Then I found out the same group was responsible for two prior mailings that were endorsing another Democratic candidate for the same senate seat. These mailers implied that the Great Lakes Education Project stood for “Progressive” values. Since then, I’ve learned that they were deliberately misleading us. I learned that the Great Lakes Education Project is funded by Dick and Betsy DeVos and Ron Wieser, chair of the Michigan Republican party. The group favors privatizing services in schools and implementing charter schools instead of funding public education.

Not only am I offended by this scam, but I am deeply concerned that this type of dishonesty is detrimental to our democracy.

Wisconsin has a graduated rate; the lowest is 4.6% (to about $10K single, $13.6K joint), and most taxpayers pay, but 6.5% on income between those amounts and about $153-204K (sgl vs. joint). Top rate is 7.75%.

Hence they have a lot more revenue, and a smaller population.

Admittedly, I don’t fit that mold since I’ve lived in 6 other states, most of them as an adult. But I would posit that one of Ann Arbor’s riches is the diversity of experience of its residents who have lived in other cities, states, countries. Living in only one place your entire life is a limited experience and likely to give rise to a limited perspective. Citing the “born in” qualification sounds somewhat nativist and reminds me of the signs surfers in San Diego used to put up saying “locals only” at beaches.

Having lived in other states, I can tell you that Michigan has labored under a peculiarly restricted and burdened system of government, and has sadly limited itself as a consequence. (Could someone please explain why our roads are so bad while Wisconsin’s are excellent?) But it doesn’t have to be that way. We need leaders who have both the understanding of our community and state and enough breadth of experience to propose new ways of doing business.