By Michael Wayland
ACME TOWNSHIP, MI- In his first public speech (click here) after the passing of Proposal 1, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to tout the termination of the state's personal property tax as another example of Michigan's improving business environment.
"We've continued to create a great climate," he said Tuesday afternoon, prior to his Wednesday morning speech at the 49th annual Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars near Traverse City. "Tomorrow morning, hopefully I can say we don't have a personal property tax on industrial equipment. Tat's a big deal."
The proposal phases out personal property taxes that small businesses pay on office equipment and manufacturers pay on industrial equipment. It also authorizes the creation of an authority to distribute existing use tax revenue to local governments who currently rely on personal property tax collections to provide services, including police and fire.
Snyder said the proposal is "another major indicator" about how the state is "becoming more competitive and a better place to do business."...
Excuse me? There are emergency managers all over the state and Detroit in up against the ropes and Snyder is padding the pockets of the wealthy? Really?
The unemployment rate in Michigan in January 2014 was 8.3 percent. Nationally the unemployment rate in January 2014 was 6.6 percent. Currently, Michigan's unemployment rate has flat lined at 7.5 percent over the past four months. Currently the unemployment rate nationally is 6.2 percent.
Snyder took office in January 2011 with an unemployment rate in Michigan of 11%. That is high, but, the unemployment rate in Michigan in May of 2010 was 13%. Michigan was already rebounding from the global economic collapse and it's collapsed auto economy. In contract the USA national unemployment rate in January of 2011 was 9.1 percent with a rate of 9.6 percent in May of 2010.
Michigan has recovered at a faster rate in seven months before Snyder took office dropping by 2 percent in those seven months. Snyder's fuzzy math and emergency mangers have not only assaulted the democratic process and children within their school systems it slowed down the very rapid recovery Michigan was already experiencing.
Michigan would not see another 2 percent recovery for another thirteen months in May of 2012 when the rate was 9 percent. Now, 28 months on Michigan STILL has not recovered to a 7 percent unemployment rate, while the national rate is 6.2 at the end of July.
It is interesting the Michigan Governor is so persistent in pushing the idea there needs to be a better economic environment seeking all kinds of Visas for Chinese investment, which are monies that will leave the country except for meager employment. Now he is giving away more Michigan income from it's treasury while the cities are still without their democratically elected officials and the state's largest city is seeking settlements with unions. This is completely outrageous. I suppose all those connections in China from his time at "Gateway Computers" are still hot and delivering.
Snyder's funny math starts with manipulating monies for education with schools in trouble and then rather than harnessing the power of a full recovery he has decided to play tax reduction for the wealthy while the state can't keep up with the national recovery.
I can hear the campaign music playing now, "Well, the rest of the nation has fracking as it's best friend, so why don't we and we'd be recovered by now, too." Michigan could be producing huge amounts of wind energy right there on the lakes and selling it to the entire region. Why isn't that happening and why fracking at all?
Snyder came with a lot of baggage when he took the governor's seat. He had sold a perfectly viable Michigan business developed with a Michigan brain trust and sold it with to Wall Street while serving as CEO and Chairman of Ardesta, the venture capital firm and CEO of the company Ardesta had sold.
October 13, 2013
By Gary Anglebrant
Michigan's medical device industry has witnessed the sale of a growing number of its companies in recent years. The following lists some that state experts and players in the industry consistently mention as the most noteworthy....
Exits and deals
Accuri Cytometers Inc.
City: Ann Arbor
Sold to: Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. in 2011 for $205 million
Investors: Included Arboretum Ventures, Plymouth Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, Baird Venture Partners
Business: University of Michigan spinoff making cytometers (automated cell analysis devices) small enough to sit on a desktop
City: Ann Arbor
Sold to: Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. in 2011 for $205 million
Investors: Included Arboretum Ventures, Plymouth Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, Baird Venture Partners
Business: University of Michigan spinoff making cytometers (automated cell analysis devices) small enough to sit on a desktop
Ostial Solutions LLC
City: Kalamazoo
Sold to: South Jordan, Utah-based Merit Medical Systems Inc. in 2012 for $30 million
Investors: Self-funded, angel investors
Business: Maker of a catheter used to implant coronary artery stents, founded by CEO R. Kevin Plemmons and the Fischell family of medical device inventors
City: Kalamazoo
Sold to: South Jordan, Utah-based Merit Medical Systems Inc. in 2012 for $30 million
Investors: Self-funded, angel investors
Business: Maker of a catheter used to implant coronary artery stents, founded by CEO R. Kevin Plemmons and the Fischell family of medical device inventors
Snyder did NOTHING to keep these jobs in Michigan and now he wants to pad the pockets of his friends? I don't think so.
Pioneer Surgical Technology Inc.
City: Marquette
Sold to: Alachua, Fla.-based RTI Biologics Inc. in July for $130 million
Investors: Included Beringea, Highlander Partners, Hopewell Ventures, Pharos Capital Group and River Cities Capital Funds
Business: Maker of spinal implants, bone grafts and other spine, cardiothoracic and orthopedic products; also offers contract manufacturing services. (See story.)
In the pipeline
Ablative Solutions Inc.
City: Kalamazoo
City: Kalamazoo
CytoPherx Inc.
City: Ann Arbor
City: Ann Arbor
Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc.
City: Plymouth Township
City: Plymouth Township
HistoSonics Inc.
City: Ann Arbor
City: Ann Arbor
Tangent Medical Technologies Inc.
City: Ann Arbor
City: Ann Arbor
Michigan's brain trust delivers some of the most sophisticated industries in the world and then people like Snyder and his friends steal them rather than Michigan providing a home to these inventors and companies and employing Michigan citizens.
