Rep. Greg Markkanen released the following statement today after the governor’s population council proposed tax hikes to curb population declines. Recommendations include $2.5 billion in new spending without clear methods to increase state funding without raising taxes.

“When our kids start asking us to pay for U-Hauls to manage moves to Texas, we can all look back and thank the governor for the tax hikes that drove them away,” said Markkanen, R-Hancock. “Young families aren’t going to notice freshly paved walking paths or fancy playgrounds when they’re built around homes that are hundreds of thousands of dollars out of reach. We have 20-year-olds that can’t afford to live independently already. Now, Democrats are flaunting their expensive new program initiatives and ignoring the tax hikes that will drive people out of the state or into their parents’ basements.”

The population council’s recommendations include unpopular liberal initiatives like redistributing school funding from fiscally responsible areas to failing districts with widespread financial mismanagement. The proposals also include raising taxes to pay people to move to Michigan and suggest implementing a state-run initiative to provide illegal immigrants with drivers’ licenses.

“Yoopers will recognize this report is filled with the same reused liberal talking points we’ve been hearing for years,” Markkanen said. “The governor and Lansing Democrats seem to believe that if they spend millions of dollars putting new makeup on their same overused initiatives that people will just magically begin to believe in their failing leadership. Getting people to call our state home shouldn’t be hard. But the answer isn’t expensive new programs or bribing people to move here. The solution is promoting our great outdoors, embracing our friendly and hardworking background, and lowering taxes so people can afford to live here in the first place.”

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