Michigan Business

The October revenue report for the state of Michigan has been released, and there’s very little good news to be had. Revenues were again below the most recent projections. October saw tax collections that were $31 million below expectations. The best real-time indicators of economic activity, sales taxes and income tax withholding, are both...
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The latest monthly state revenue report was finally released today, and it doesn’t look good. A few of the money quotes: The revenue collected from Michigan’s General Fund and School Aid Fund earmarked taxes totaled $1.3 billion in May, which was down 13.4% from last year’s level.  This marked the  fourth consecutive month  that...
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  Today it was announced that Michigan’s unemployment rate hit 11.6%. What is governor Granholm’s reaction? She announces her support for an increase in gas taxes! Great idea! She has already succeeded in increasing the income tax by 12% and increasing business taxes by 22%. That seems to be working out really well. Not....
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There’s an old parable about getting hooked on government handouts. I had heard this years ago, but it just popped in my mind again today. I searched the Internet and found one version of it. A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class...
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We must bail out Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler because they are far too large to fail. This short video does an excellent job of explaining how it will all work:
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Today Volkswagen announced that they will not be building a new car factory in Michigan. They opted to Tennessee instead. According to the article: Chattanooga won the site because of incentives and tax breaks offered by Tennessee and better infrastructure, the person said. Alabama was a close second while Michigan had been out of...
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The latest House Fiscal Agency revenue consensus report paints a grim picture for Michigan. Here are a few important bits of information: Although the US has gained more than 480,000 jobs over , employment in Michigan fell by more than 78,000 jobs. That’s right – Michigan has had a net loss of...
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The taxpayers of Michigan traded minimal reforms for a massive tax hike this past weekend. A new 6% service tax will apply to the following services: Astrology services Carpet cleaning Consulting services Investigation, guard and armored car services Janitorial Commercial landscaping services Baby-shoe bronzing Bail bonding Balloon-o-grams Coin-operated blood pressure testing Check room services...
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Our state government shut down this morning at 12:01 am and remained shut down until 4:18am, when two Senate Republicans broke ranks and voted in favor of $1.5 billion in tax increases. Freedom rang across the land for 258 minutes, but alas, the politicians relented and voted to destroy more jobs by raising our...
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The stunning inability of Michigan’s politicians to talk about the 8,000 ton elephant in the room continues to amaze us here at GR Pundit. Michigan’s economy is suffering a “single-state” recession for one primary reason – the United Auto Workers union. Why? Michigan’s economy is/was so heavily dependent on the domestic auto industry that...
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