Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson Responds to Governor Granholm Tax Hike

Pontiac, MI, October 6, 2009 -- Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson denounces Governor Jennifer Granholm for raising taxes during the worst economic downturn since The Great Depression.  A wire service reports that Granholm announced the $345.8 million tax increase to cheers as she emerged from the House Democratic Caucus.

“Of all the unmitigated gall for the governor to come out to the cheers of the House Democratic Caucus,” Patterson says. “The 15.2 percent of unemployed Michiganians were not cheering I bet.”

Patterson adds the governor is trying to pull the wool over taxpayers’ eyes by calling the tax increases “revenue increases.”  “Governor, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. What don’t you understand? A revenue increase is a tax hike pure and simple.”

County Executive Patterson also says Granholm is a hypocrite. “Back in December of 2007, newspapers quoted the governor saying, ‘The most important thing I’ve learned (this year) is I’m not ever going to raise taxes again. It’s too impossible.’ The governor is short on memory, long on tax hikes,” Patterson says.

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