A recent poll shows Michiganders are open to the idea of using tax increases to help resolve Michigan's budget deficit.

Charles Ballard, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, has said this plan would cut taxes for 90 percent of those paying income taxes, even while producing $600 million more than is generated now.

Here’s a number I find most interesting in Senate Republican’s $2 billion savings plan for Michigan:

$5 million.

That’s the amount of sacrifice (via estimated savings by cutting retirement benefits) that would affect legislators, as opposed to everyone else in this state.

So, in a great time of hardship and sacrifice, our elected leaders are pledged to contribute a grand total of two one-hundredths of 1 percent of the burden.

Read the rest here.

From the Detroit Free Press:

A Better Michigan Future calls for both a sales tax on services and changing Michigan's flat-rate income tax to a graduated tax. The current 4.35% income tax rate gradually would drop to 3.9% between 2011 and 2015.

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