Is SBT so bad? A letter to the editor

While Rob was working on his masterpiece about the NSA spy program, I also wrote a letter of my own. This one dealt with the Single Business Tax and appeared in The Grand Rapids Press on Saturday, May 20th.

Behold:

Dick DeVos has expressed opposition to the Single Business Tax, a tax instituted more than 30 years ago by Governor Bill Milliken, a fellow Republican and businessman.

DeVos blames the tax for Michigan's lackluster employment picture. If the SBT is as harmful as DeVos claims it is, why did Milliken support it in the first place? Why didn't Republican John Engler get rid of it completely during his 12 years as governor? And why have legislative Republicans -- many of whom are businessmen -- waited until this election year to pass a bill that moves up their repeal of it from 2009 to 2007?

Perhaps those Republicans, unlike DeVos, know that the SBT isn't as bad as DeVos makes it out to be. It seems the conservative Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council understands this; it ranked Michigan -- the only state with this tax -- as the fifth best small business environment in the United States.

DeVos also refuses to tell us in detail how he'd make up for the nearly $2 billion in lost revenue an SBT repeal would cause. He says he will wait until after the election to reveal any plan. In other words, when voters go to the polls, they won't know whether DeVos would raise other taxes, or cut funding for our schools, health care, roads and so forth.

So many questions, so little reason to support DeVos and the effort to repeal the SBT.