All the governor's taxes
Michigan's individual income tax revenue jumped 25% between 2011 and 2012, a $1.4-billion increase. About $560 million of that is because of income growth, and much of that is because of a one-time spike in national income tied to changes in the federal tax code.
The remainder of the increase can be explained by deductions and tax credits that were either eliminated or modified significantly. For millions of Michigan residents, these were experienced as tax increases.
They include:
■ $270 million from a decrease in the homestead property tax credit.
■ $240 million from cuts to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
■ $200 million from the pension tax changes.
■ $50 million from the elimination of deductions for children.
■ $50 million from the elimination of the special exemption for age and unemployment compensation.
■ $90 million from elimination of other nonrefundable credits, such as city income tax, homeless/food bank contributions and contributions to public universities and public broadcasting.
The average taxpayer received half as much in credits in 2012 as in 2011. In addition, the new tax code freezes the individual income tax rate at 4.25%; before the changes, that rate was scheduled to drop 0.1 percentage point each year until it reached 3.9% in 2015.
In fact, Michigan had the fifth largest percentage increase in tax revenue collected from individuals, according to a survey of government tax collections by the U.S. Census Bureau during fiscal year 2013.
“We cannot allow it to be forgotten. We will not,” he said. “Gather around, for I wish to tell you a tale. Today, October 7th, is the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto — a gargantuan struggle on the sea that changed the course of events in the 16th century.”
"Author and talk radio host Mark Levin on Tuesday called Rev. Jesse Jackson a “complete fraud” after the news broke that Jackson would be going to Dallas to make sure Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan and the affected neighborhood are not “shunned.”
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"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will soon propose an amendment to the Constitution that would prevent the federal government or the courts from nullifying state marriage laws."
“This is a breaking story here in London, but the material that we have from Scotland Yard and the intelligence services is they have uncovered the first ISIS plot here in the U.K.,” Coughlin said on Fox News. “Basically, British jihadists coming back to London and wanting to carry out a plot, and I’m told the plot was to behead people on the streets of London.”
"West, a favorite among many in the pro-freedom, pro-Constitution Tea Party movement, listed six instances where the Obama regime has been “working counter to the security of the United States of America”:"
But to my mind’s eye there is one group in America which should be standing up and beating drums against this new menace to freedom, and that’s women. Nowhere in the world and nowhere in any other philosophy or religion are women treated more poorly than in Islam.
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