Perry Johnson Discusses Last Night's Debate

0:00Well, we know we're going to have a new governor elected and we the race just seems to get bigger and bigger and it will get along the way messier and messier. So it's important to pay attention to all people running and make your decision. Perry Johnson might have been unknown a few years ago but became very well known running for president running for an now governor and being a very successful businessman and now Republican gubernatorial candidate. Perry Johnson took place took part in a debate last night with a number of other Republican candidates. Talked about his plans and if you might have missed that as I did that debate we're going to get some information directly from Perry Johnson right now Perry good to have you back. Well delighted to be back. How have you been? I've been good. I was I was a surprise to see you say I'm jumping in because you're a businessman you've been a very very successful businessman and I get the impression you're not the kind of guy who will stand around and watch things go not the way you think they should go.

1:18So how do you think they should go? What would you do differently if you became the governor of the great state of Michigan? Well I laid out that message last night in that debate. It's unfortunate that it wasn't televised. Yeah most people most people didn't see it so I would not know I wouldn't just keep referring back to that I would tell us right now what what that what you want to lay out. Yes because it resonated in 46 we got on the straw poll we won I think we got 46% we won by 46% of the vote. So they liked the message the message is quite simple. We have a situation where we have a government that loves to spend your money and they've been wasting money for a long time. We don't know whether the wasting of money comes just from one area or another area we don't know whether it's just that they throw the money away because it's ridiculous projects or whether it's fraud but whatever some of the stuff is really nuts when

2:25I understand that when Gretchen Whitmer took office our budget was at 49 billion and now it's approaching 87 billion. Now that is a record increase of any state and I have one simple thing and that is I am going to become more efficient so because we are going to eliminate the state income tax. That income tax is an onerous thing for Michigan and if we eliminate the income tax your typical family will end up with $4,747 more in their pocket every year. Now I have spent my entire life bringing quality and efficiency to companies that's all I do you know when I started it started in the auto industry at a time when they were struggling and I thought I knew how to solve the problem. And I introduced a statistical process control eventually that took off like hotcakes and then I wrote a book on ISO 9000 the quality standard and now very Johnson registrars and very Johnson laboratory or grace accreditation have helped over 60,000 companies here and we operate in 67 countries.

3:37I want to bring that same quality and efficiency to our state and by doing that we will be able to eliminate this income tax improve the quality of our schools improve the quality of our life and we will be able to reform the property tax which is so onerous for some of the elderly. Particularly our senior citizens who have paid off their homes still have to pay property tax so we are throwing away money that we shouldn't be throwing away and because I have a skill set that has been bringing quality and efficiency to companies and the perfect guy to bring that quality and efficiency to our state and I have three wonderful kids. I want them to stay here I don't want them moving we have to recognize that in Michigan we have been losing population over the period of the last 30 years but we can change all that we have to give people a reason to stay here. I just did mentor to try to our 550,000 students and we're going to lose 40% of them within the first five years but if we create a better environment for people to stay suddenly things change every single state without exception that is eliminated the income tax ignited that state.

4:55For example, I had the same problems we had but look at what happened when they eliminated the income tax it suddenly started booming they had a declining population for 20 years and now it's sorting. Where did Ford put the plant for put their new plant not here but over there in Tennessee there was a time when Michigan was a bastion of opportunity people flocked from all over the world to this very state. In fact for the first time in history you could have a situation where a middle class person could have a great life they could for five dollars a day support their family have a car have a home send their kids to college and people flocked here we can do it again we just have to make it a more attractive environment to do that we eliminate the income tax we get people are reason to stay. We are in a position where when we do things that help business we help everyone here because as you have more people coming here you have more opportunities here as you have more people coming here we get more revenue the state.

6:03I say we make this change and let's be realistic if you don't have a background to bring in quality and efficiency it's pretty hard for you to do it if I had my mother that needed heart surgery I wouldn't go ask an attorney if I had a problem with my teeth I'm not going to go ask an accountant to fix my teeth the bottom line is if you want somebody to bring quality and efficiency to our state. You and you want to be able to eliminate the income tax while of mediating the quality of all of our services you need somebody like me and I'm very johnson business man republican gubernatorial candidate short answers for all these questions now can we do away with the state income tax and the property tax is that possible. Well first of all what make it very clear property tax to eliminate property tax you need an amendment okay it's a constitutional amendment when people start talking about this you it's a multi year job then you can't really eliminate all of the property taxes overnight that's an impossible.

7:14All right then let me quickly ask you said clearly about cutting start with the income tax let's cutting the states 4.25% income tax and then it you believe that because you're auditing every dime that's being spent by the state we won't have to worry about making up the billions of dollars in lost revenue from a cut income tax. Well you it's not just auditing I wrote a book two cents to save America I talked about what we needed to do in order to be able to eliminate all of this frivolous spending and to change the way we're thinking because right now in government they try to spend every penny they have in their budget in fact the last 90 days they go out of their way to see how they can spend that money so they can get more money the next year. Now if we ran our family that way in our budget think about it part of you if you told your wife oh let's make sure we're broke every year I mean I'd be having you in for therapy on a regular basis but that's how our government really runs so you have to change that change the mindset and you have to literally become more efficient in every way.

8:26Now understand that our budget has gone up exponentially we had a 49 billion dollar budget when she took office now it is up to 87 billion if it had gone up at the rate of inflation you'd only have increased about 25 billion so we'd be sitting there looking at a situation dramatically different that we have now because our budget would already be 20 billion dollars less than it is but and the income tax that's collected is about 13. So we would not only be able to eliminate the income tax that we have right now if we had just used discretion we would have also been able to make major inroads in the property tax. So the bottom line is it's a matter of efficiency and it's a matter of paying attention what goes on do you realize that we spent 11 billion dollars in one year by overpaying the unemployment and Medicaid one year alone. What about increasing the speed of the Amtrak train we tried to increase the speed of the Amtrak train by 10 miles an hour and we spent a billion dollars to try to do it we didn't even succeed.

9:28What about education in education we threw a billion dollars at it right a billion dollars a year to try to improve the reading yet it went down we we were 28th in the country now we're 44th in the country. Perry we you've done a great job you've laid out a lot of different things but I want people to know where they can go online to get more of the Perry Johnson story where where do we go go to Perry Johnson dot com. That's easy and by the way we have a great state and we want people to flock here I want my kids to stay here and I think everybody does. Perry Johnson dot com Perry Johnson dot com we wish you the best of luck Perry Johnson Republican gubernatorial candidate we continue in focus on WJR.