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 the running for some time, according to the person. (Emphasis ours)

Does this surprise anyone? With Michigan’s newly-formed business tax mess, the strangling environment of unionization, and a dismally-performing public school system, no wonder jobs, people, and businesses are not choosing Michigan. When will Lansing wake up and tackle the real economic challenges in this state?

Just for fun, we compared state population growth in the United States with state tax burden levels. The top 20 states that had the highest population growth between 2000 and 2007 are below:

State            Percent  Rank
                 Growth

Nevada           28.41    1
Arizona          23.5     2
Utah             18.5     3
Georgia          16.6     4
Idaho            15.9     5
Texas            14.6     6
Florida          14.2     7
Colorado         13.0     8
North Carolina   12.6     9
Delaware         10.4     10
South Carolina   9.9      11
Washington       9.7      12
Oregon           9.5      13
Alaska           9.0      14
Virginia         8.9      15
New Mexico       8.3      16
Tennessee        8.2      17
California       7.9      18
New Hampshire    6.5      19
Montana          6.2      20

 
Below are the 20 states with the lowest tax burdens:

State           Tax Burden    Rank
Alaska          6.58%         1
New Hampshire   8.01%         2
Tennessee       8.49%         3
Delaware        8.75%         4
Alabama         8.83%         5
Oklahoma        9.00%         6
South Dakota    9.02%         7
Texas           9.30%         8
Wyoming         9.46%         9
Montana         9.74%         10
New Mexico      9.80%         11
North Dakota    9.90%         12
Florida         9.96%         13
Oregon          10.03%        14
Nevada          10.09%        15
Idaho           10.12%        16
Missouri        10.12%        17
Virginia        10.20%        18
Georgia         10.27%        19
Arizona         10.34%        20

 
Surprise! 14 of the 20 states with the lowest tax burdens are in the top 20 states for population (and job) growth. Conversely, the five states with the highest tax burdens are in the bottom 15 states for population growth.

For your information, Michigan is number 45 in population growth between 2000 and 2007 (1.3%), and has the 14th highest tax burden in the United States. That was calculated before last year’s gigantic tax hike, so I’m sure our state has climbed up the list since then.

Discuss this post (and other topics) in the GR Pundit forums.

Is this “deficit” due to a reduction in revenue? According to the Michigan House Fiscal Agency, fiscal year 2005-6′s General Fund revenue was $8.266 billion. Fiscal year 2006-07′s General Fund revenue is expected to be $8.230 billion. That’s a slight increase in reveues. So what’s the problem? Well, spending, of course. According to the same agency, appropriations (spending) for 2006-07 are set at $9.2 billion. Houston, we have a problem.

So, as usual, Governor Granholm and the Democrats in the state House are proposing all sorts of tax increases, including a 2% sales tax on services, an increase in the death tax, higher taxes on cigarettes, higher taxes on insurance, and higher liquor taxes.

The problem here is that residents of Michigan already enjoy the 16th highest tax burden in the United States. The average tax burden is 10.6%, when combining all state and local taxes.

Any company or individual would cut back on spending to balance the budget. But, since government has a monopoly on the police and will put you in jail if you don’t pay taxes, it’s a heck of a lot easier, for politicians and bureaucrats, so simply force us to pay more tribute.

This is one of those times where having a split government is better for all of us. The Republicans and Democrats in the state have to fight it out to get an agreement. No rubber-stamping, as our Federal government was for the past six years.

It was announced today that he had raised enough money to begin the drive. The Detroit News has an article on it here. A web site on the ballot initiative has been set up at www.RepealSBT.com.

This is great news. The SBT is the most onerous business tax in the nation. It is one reason why businesses will not locate here. The tax needs to be repealed, with nothing to replace it, in order to get businesses looking at our state again. We have the worst economy in the nation and one-off tax breaks and state speculative investments won’t fix this long term, structural problem. It is one step in the direction of making Michigan attractive to business again.

According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the governor called for 20 expansions of state government and only one reduction in state government. Apparently our governor has yet to take Economics 101. Michigan has been competing to be the worst economy in the nation, and the governor is doing a great job of proposing greater bureaucracy, government, and taxation to make sure things stay that way.

Among the highlights of the governor’s proposed expansion of government, and consequently, increased taxation, are: