As reported in an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette (pdf), Michigan Future member and former House Speaker Paul Hillegonds said that Michigan can’t tax-cut its way to prosperity:
"In the past dozen years, state and local taxes have been reduced by what is now over $8 billion annually, moving Michigan to a tax burden below the national average, . . . and state general fund revenues 40 percent less in inflation-adjusted dollars than when I left the state House 10 years ago.
"Yet lower taxes and spending have been accompanied by slower economic growth in Michigan than in the rest of the nation. … Tax policy should not undermine our ability to invest in the human and physical infrastructure necessary for economic growth: investments like higher education, early childhood learning, quality of life amenities, transportation and transit and vital urban centers.”
Massachusetts ranked third of all states in terms of per-capita income and percentage of people with bachelor’s degrees. Sure, we’d all like to have Mississippi’s tax burden and Minnesota’s or Massachusetts’ economy, Hillegonds said. "But there is no state in the nation that has both,’" he said. "Which fiscal strategy will we choose?"