By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – This week, Michigan State Legislatures agreed to raise Michigan's income tax rate from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent and expand the 6 percent sales tax to include some services, which previously did not have to charge taxes.
The decision was necessary to avoid a partial government shut down and help bring the state back into good standing.
There is no way around it, but some area residents are hoping they don't notice much of a change.
This week, we asked people about their thoughts on the decision and how they think if may affect our community.
"It's going to effect everyone and to sit around and complain about it won't get any of us anywhere. It's something we can't control and if you think about it, in the long run, you are going to be helping your home state," Allen Lantiz of Cassopolis said.
He added that things could have gone differently to avoid something like this from happening and he doesn't think it will be as bad as some people think.
"The average family will see about a $100-$200 increase. It may be tough for some families to do, but that's when you give some things up and decide what's more important."
Pam Nemeth said she doesn't ever like to see increases in anything, but she knows and understands that this was something that had to be done.
"It's for our own good and it's really not that bad. I do think the government could and should have noticed this problem sooner, but it's better than seeing a 6.5 percent increase in income taxes," she said.
Sandy Taylor is an employee at Tans Down Under in Niles. Tanning businesses are being affected by the 6 percent sales tax expansion. All of the companies tanning products are taxed already, but actually tanning is not.
"We're just worried we're going to have to raise our package prices and we really don't want to do that," she said.
Taylor said that in the 12 years Tans Down Under has been in business, she thinks they have only changed prices about four times.
"We like to keep our prices at a decent rate and our customers really appreciate that. This is something we are going to have to sit down and discuss and figure out what's best for the customers."
Leslie Calridge just moved to Niles from Ohio six months ago. While she admitted she doesn't pay much attention to what goes on with the government, she has been paying attention to the change with income taxes.
"Really, it doesn't matter to me one way or another. Sure we'll have to pay more money, but it's nothing outrageous," she said.
Calridge added that she moved to Niles to be closer to her family and the only thing that worries her about Michigan is the amount of jobs that have been lost and the unemployment rate. She said it took her almost two months to find a job.
"The only thing I can say is why did it take this long for the government to realize Michigan was in this much trouble?," she added.
Molly Strougberman of Ann Arbor was in Niles for the weekend visiting a friend. She said she believes the increase and the expansion of taxes to different services is something people will just have to get used to.
"Especially the businesses who weren't taxing people. They should feel lucky they didn't have to for this long. I do think the government is in the wrong for not addressing this sooner and maybe if they took a cut in their own pays, they would see a little more money because I know some of our government makes much more money than what they should," she said.