This could be anywhere in the United States of No Tax Increases Ever for any Reason. It happens to be from from Detroit via former Delawarean Chad Livengood.
Detroit — There’s a statewide election less than 80 days away on a plan to boost funding for roads, schools and municipalities, but you wouldn’t have known it at the Michigan Democratic Party’s state convention over the weekend.
There was no visible sign of campaigns for or against Proposal 1 during a gathering of nearly 1,400 Democrats at Cobo Center. And nearly a dozen Democratic Party leaders who spoke on stage Saturday afternoon did not utter a single word about the looming sales tax vote on the May 5 ballot.
Steve Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association, which has endorsed Proposal 1, noticed the absence of campaigning for the ballot initiative at the state convention.
“I don’t know what the reason for that is,” Cook said. “It could be (they’re) reading the handwriting on the wall.”
Democrats and their allies in organized labor, however, have much to gain politically if voters green light an increase in the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent, which will trigger a change in fuel taxes to raise $1.2 billion more annually for road and bridge repairs.