A Curmudgeon's Notebook — Thoughts on values, education, engineering, politics, civility, . . . . . . . by Don Nordeen

Concerns and Questions Regarding the Proposed Michigan Fair Tax

2010 July 22
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    The Michigan Fair Tax proposal has been available for several years.  A petition drive to place the proposal (amendment to Michigan's Constitution) on the ballot failed to get the required number of signatures in 2008. 

    My interest is in having more complete information available on the Michigan Fair Tax website for candidates and the public.  It is a tax idea that should be on the table, but there are many concerns and unanswered questions.  Those include the names of sponsors and donors on the MFT website. 

    Since an amendment to the Michigan Constitution is required to adopt the Michigan Fair Tax, the language in any proposed amendment is critical and must be very carefully evaluated for the law of unintended consequences.  Errors and unintended consequences could be locked and only corrected by further amendment to the Constitution.  Likely, good governance would be to include in the proposed Constitutional amendment only the minimum necessary to authorize the legislative process to work out the details. 

    The continuation of this post provides a description of my research. 

Don Nordeen
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• Key Words:  Economy, Michigan, Public Policy, tax, tax policy, competitiveness

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Michigan Towns could become Ghost Towns

2010 March 03
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    The continuation of this post provides a link to a USA Today about manufacturing towns becoming ghost towns.  The article provides a link to USA Today's job forecast for 2010. 

Don Nordeen
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• Key Words:  Automotive Industry, Economy, Michigan, Public Policy, legislative agenda, reform

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