Forum Post: Tax Breaks, or How to Kill a State, County by County

As ALEC kills Democracy, one State at a time. it's adherents kill States one county at a time under the guise of "aiding business".

"LANSING — Leaders of some of Michigan’s poorest counties in the northern Lower Peninsula are alarmed by a bill before the Legislature they say would cost their communities millions in crucial revenue while giving a massive tax break to oil and gas companies.

But a spokeswoman for the Michigan Oil and Gas Association says Senate Bill 552 is not a tax break but a legislative remedy to an “administrative error” made last year by the Michigan Treasury Department.

The bill, introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, would exempt things like piping, machinery, tanks and other equipment used to develop oil and gas wells — plus other drilling costs — from personal property taxes. And the change would be retroactive to 2012.

“That’s going to mean layoffs around here,” said Montmorency County equalization director Kevin Keller, who said the proposal would cut $310,000 from the county’s $2.6-million general fund budget this year and have more than a $3-million total impact on all taxing entities in the county, including schools, the road commission, libraries and the sheriff’s office."

http://www.freep.com/article/20131121/NEWS06/311210183/michigan-oil-and-gas-industry-tax-exemption