Friday, April 29, 2011

Only Some People Expected to Produce

The Republican-led Michigan House has approved Rick Snyder's tax-the-poor-and-elderly-and-spare-business budget but there is one thing missing.

Snyder has never said how many jobs Michigan can expect to reap from the windfall that is being handed to business at the expense of their customers. Now that many Michigan retirees and working poor will have less money to spend at Michigan businesses, how many jobs will these businesses create?

Snyder says he doesn't have to give us a projection on that. It'll just happen. There's no goal, no benchmark, for what this tax change will produce in the way of jobs, compared to what is going to happen anyway.

In other words, no standard for it to be measured against.

Teachers, on the other hand, need such standards. according to Snyder. They need to guarantee that their students will do better each year, no matter how hungry they are when they come to school, no matter how deprived they are, no matter how little money the district has to support the teacher with newer textbooks and other resources. Or they are at risk of losing their jobs.

Maybe we should take away the tax breaks of any business that doesn't create a job within a year. Wouldn't that be fair?

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