Doug, All,
I am on the State Central Committee of the Michigan Green Party. I would like to discuss strategies for economic policy our party can pursue on a state level that would have some chance of winning. Our state, Michigan, has an initiative process that lets citizens propose State Constitutional and Legislative changes. These are some of the ideas I have thought of:
a) A proposed change to the State Constitution that would both lower the State Sales Tax from 6% to 5% and increase taxes on the top 5% (ie. income >= $139K/year) of the income distribution an additional 4%. The net result would be an increase in revenue to the State of about $700 million, which would offset a deficit of $1-2 billion in the current fiscal year.
b) Require all businesses in the state to provide 40 hours of paid vacation for each 13 weeks of employment. The 40 hours would apply even if the job in question is only part-time.
c) Place a wage tax of $0.75/hour that would be used to fund a defined benefit pension plan for all workers in the state. Also, index the minimum retirement age to collect the pension benefits to the unemployment rate so the minimum age drops when unemployment goes up.
I'm looking for feed-back on these ideas, so any comments are appreciated.
Chuck
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