House Republican leaders, who were of absolutely no help in solving the state budget crisis last fall, are trying their hardest to dig another hole for state finances to fall into.
House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche of Novi and Rep. Kevin Eisenheimer of Bellaire want to refund the state's surprising $353 million budget surplus. And then they want to make sure the state never has another surplus by passing a constitutional amendment to require future state surpluses to be refunded to taxpayers, too.
Never mind the unmet needs in the state, like underfunded schools.
To show how far off these guys are, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday (January 11, 2008) that:
"DeRoche accused Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration of hiding or miscalculating state spending to make the case for a tax increase last fall."
Yeah, right. The governor thought raising taxes would be such fun, what with the Senate controlled by Republicans, that she decided to manufacture a budget crisis that would consume state government's time for weeks on end, lead to a brief government shutdown, and generally make everybody look bad.
The constitutional amendment is a real farce. Could the state never accumulate any funds to cushion future economic downturns? Is that really prudent?
What are those Republicans smoking when they come up with these ideas?
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