 state of the state i missed the state of the state address the wife and i were at dusty s taproom in okemos so i started reading to see what i missed just a few brief thoughts the dashboard sounds like an interesting idea to get a broad view of how michigan is doing it s simplistic but that s part of the point you will not have to go searching through dozens of web pages to get basic stats about the health of the government henry payne had some other thoughts for the first time in eight years lansing insiders felt their governor had a grasp of reality the reality that the budget is deep in the hole the reality that tax cuts not tax hikes attract business the reality of twoyear budgeting the reality that michigan s future is manufacturing and supporting the industries it has not dreamy musings of thousands of green belt jobs that might someday somehow transform michigan into a utopian future but the speech s best moments were punctuated by hard numbers and probusiness plans a may 31 budget deadline elimination of the michigan business tax in exchange for a 6 percent flat corporate tax that s a much better idea than the mbt should be a big help i was curious about the mbt and went on the michigangov website take a look at just one of the answers to a frequently asked question it s ugly and you ll see why a flat tax will be much more welcome than what we have now  