To State Rep. Brad Jacobsen (R-Oxford):
Now that you and your fellow Republicans have done everything you can to raise taxes on the taxpayers, cut and cheapen education and local governments and attack the unions, middle class and poor in our state, maybe it’s time to take a look at our state Legislature.
Do you know that with salaries of over $70,000 Michigan has the third highest paid legislators in the country?
With a $10,900.00 annual expense allowance no other State has that kind of benefit.
Do we really need a full time State Legislature? Most States apparently don’t.
How about the number of Legislators? Since we have been losing population and tax revenue isn’t time we look at cutting back?
How about half of those positions disappearing?
I know you have been so busy cutting everything else that you probably forgot to look at your own house.
I know you made a feeble attempt a year ago to cut back wages and benefits in the Legislature but it was not with the same vigor that you attacked everyone else.
Why don’t we tie our Legislators pay to that of our state average income compared to other states? Let’s make our Legislators pay lower than the pay for Legislators in states above us.
Let’s look at the number of legislators in states with our similar population. We certainly don’t need any more than the average.
Now on a different subject I would be interested in knowing how well we are doing in job creation and pay increases for people in Michigan since you took action to cut the business tax.
I am not aware of any growth but let’s look at a local small business and see. How about Jacobsen Florist? Do you know how many new permanent positions have been added this year?
Or maybe they invested in the current staff. How many non-management/non-owner/non-family member employees have received a decent raise in wages or benefits this last year? After all it was your theory that this would occur as a result of the business tax break.
I would hate to think we lost Teachers, Firefighters and Police and our local florist didn’t even give his people a raise! I’m looking forward to your response.
Gerald Podzikowski
Oxford