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TAX PLAN DELIVERS RECORD DEFICITS Dear Editor, On February 3, 2003, the Bush Administration submitted its Fiscal Year 2004 (FY04) budget proposal to Congress. Among other things, the President's budget calls for approximately $1.5 trillion in new tax cuts over the next decade, including proposals to exclude corporate dividends from individual taxation and accelerate the upper-income tax rate cuts enacted in 2001 that have not yet gone into effect. In just a few years we have gone from huge surpluses to enormous deficits. In January 2001, the Office of Management and Budget projected a ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. Now, under the recently passed budget resolution (H.Con.Res.95), it is estimated that there will be a record deficit of $1.95 trillion over the same time period, including record deficits of over $300 billion this year and next. Even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recognized the danger of such cuts when he spoke to Congress on the importance of curbing the deficit. Failure to do so will harm the economy, raise interest rates down the road and leave less for the nation's priorities. Many experts, including ten Nobel Prize winning economists, agree the President's plan will fail to provide a real boost to our 2003 economy. Only a fraction of the proposed tax breaks would go into effect in 2003, and most of the cuts are targeted at those least likely to spend the money now when we need it. The President's proposals also would do little to assist our financially strapped states, which are confronting their worst fiscal crises in fifty years. Though states' homeland security, Medicaid and education costs are rising, the President has eliminated state aid from his economic stimulus proposals and instead has offered proposals estimated to cost states some $64 billion over the next ten years. Michigan itself is seeking to close a $1.6 billion gap; yet the President's dividend tax provision would strip Michigan of approximately $111 million in FY04. The Administration's tax policies also would disproportionately assist upper income folks. Under this plan the middle twenty percent of Michiganders would see an average 2003 tax cut of only $328, compared to the over $27,500 tax cut expected for those in the top one percent. Approximately 2.1 million Michigan taxpayers would receive a tax break of $100 or less, and of those 1.3 million would get nothing at all. With respect to the dividend tax cut it is estimated that Americans making over $1 million - the top one fifth of one percent - in 2003 would receive roughly the same benefits as the bottom 90 percent of taxpayers combined. Such results would be unfair to the tens of millions of middle and low-income working Americans who have been hit the hardest by our economic downturn. While I am pleased that the Senate was able to reduce the President's proposed tax cut in the budget resolution, the tax cuts are still too large. With unemployment in Michigan up 24 percent since January 2001 and over one million Michiganders without health coverage, we need a fiscally responsible plan that will spur growth and jobs now. I support a fairer and less expensive alternative to the President's proposal that would provide an immediate broad-based tax cut of $1,200 to every working family of four, extend unemployment benefits for the one million workers whose benefits have expired and weren't extended, provide short-term incentives for businesses to invest immediately, and give aid to our struggling states for education, infrastructure improvements, homeland security and Medicaid, among other things. I encourage your readers to keep these thoughts in mind as Congress continues to debate these important fiscal issues. Sincerely, Carl Levin United States Senate DIOXIN UPDATE . . . Spring is finally in the air and likely here to stay. We can surely anticipate that people will be hitting the turf in their yards and local parks in the coming days and weeks. We can only hope that the state moves to educate the public on interim measures to protect themselves from the contamination of dioxin. DEQ/DCH Meeting On March 27th state agencies did presentations to local officials, Dow Chemical and citizens on the Dow Chemical License and plan for public participation. The Tittabawassee River and floodplain are now specifically identified as an offsite release slated for corrective action. If you remember last year, these areas were removed by the Harding administration as known off site releases. The public participation plan proposed by DEQ needs some tweaking to say the least. One area of concern is the ability for the state and Dow to continue to have isolated dialogue on the contamination. Soil Testing Four locations (with four samples each) were taken on Stroebel Rd in the past two weeks to ascertain the extent of the contamination. Sue Matlock from DEQ said the results would take about month. Saginaw County Department of Public Health Have not been to Immerman Park in several days but on my last visit the inadequate signs posted by the Health Department remain in place. These signs, like the Dow Health Study ignore inhalation of dust as a major exposure pathway for dioxin. Michigan Department of Community Health sent a letter in early March to Mr. Niederhauser, Director of the Saginaw County Health Department, telling him the signs are not adequate. Sincerely, Michelle Hurd Riddick Lone Tree Council Editor's Note: It has come to The Review's attention that dioxin found by the Department of Environmental Quality in sludge and compost at the Midland Wastewater Treatment Plant is being given to tri-city area farmers for crops. In a UBC report the following items were noted: page 17 - "There is some evidence to suggest that consumption of contaminated feed or grazing of cattle on treated land may increase PCDD/F levels in meat products." Page 18 - "This suggests that the use of dioxin/furan contaminated biosolids on grazing land or on land used to grow cattle feed may result in increased human exposure to dioxins and furans through diet, especially if the biosolids are highly contaminated." Page 21: Given the potential for a large increase in meat contamination with consumption of contaminated feed and the potential for cattle to consume not only the plants grown in treated soil but also the soil itself, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BIOSOLIDS NOT BE APPLIED TO GRAZING LAND." _______________________________________ The Review welcomes your letters and comments. Please send all correspondence to: Letters to the Editor, Review Magazine, 318 S. Hamilton St., Saginaw, MI 48602. Or you can e-mail us online at letters@review-mag.com
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