I’ve already detailed my reasons for voting NO on Michigan’s Proposal 1 which would eliminate the Personal Property Tax HERE. But there is another reason, in my opinion: Republican threats to screw over municipalities if voters turn it down:
The GOP-led Legislature could eliminate the personal property tax with no revenue-replacement plan for local governments, [Truscott Rossman’s Kelly Rossman-McKinney] said.“The fear that all of those expressed is that the Legislature will come back after the primary, pursue eliminating the personal property tax for business but not reimbursing local communities. I’ve heard more than one Republican legislator say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s exactly what I plan to do,” Rossman-McKinney said.
This is an implicit threat that Republicans, acting again as petulant children when they don’t get their way, will punish municipalities if voters don’t do what they are told.
This sort of blackmail must be stopped. If they want to screw over municipalities, they need to do it overtly, not with threats. That’s not leadership. That’s not governing.
That’s disgusting.
