-,third-, and fourth-largest cities." A local demographer understood, "These numbers -- my God, it's like a perfect storm-- the education, the income, the young people, everything is going in the wrong direction.

The "sea change" - ignored by Michigan's lawmakers! Michigan's perfect storm has been in the making for years. Throughout those years, Michigan's legislators continually chose to shift the existing tax burden (business as usual), rather than make hard decisions about budget-cutting. They passed the Michigan Business Tax, selling it to the gullible public as a "tax on business." This strategy preserved a tax code for them to play with, in order that they could continue to "cut deals" for businesses they want to be here (like that media darling, the movie industry) - despite the fact that this practice increases the tax burden on existing taxpayers.

When they can, businesses cope with the MBT by passing their costs on to you and me in higher prices. When they can't, they move out of the state, or go out of business. The rate at which Michigan businesses are not coping is alarming. That same Detroit News article reveals the result of years of Lansing's avoidance to make the hard budget decisions, "The state loses a family every 12 minutes, and the families who are leaving -- young, well-educated, high-income earners -- are the people the state desperately needs to rebuild."

WHO will navigate Michigan to safe, prosperous waters?
Our current political leadership in Lansing has an unyielding attitude when it comes to tax simplification, and making Michigan more attractive to business. With the help of legislative leaders, Gov. Granholm intends to place a proposal on the November 2010 ballot to make the Michigan income tax more progressive, using the same deceptive (and divisive) rhetoric of "soak the rich," and "tax business."

Despite failed initiatives to engineer the economy, Michigan's current political leadership continues to place their faith in their own ability to pick winners and losers. They maintain this power as long as there is an income tax code that powers the buying and selling of tax favors to special interests (at our expense). The Michigan FairTax Association believes we - the People of Michigan - must take hold of the "ship of State," to relieve our government of the tools of mischief that have enabled them - and the special interests - to distort and destroy our economy. A Michigan FairTax will pay for government when we spend our money, not when we earn it. It will do away with the income tax code, so coveted by our elected representatives, and put an end to their manipulation of economic behavior by both businesses and individuals. It will end the wasteful, and costly, slavery of keeping receipts and filing income tax returns -- needlessly subjecting us to audits, interest, and penalties -- all in order to prove that we're entitled to keep what we earn!

Imagine! We, the people, have the power to move Michigan away from the income tax system where politicians and lobbyists have control...to a consumption tax - where power is restored to individuals, as our Founding Fathers intended. Enacting the Michigan FairTax will turn Michigan into a safe harbor of security and prosperity for businesses, jobs and families. Once accomplished, Michigan will become a lighthouse to the country.

Editor in Chief:

Donald S.'Doby' Dobrosky, Sr.