Increasing taxes on our senior citizens is just plain WRONG. I’ve listened to, and participated in numerous conversations during the past couple of weeks with scores of disappointed and angry senior citizens concerning the proposed tax on pensions; their keen insights have only served to reinforce my position. I have actually heard Lansing politicians say, ”Seniors do not create jobs, so it is OK if the tax forces them to leave Michigan.” These same politicians also said, “Seniors really can’t go anywhere anyways because there is no market for them to sell their Michigan home.” However, I realize that seniors do create jobs by shopping, buying groceries, and purchasing a
ting Accep New ts Patien
wide array of services. Also, haven’t our short sighted government policies already forced the breakup of too many of our Michigan families? Now some folks want to force more seniors away from their grandchildren. Where are their values? Having been a State of Michigan assistant auditor general for several years, I saw waste and inefficiency first hand. The Auditor General Office performs financial and performance audits. The audits reports go directly to our legislators. A recent audit report noted there is close to $2.5 billion of unpaid income tax and the Department of Treasury was widely criticized for not aggressively pursuing this revenue. Early in 2010 a nonpartisan group reported that 7.5 percent of all government
spending is fraudulent, wasteful, or inefficient. 7.5 percent of a 44 billion dollar budget is over 3 billion dollars! Eliminating just half of this reported waste would save more money than the proposed senior tax. Achieving efficiencies will not be easy and will require long hours of detailed review of the state budget. However, didn’t everyone in Lansing campaign on the promise to cut waste and eliminate inefficiency? Instead of imposing the much maligned senior tax, our Lansing officials should fulfill their promises of efficiency in government; and like the citizens of this great state, start responsibly budgeting within their limited resources. Michael Trebesh, CPA St Johns
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Increasing taxes wrong for seniors
Letter to the editor
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