The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Byrnes spends a morning in Dexter
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 15, 2008
State Representative Pam Byrnes, D - District 52, paid a visit to the village this week.
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She held one of her coffee hours at The Foggy Bottom coffee house on Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, and although attendance was somewhat sparse, she tackled the issues that were brought to the (coffee) table.
Craig Buckley, a local resident and business owner started off by talking about how his business is doing under the current tax codes in Michigan.
"I run a small high tech company and the (Michigan Business Tax) is just clobbering me," he said. "If it stays the way that it is I'm going to have to shut down a third of my business because of the margins."
His problem was specifically with the Michigan Business Tax, which replaced the Single Business Tax that was defeated by Republicans last year. He says his tax liability went from $4,000 to $20,000 on that issue alone.
Byrnes said that the state has received a number of complaints from businesses, particularly smaller service based businesses. Taxes are structured in the state in such a way as to encourage businesses that produce manufacturing jobs with larger staff demands and that are more capital intensive.
Buckley's company has less than 10 employees.
She requested that Buckley have his accountant contact her to discuss in more detail what is going on with his business.
"I think your industry is getting hit the hardest right now," Byrnes said, referring to the taxes and/or surcharges that have Buckley's and other Information Technology firms.
While talking about the state of his business, Buckley also brought up the point of the cost of tuition in Michigan, as well as the local job demand for graduates that can afford to complete their education.
"Funding for universities have gone down and we have not yet come back up to the 2002 levels," Byrnes said. "We have 15 public universities and for several years there have been decreases."
She said Governor Jennifer Granholm has proposed a three percent increase across the board to support the state's universities and that her committee is meeting this week to discuss university support.
"We are still going to be waiting for the revenue conference to see how revenues are looking," Byrnes said. "There has been a direct correlation to the amount of the state funding as our public universities and increase in tuition."
Buckley added that his son and daughter have taken or will possibly take jobs out of state due to sagging demand.
"My son graduated in Michigan and wanted to stay local, but he took a job in Wisconsin," he said.
Byrnes said that it's probably a good idea to have a more specific degree in Michigan's job market.
"We need more nurses ... we have 1600 nurses crossing the ambassador bridge every day, because we don't have enough nurses here, so we're trying to enhance our nursing programs and we need nurse educators," she said.
Buckley says his wife is studying nursing.
"She is going to be sought after highly," Byrnes replied.
She segued into attacking term limits.
"(Representative Steve) Bieda is being turned out of office because of term limits, and so is Paul Condino, who helped create this business tax," she said. "That is part of the problem with the term limits. Once you have the expertise, those people are gone, so hopefully somebody will be able to step into Steve's shoes - he has his masters in tax law, he is amazing."
Dexter Village Planning Commissioner Thom Philips dropped in to talk about public or mass transportation with Byrnes, who is also on the transportation funding task force, which meets once a month for an entire day each session to tackle all aspects of transportation.
††††††††††††††† "We will be forming a committee to come up with a recommendation by the end of October on how to fund transportation," she said, adding that the task force doesn't just deal with public transit.
††††††††††††††† "But (it) is obviously a significant factor," she said.
††††††††††††††† "There needs to be a centralized leadership," Philips said.† "Every time somebody goes in a different direction it makes it more difficult and costly, and at the end of the day the public is going to be asked to pay for it, whether or not federal funding is involved."
††††††††††††††† Byrnes said that issues of density and ridership are going to be challenges for areas like Dexter, since cost efficiency is a key consideration.
††††††††††††††† "I would like to see that come from the federal level so you see that connectivity among states."
††††††††††††††† Byrnes said she would also like to see railroads back to the way they were in the late '60s and '70s.
††††††††††††††† See next week's issue for the discussion of meetings that Pam Byrnes referenced during her coffee hour, as well as answers to exclusive Dexter Leader questions.
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