Michigan Gov Rick Snyder to make another fake concession, this time on school funding

Rick Snyder is the master of the “fake concession”. He takes money away from something, gives a little back and then paints it as a “concession”. It’s not.

He did it on the Earned Income Tax credit in late April:

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s proposed budget eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which helps the working poor, especially those with kids.

In a dramatic concession, he’s agreed to give qualifying families $25 per child . This represents 5.8% of the EITC the average family would have received.

He will now tell everyone he made a concession. But, if his budget passes in May as it most likely will, he will have actually slashed an important bit of assistance for many poor Michiganders with families by 94.2%.

He did it again in May:

Governor Snyder has now made another fake concession.

Michigan’s working poor would continue to receive supplemental income from the Earned Income Tax Credit – albeit at a significantly reduced level – under the latest revision to Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed business and income tax overhaul plan.

The credit, currently set at 20% of the federal EITC, would be reduced to 6%, under a proposal announced by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley this morning during a Senate committee hearing on the overhaul.

That would mean about $108 million in relief to low-income wage earners in 2012, down from a projected $360 million under current law.

So, instead of slashing funding to Michigan’s working poor by 94.2%, he’s only slashing it by 70%. Such a compassionate bastard. But, hey, at least businesses get to keep their 86% tax cut. That’s a good thing, right?

Then again in August:

[H]e’s doing it again:

As part of his agenda to reinvent Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder reshaped revenue sharing, a pot of money for cities, counties and townships to pay for everything from police and fire service to road repairs. He kept one-third of the pot of money intact and cut $100 million — about one third — to help balance the budget.

He put the remaining third into an incentive pool that communities could compete for by meeting three criteria:

• Consolidate or share services with other communities.
• Institute an 80-20 split for employee health care costs, with communities picking up 80% and employees paying 20%. And switch from a defined contribution to a defined-benefit pension plan.
• Make financial data readily available (preferably online) for residents.

Qualifying for the money will just be a matter of signing a form and providing additional documentation to the state, said Summer Minnick, spokeswoman of the Michigan Municipal League.

“The Treasury Department doesn’t have to certify it,” she said. “As long as the community administrators sign the form, they’ll get the money.”

See what he did there? He reduced the amount of tax money sent back local municipalities by 2/3. Then, by simply signing a form saying they’re trying to be more efficient, they get a third back. In the end, their revenue sharing revenues, tax monies collected locally and sent to the state and the returned to them by the state, is reduced by one-third. But, in the New World State Order of Rick Snyder’s Michigan, that’s a concession!

Well, get ready, it’s happening again. After taking $1 billion from the statewide school fund, he’s know talking about putting more money back into schools.

Gov. Rick Snyder said Thursday he’ll propose more spending for Michigan education in his upcoming budget proposal. […]

The Republican governor told The Associated Press last month that he didn’t plan to cut public schools or higher education in his 2012-13 spending proposal for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. But he didn’t say until Thursday that he wants to increase funding.

“We intend, hopefully, to devote more resources than last year toward a number of fields. Education … is one of those,” Snyder said in an interview. He added that he’ll release more details Feb. 9 when he delivers his budget plan.

Doug Pratt, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association asks the pertinent question:

“Are they going to make public schools whole and put the billion dollars back into education, and how are they going to do that in light of their stated desire to eliminate the personal property tax and to keep the $1.8 billion in corporate tax giveaways that they did last year?” Pratt asked, referring to a steep business tax cut that took effect Jan. 1.

Put a billion dollars back into our schools? I’ve got a five-spot that says “no damn way”.

‘Cause that’s not how the King of the Fake Concession rolls.