The following was originally published by David Haynes at https://ruralinsights.org on September 13, 2021.
NMU Alumnus and Starbucks Founder Starts New Program
Howard Schultz the founder and former CEO of Starbucks has founded a new education website, Backto.Biz. Its purpose, according to Schultz, is to “reignite America’s entrepreneurial fire.” The website has hundreds of video lessons aimed at helping small businesses recover from the pandemic.
Fixing Michigan’s Property Tax System
The Citizens Research Council of Michigan (www.crcmich.org) has issued a new report entitled “Michigan’s Overlapping Property Tax Limitations Create an Unstable Municipal Finance System.”
It can be found at www.crcmich.org and is well worth your time to read. The report says “Michigan has some of the strictest property tax limits among the states. Its status as the primary revenue source for local governments has contributed to building pressure on taxpayers. Taxpayers react to that pressure with limitations to lessen the overall burden and to improve year-to-year predictability in tax bills.”
It concludes with “Local governments are overly dependent on property taxes and no changes to the tax limitations are going to fix that. Diversification of the revenue sources would provide the stability of property taxes and the responsiveness of sales or income taxes to the economic activity that characterize your counties.”
You will find lots of interesting data and facts about local government financing and taxation and creative ideas that might improve the situation we all live in our communities. Go to their website and take a look.
Masks In Our K-12 Schools
Even with no statewide mask mandate, an increasing number of school districts are requiring masks in school.
About six in ten school age children will be wearing masks in school. We are told that nearly 20 of Michigan’s 83 counties now have countywide school mask mandates (as of 9.2.21).
That number seems to increase every day. How about your school district? Let us know about mask and/or vaccine mandates in your school district.
NMU Faculty and Administration Reach Tentative Agreement
This week both sides of the bargaining table announced that they have reached a tentative agreement and are going to a vote of the faculty and then the NMU Board of Trustees. Lots of details completed and negotiated. Watch for the vote.
Quotes That Make Us Go Hmmm
“We don’t get to choose our own sunset.” Unknown.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
“I’m madder than a boiled owl.” Congressman John Dingell.
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