Proposition 1: How to Swindle the Middle Class

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/proposition-swindle-middle.html

Proposition 1: How to Swindle the Middle Class
By Juan Cole | Aug. 4, 2014
By Cathy Stripe Lester

On August 5, Michigan taxpayers will be asked to vote on Proposition 1, which is being presented in commercials as a way to “help small businesses and create 15,000 new jobs … without raising taxes!”

If that sounds like a conjuring trick, it is – smoke’n’mirrors, my friends. And if you try to look behind the curtain, it becomes very, very confusing, as if the proponents of Prop 1 don’t want anyone to notice what it actually does.

Firstly it takes control of one segment of local tax bases. Takes it away from local cities and townships, and gives it to the state. Secondly, it is going to be a huge tax break for big companies in the long run, and shift even more tax burden onto working families.

But, you say, that isn’t what the ballot says it does! Of course not. You have to look at how it’s going to work.

[merrily]

1. "Mommy, what's the middle class?"

"Hush up, child. No one knows."