The Senate is expected to pass as soon as today a bill to accelerate the phase-out of a 22-percent surcharge to three years, rather than 10. The surcharge, which treasury officials say will take in $722 million this year, was enacted as an add-on to the new Michigan Business Tax last year, to help wipe out the state budget deficit.

Republican leaders also want to cap the state's new film tax credit and make the overall business tax more fair and balanced by removing from the calculation of gross receipts sales tax collections and fees assessed by other states. To include these items in the tax base amounts to double taxation, critics charge...

Senate Finance Committee Chair Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, contends the new tax is bringing in more revenue than advertised and is hurting Michigan's economy at the worst possible time.

"What we have with this new tax is a plan to sink Michigan to the bottom," Cassis said. "We're talking about systemic reforms that put Michigan businesses back in position to create jobs."

Sure, it would have been nice to see this sort of thing a few months ago, or better still if we were never in this position in the first place.  But alas, we are, and unless you've got a way-back machine moth-balled in your garage there's no sense in rehashing the failures of the past.  We live in the here and the now.  It's October 2, 2008 and we have an onerous Lansing tax policy that continues to drive jobs out of the state.  

A wise man once told me that in the face of adversity, especially adversity of one's own making, and who made this mess if not Lansing, the question isn't "what mistakes were made in the past" but "what is the next right thing to do?"  You course-correct.  You identify mistakes and you fix them.

The Michigan legislature approved a $1.5 billion tax hike last fall.  Fix it.

Michigan voters gave Democrats a sweeping majority in the state House last election.  Fix it.  

Andy Dillon is the speaker of the House and the driving force between just about every piece of rotten policy coming out of the state capitol.  Fix it.  Well, actually, there are still a few folks working on that one.  The Ivory Tower chimes in this morning with a guest commentary on the strength of the Dillon recall in the broader context of... we'll call it legislative motivation.

Recalls are powerful, if infrequently, used weapons. The value is not just in removing an elected official; it is also in the threat. The Dillon recall, which would seem to have very little effect due to its timing, serves this role. Recall proponents are trying to put the other legislators on notice -- they may be seeing a recall in their future.

Translation: Lansing, you made a mess.  Fix it.  Or else.