Snyder's Budget Dir.

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http://www.mlive.com/politics/index...._budget_d.html
"...Despite a 7.6-percent unemployment rate [[compared to Michigan’s 12.8-percent rate), Nixon said Utah has had to wrestle with budget issues of its own as revenues fell 20 percent after the 2008 market crash. Utah’s overall budget, including federal assistance, is one-fourth the size of Michigan’s..."

Compare state income tax rates here:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/228.html

Utah :
http://incometax.utah.gov/rates.php
Looks like Utah did away with its graduated income tax in 2010.

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THE NERD FORGETS TO PACK SOME TOUGH ON TRIP TO DC

By David Holtz on December 2, 2010 8:20 AM

For out-of-work Michigan residents, news today from Washington, DC that Governor-elect Rick Snyder decided against lobbying fellow Republicans on their behalf couldn't come at a worse time.

State officials have already stopped taking unemployment benefit applications from jobless workers and nearly 200,000 Michigan families face a grimmer holiday season. That's because Senate Republicans in Congress are blocking any extension of unemployment benefits unless Democrats yield and balloon the deficit by $700 billion while giving the wealthiest Americans a tax break.

But Snyder, in first trip to DC since he was elected governor, chose this week not to spend any of his immense political capital on behalf of Michigan's unemployed, probably more out of fear of offending his political party than any ideological issues. [[READ MORE)