Get out the lipstick. Some of the elected folks in Lansing have yet another "pig" which needs extreme cosmetic makeover!

The most recent example of porcine fundraising is known as HB 4852, a proposed "public safety" surcharge on all telephone services in Michigan. It is a "stealth tax" which will generate about $16.3 million per month to be collected by AT&T, Charter, Cellular One, Sprint, and all other service providers from business, small and large, families, including those of low and fixed incomes, and all governmental and non-governmental or nonprofit agencies.

This regressive tax will be charged to users of a basic necessity, whether your communication access is landline, cellphone, fax line, or Internet phone.

Precious little, if any, of this huge stack of your dollars will return to our zip codes in the guise of resources to law enforcement or emergency first responder agencies, despite the label legislators have used to make this scheme more appealing. In fact, significant doubt exists whether even one additional safety professional will be uniformed or equipped from the nearly $200 million generated by Lansing's latest pile-on tax.

So great is the opposition to HB 4852 that groups such as the Michigan Police Officers' Association, Michigan Sheriffs' Association, and the Michigan Deputy Sheriffs' Association have joined local governments like the City of Saint Ignace, City of Detroit, City of Ferndale, Ontonagon Village Council, Oakland County Commission, Hillsdale County Commission, Emmet County Commission, and others. Consumers' advocates or special interests like Michigan AARP, National Taxpayers' Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and more are actively campaigning for the defeat of this "dedicated spending."

Personally, I think that the idea that the text of this bill bankrolls undefined "non-emergency diversions" rivals the humor found on Comedy Central! Today, state law requires organizations that operate 2-1-1 systems for non-emergency calls provide their own funding without tax dollars.

Further, I am certain that once lawmakers identify a lucrative revenue source, it is rarely abandoned.

Although I don't remember the Spanish-American War, I do remember paying for it.

That military action under the McKinley administation (1898 ) lasted less than four months; yet, it was only last year (2006) that the federal telephone excise tax was finally rescinded!

Here are a few easy and inexpensive ways for you to participate today in the old-fashioned, yet revolutionary, idea of objecting to "taxation without representation:"

1) Call your Mackinac County commissioner. A resolution in opposition to this proposed "public safety surcharge" on all Michigan telephone subscribers will be considered at their next regularly scheduled meeting August 23 at 3:30 p.m. Let your elected Mackinac County commissioner know your feelings about this additional taxation.

2) Allow State Representative Gary McDowell the opportunity to represent your concerns in both the House Appropriations Committee and on the House floor. He can be contacted at (888) 737-4379 (tollfree, within the 107th District) or e-mail him at garymcdowell@house.mi.gov. This ridiculous ripoff will die or advance depending on Gary's vote, and his ability to communicate effectively your willingness to spend your dollars on such a dubious investment.

3) Pass this letter on to every Michigan telephone user.

Regardless of the color or amount of lipstick applied, this "piggy" of a legislative proposal will remain a costly barnyard creature.

Statewide public safety efforts have been funded through property, income, sales taxes, and citation revenue. HB 4852 is Lansing's gimmick to shift this burden to Michigan's already overwhelmed taxpayers, and, it remains a covert invasion of telephone users' wallets. Mary Elizabeth Nichols St. Ignace