This accessible, engaging text examines the impact of the trends that have shaped Michigan’s economy, and offers innovative solutions to the current economic crisis. Charles Ballard’s illuminating book explores the structure of Michigan’s economy, including its roots in agriculture, the rise and fall of the automotive industry, and the long-term decline of manufacturing. Ballard proposes that investing in education to create a highly skilled workforce can help Michigan’s people to compete in the rapidly evolving global economy. Discussing the state’s transportation infrastructure, environment, public expenditures, and tax system, Ballard describes how changes in attitudes, policies, and political institutions will help to promote economic recovery and growth.

Michigan at the Millennium provides objective background and analysis on a wide variety of key economic and fiscal issues. The chapters are written by economists and policy analysts at leading universities and other institutions in Michigan. Written in clear, non-technical language, the articles are aimed at an audience that includes members of the legislative and executive branches of state government, members of the judicial system, local government officials, policy analysts, and informed citizens. This volume follows in the tradition of the landmark 1982 study, Michigan's Fiscal and Economic Structure, edited by Harvey E. Brazer. The first section of the volume focuses on broad aspects of the economy, people, and land of Michigan, including chapters on demographics, the labor force, land use, the manufacturing sector, high-technology industries, and health care. Section two focuses on public expenditures and public services, and includes chapters on economic-development efforts, K-12 education, the transportation system, the welfare system, policies for low-wage workers and displaced workers, and pensions. The third section is concerned with taxes and other government revenues. It includes chapters on the Headlee Amendment, income taxes, sales and use taxes, property taxes, the Single Business Tax, intergovernmental fiscal relations, and other sources of revenue.

The Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states' tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems, and provides a roadmap to improving these structures.

The Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states' tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems, and provides a roadmap to improving these structures.

This report outlines the problems underlying the erosion of Detroit's property tax base--a factor that contributed to the city's bankruptcy in 2013. It offers recommendations for reform at the local and state level, as well as insight and analysis to help policy makers across the country protect their communities from economic decline.

This standard textbook on Michigan history covers the entire scope of the Wolverine State's historical record -- from when humankind first arrived in the area around 9,000 B.C. up to 1995. This third revised edition of Michigan also examines events since 1980 and draws on new studies to expand and improve its coverage of various ethnic groups, recent political developments, labor and business, and many other topics. Includes photographs, maps, and charts.

Since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, controversy has raged about how heavily to tax the rich. Opponents of high tax rates claim that heavy assessments have negative incentives on the productivity of some of our most talented citizens; supporters stress the importance of the rich shouldering their "fair share," and decry the loopholes that permit many to escape their obligations. Notably absent from this debate is hard evidence about the actual impact of taxes on the behavior of the affluent. This book presents evidence by leading economists of the effects of taxes on the formation of businesses, the supply of labor, the form of executive compensation, the accumulation of wealth, the allocation of portfolios, and the realization of capital gains. Among its findings are that the labor supply of the rich remained unchanged in the face of large tax cuts in 1986, and that in late 1992 executives exercised billions of dollars' worth of stock options in order to beat the tax increases expected in 1993. The book also presents a history of efforts to tax the rich, a demographic snapshot of the financially affluent, and a road map to widely used tax-avoidance strategies. Does Atlas Shrug? will be of great interest to policymakers and interested citizens who want to know how much tax revenue could really be gained by increasing tax rates on the rich, or whether low capital gains tax rates really spur economic growth.