What do I want for Christmas? I’m thinking of making my list this year very short, in fact, only one item long. I want a graduated income tax for the state of Michigan, and Mike Bishop is the Grinch that will ruin my Christmas (minus the happy ending with all the Whos singing on the hill).

Michigan is one of only eights states that has a highly regressive income tax. This means that everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes. Who could not like this tax system? In fact, it appears to reek of equality and fairness. Then why does the federal government use a progressive income tax? Because the idea of a regressive income tax is ridiculous. It places a much, much higher burden on middle class tax payers, and depresses overall tax revenue. When you combine the regressive tax structure with Michigan’s crippled economy, it creates the utter disaster that is our current state budget. You can thank our tax code for loosing the Promise. You can thank our tax code for the double digit percentage increases in tuition. And you can thank Mike Bishop for our tax code.

Mike Bishop did not write our tax code. In fact, I tend not to demonize politicians for initially poor choices if they are willing to admit their fault and correct them. No, Mike Bishop is even worse; he is preventing us from modernizing our tax structure which would solve many of our budgetary problems. Despite a new bipartisan study that found Michigan’s tax code heavily favors the rich, Mike Bishop has still voiced open opposition to any increases in taxes for anyone. A Republican, Oliver Wendell Holmes said that, “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” I’m willing to bet that Holmes is smarter than Bishop, so I’m going with his take on the matter. Why does change scare Republicans so? Governor Granholm is doing a great job advocating for this reform, but the fact remains that we cannot do anything if it doesn’t pass the Senate. I would like to believe that Bishop places the interests of our state above those of his rich contributors, but this is getting harder and harder to do. So I have decided to add another thing to my Christmas list: the exit of Mike Bishop.