MI Budget: The Road Not Taken?

LANSING, Mich. - Budget cutting has been the focus, as Michigan lawmakers try to close a multi-billion dollar deficit, but slicing and dicing is not the only way to go. Some experts suggest the answer lies in the revenue column. 

Bill Long is the Michigan chair of the Legislative and Social Policy Committee of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). He says the state's tax policy does not reflect what is happening on the ground these days.

"Our manufacturing economy is changing -- we're now an information economy. But we haven't changed our tax structure to be able to do that. We need to make those changes and keep current."

Long says an example would be cutting tax credits for manufacturing concerns that have not provided the jobs they promised in order to receive those tax breaks in the first place. He also suggests a graduated income tax and changes to the estate tax. Without those changes, he fears cuts will decimate the social service safety net just when it is needed the most.

Changing the income tax alone would help with the deficit and provide many with a much-needed break, Long adds.

"If we switched from the flat-rate tax we have to a graduated income tax, we know we could provide a tax break to about 90 percent of our taxpayers."

Long says tax reductions and exemptions over the past 10 years, coupled with the change from manufacturing to an information and service economy, have resulted in a 23 percent decrease in personal income taxes paid to fund critical programs in Michigan.

More information is available from NASW-Michigan, 517-487-1548.

Glen Gardner, Public News Service - MI