There's an interesting parallel between Michigan's soon-to-die statewide tax on services and a variety of local tax increases turned down by voters this week...

SPECIFICS.... or lack therof.

Sure, business groups hate the very concept of the high-rate tax on services. But they also don't like the fact that the tax isn't justified with a clear spending plan. The services tax simply plugged the general government hole, to be spent on general government operations, whatever those may be.

Same could be said for failed proposals to:

To be sure, it's an ugly November for any school or government unit to go to the polls for money. In the Flint region, voters turned down every such tax request.

But that wasn't true everywhere. Many locals won voter approval for specific needs detailed right in the ballot questions.

Here's a sampling of local voters who saw the need to raise their own taxes... Plymouth (roads), Flat Rock (school buildings), Lakeview (school buildings), Novi (new library), Royal Oak Township (parks), Avondale (school repairs), Saugatuck (school building), Grand Haven (roads), Portage (school buildings), Vandercook Lake (school buildings).

Two more taxing thoughts...

Veteran political reporter Peter Luke finds it interesting that many of the legislators who self-rightously voted against tax increases had no such quandary when it came time to actually spend the money.

And, Center for Michigan Steering Committee Member and former Michigan Speaker of the House Paul Hillegonds sees a silver lining to this year's budget debacle.