Monday Morning Michigan Attitude

Nick posted this this morning over at Right Michigan:

You wanted it, Michigan, you got it. It took approximately five days for us to learn the amount of the next tax hike Democrats are looking to impose on families already struggling to make ends meet here in the Great Lakes State and it could make the (appropriately) reviled Michigan Business Tax surcharge look like loose change. Now that I think of it, maybe someone could toss a little loose change into a wishing well because it may well take a little supernatural intervention to stop a 65 member Dem majority in the House from doing whatever they want come January... and what they want, yeah, not so good if you're a working mom or dad.

The Associated Press reports this morning on the late release of a report detailing the plans of bureaucrats and tax hikers to significantly increased spending on the state's roads and infrastructure. The report was due by October 31st, four days before the election, but the panel was stocked with members of the legislature who preferred their names not be associated with demands for giant increases the weekend before voters cast their ballots.

So just how much are we talking, now that they're finally talking? Try as much as $950 MILLION. A year.

Of course the article goes on, all of which is just as depressing as the first part.

I responded in the comments:

It is difficult these days to keep my attitude out of the gutter because I love Michigan so much. Born and raised here, this is like watching a loved one die a painful death.

I have always been an optimist and a hard worker. I am a good Father and a God fearing man. Other than stints of unemployment from a sluggish economy and that misbegotten "economic stimulus check" of this year, I have never accepted any subsistence from the government. I was raised to make my own way, support my own, and use my surplus to help others...not the other way around.

I am not a criminal nor have I ever so much as received a moving violation. Therefore there was no Obama representative looking to get me registered to vote while I was behind bars and awaiting release--though he probably would have had I been there.

In other words, I am exactly the kind of guy that Michigan's entrenched bureaucrats act like they want to drive out of state. They tell me this every time they punish me for my beliefs and my activities through taxation and regulation. I am of no use to the big-government crowd and my vote against expanded bureaucracy is not at all cherished.

I do not want to leave the state of my birth and my parent's birth, but I believe a man must take care of his family. As Michigan policies drive more and more businesses out of state, people who share my attitude and motivations must consider following the jobs so that their families can be cared for. Look up and down the street on which you live. How many houses sit vacant, all of which used to contain the sounds of life? How many new houses in Texas and Alabama and North Carolina have been recently built where those families, the ones that used to be our neighbors, break bread?

Fortunately I still have work (though changes two weeks ago in the energy code by the state is going to farther tighten my industry, like the building industry could afford such a move,) but how long it will last is uncertain at best.

This is just another Monday morning and bad news is just the news. But, the optimist in me is still alive and thriving. I just wish my current optimism had more to do with my potential survival in Michigan than it does with knowing that I will land on my feet in Texas if things don't improve here.

What is another vacant house?