Dear Friends,
If you've ever fancied yourself a webmaster, this may be your chance. Mary Moylan has been maintaining our website for several years but no longer has the time to keep it updated. If you have some experience and would like to help out the Saginaw County Republican Party, please send us an e-mail at saginawgop@yahoo.com to let us know of your interest. And please visit the site at http://www.saginawcountygop.com to see what you would be working on. And, thanks to Mary from all of us, for the many years of work.
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First Anniversary of The T.E.A. Party Movement!
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It was February 27th, 2009 when thousands of Americans heeded the call of CNBC's
Rick Santelli and protested bailouts and wasteful spending. A large part of the American people
were already angry at President Bush's TARP bailout and the mortgage bailout of Barack Obama pushed them over the edge...into action.
This first
major wave of street protests began a nationwide protest movement against big government. By April 15th,
when more than a thousand protests occured across the country, a phenomenon was in progress.
Freedom Works, an organization chaired by former Congressman Dick Armey, will be sponsoring a celebration of this anniversary on February 27th, 2010, in cities across the country. If you are interested in joining the celebration by attending or organizing a protest event, find out more at http://freedomworks.send-list.com/click/member/183/1/
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State Legislature Considering Raising Gas Tax
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 Yes, another tax increase is in the works. But, at least our legislators are asking our opinion first this time! Democrat Speaker Pro-tem and Transportation Appropriations Chair, Pam Byrnes will be chairing a series of local town hall meetings on HB 5768 and HB 5769. These two bills are intended to raise the gasoline tax by 8 cents per gallon and 12 cents per gallon on diesel. You can read some conflicting views at http://rgeorgedunn.blogspot.com/2010/01/mi-here-comes-another-tax-hike-led-by.html and http://www.drivemi.org/news/newsDetail.php?x=473. Another point to consider is that our gasoline taxes are currently siphoned away from fixing roads, to fund bus operations around Michigan. This mass transit subsidy, both Federal and State taxes, actually makes up to 90% of all transit funds for some agencies: only 10% of transit system revenue comes from the riders. You're paying for busses, but when's the last time you rode a bus? This is your opportunity to let your voice be heard, as these are public meetings. Meetings will be held at:
- Monday, February 22, 10:00 a.m. Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Texas Twp. Campus
- Monday, March 8, 10:00 a.m. Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
- Monday, March 22, 10:00 a.m. Eagle Crest Conference Center, Ypsilanti
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Michigan Tax Quagmire!
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 Member Randall Norton notes that the past few years have seen tremendous upheaval in the State of Michigan's tax structure with no end in sight. Remember the failed effort to place a "sales" tax on services? It was actually in effect for a few hours before being repealed. That effort, however, served as a means to break down resistance to the concept.
Now the "sales" tax on services is rearing its ugly head once more. This time the Governor is offering to: reduce the tax rate from 6% to 5.5%; exclude business-to-business services and certain other services from the tax; and eliminate the 22% Michigan Business Tax surcharge. Surcharge - that's a great way to raise taxes. Place a 22% tax on the tax and call it a "surcharge".
The result of all the taxing efforts over the last few years is to create uncertainty in Michigan's tax structure and kill jobs. One of the worst things to have in a State when attempting to attract businesses and jobs is uncertainty - about anything! Business wants and needs as much certainty as possible. Ask the bankers that finance the projects and review the capital budgeting.
Imagine you're a business planning to invest millions in a new facility or relocating. Where is your first choice? Michigan? A state which can't even get its tax structure settled? There's no reason to choose Michigan unless the State is willing to grant years and years of tax exemptions and abatements. Amazingly, when the Governor shows up for the photo op, extolling all the new jobs, she can't seem to understand that Cutting Taxes Creates Jobs! Wherever it's tried, it works.
You should also hope you don't have a tax problem and file an appeal to the Michigan Tax Tribunal. The Auditor General recently released a report stating that there are cases still pending for scheduling more than two years after the initial filing. The seven-member quasi-judicial agency and its 18 employees received 16,067 appeals in FY 2008 and resolved 10,173 of them - about 63%. I don't blame the Tax Tribunal - I blame the Michigan tax structure, or lack thereof! The system is broken. Lansing needs new leadership and new ideas to fix it!
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Grassroots Strategy Planning
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Citizens For Traditional Values will be holding one of their popular "Citizens
in Action" planning sessions in Genesee County on Tuesday, March 30, at 6:00pm. These 2-hour, information-filled seminars provide you with tools on how to be a more effective grassroots leader. The session is free, the location has not yet been determined. You can e-mail CTV Area Coordinator Robin Blitchok for more details at: robinblitchok@yahoo.com
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The Republican mission seeks to maintain a strong defense, encourage individual achievement and liberty through the free enterprises system, and strengthen families. If you would like to help us move the area and the country towards these goals, please consider donating to the Saginaw County Republican Committee. Every donation, no matter how large or small, will help ensure that we can find and elect people to work for those goals. You can do so by mail to PO BOX 6653, Saginaw, MI 48608 or on the web at www.saginawcountygop.com. Sincerely,
Tim Kelly, Chair, Saginaw County Republican Party
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Tim Kelly, Chair, Saginaw County Republican Party
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Newsletter Archive
You can now read any of our previous newsletters here:
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