Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we've got a new name, folks, We've got a
brand new name, throwing her hat in the ring. But
it's one that you're familiar with. In fact, we've talked
to her number times on this program, and I know
you're going to love to hear from her again today.
Carla Wagner at ATX my tax. That's the initiative that's
(00:21):
set forward to get rid of property taxes here in Michigan,
she said last week. In fact, I got a text
message right after we talked to Carla last week and
I got off the air, I got a message from her.
Carla said, Hey, I'm throwing my hat in the ring.
Carl is here with us right now. The late is
to announce that she's running for governor here in Michigan.
(00:43):
Good morning, Carla.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
How are you hey? Justin I'm great. My voice is
a little froggy, but I'll make it through. Thanks for
having me, Well.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thank you for doing it. We'll get you to I
know lots of folks have lots of different questions for you,
and I'm sure you welcome being able to hear from them.
Let's start with this first easiest question. I mean, you've
put the initiative out there to get rid of the
property taxes AX. My tax that's sort of taken off.
But the question is why soia hat in the ring
here to run for governor too?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeap, Justin, and I'm going to be really honest with
you and the listeners here ask my tax. Property tax
elimination has been very near and dear to my heart
for a long time, for almost five years now, and
we've been working really hard to get the signatures we
need to get this on the ballot. We didn't make
it the first time around. We were short, we were
(01:36):
short to days. This time we'll have the full one
hundred and eighty days. We have a better army, a
little bit more educated populist right. But here's what I'm seeing.
This is my fear. There are the other gubernatorial candidates
right now that are I think, are figuring out they
(01:57):
should talk about property tax elimination because it's going it's
what the people want. When they go they do they
do their meet and greets, that kind of stuff. People
are talking to them about property tax elimination because we've
been talking about it for five years. So they're changing
their messaging a little bit, and they're starting to talk
about it. But I don't want it to just be
(02:19):
lip service to get signatures and votes for them. This
is too important to the people of the state of Michigan,
and it's too important to the state itself that we
do something about property taxes. We are making a difference.
We have had, let a couple of people in the
(02:39):
legislation in Michigan here that have written bills to reform
property taxes, but they don't get enough support because they're
not listening to us, They're not listening to the people.
I believe that property tax. Property taxes are number one
(03:00):
concern for people in the state of Michigan today. Finances finances,
property tax elimination. You heard the gentleman on the news
program that you had just before me. He what did
he say about foreclosures or bankruptcy on collectibles? Right? Our debt,
personal debt is as high as it's ever been. Property
(03:25):
tax elimination can fix that, and then it will fix
so many other things along the way. I firmly believe
it is. It will fix fifty percent of what is
wrong with Michigan today if we eliminate property tax why.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, just to piggyback on that, and then Andrew's question,
why are you running? What is this just to bring
more attention? Are you serious about the race for governor?
Or is it just to bring more attention to the acts,
my tax efforts or a bit of both.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's both. It's both. We need the added exposure, for sure,
we need the added exposure. But again, my fear is
other people will use it and they're not going to
do anything about it. I am adamant about doing something
about it, and I will do whatever it takes to
get that done because our state will cease to exist
(04:21):
if we don't do something. And that is why it
has to be such a drastic measure. And it's like
be bold or go home, and I think that's what
it is. And I'm just afraid that some of the
other candidates that are running are not. This is not
their agenda, it is not their passion, and therefore it's
(04:42):
not going to be front and center for them like
it is going to be for me. And that that
is why when I considered everything else that I saw happening,
I said, I have to do this. I have to
run for governor to make sure we get this done.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Carlo Wagner Acts my tax and now a Republican candidate
for governor, she's filed her paperwork. What's next? I mean,
obviously you continue to have these conversations with people, You're
going to have lots of questions from different people as
you are continuing to kind of crisscross the state. Here,
(05:23):
Let's let's see if we can get some of these
answers for folks today. In fact, let's see this is
Samantha and Greenville. Is a question for you, what will
you do about external migration from the state. In other words,
the way I understand this is we get so many
people leaving the state. There's a whole other problem. You
talk about how everything costs more. We just heard the
(05:45):
story today that energy costs are going to be through
the roof. The macanaw Sitter estimates an extra two hundred
and twenty eight dollars in eighty three cents a month
on utility bills for Michigan households because of Governor Whitner's
My Healthy Climate Plan three hundred and eighty six billion
over twenty five years. We talked about how much insurance
(06:06):
rates were going up last week. I mean, it's just
one thing after another, piling on all of these folks
here in Michigan.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Sure, so let's talk about the utilities justin because you
mentioned it earlier. And this is to my point. What
people don't realize is consumer's energy. I think Consumer's energy
the last time I looked, pays about two hundred million
dollars a year in property tax to the state of Michigan.
(06:37):
What happens. How do they make up that two hundred
million dollars They charge it to the consumer. That's what
people don't People need to understand this. Any business, any
business out there, property tax that they pay is passed
directly onto the consumer. So when we have rising property taxes,
(06:59):
we have right costs that we are picking the tab up.
Correct If my property taxes at my restaurant are increased,
the cost of your bacon and eggs when you come
and eat at my restaurant is going to have to
go up. If consumers Energy did not have to pay
two hundred million dollars a year in property taxes, could
(07:23):
our services go down. This is one of the things
when the mass exodus of people leaving the state is
because it is too expensive to live here property taxes
and utilities. It's not only expensive for people, it's too
expensive for businesses. This is why our current administration is
(07:43):
having to pay companies billions of our tax payer dollars
to bribe them to come here, and then she forgives
them property taxes, which to me is a double negative.
We're paying them to come here, and then we're foregoing
tax property taxes for them. But that's the only way
(08:04):
we can get them to come because it is too
expensive to do business here. So when we get businesses
coming back because there's no property tax, that means no
property tax for the land that they buy, but also
no property tax on the services the utilities that they
have to purchase. And then people will come back because
(08:25):
there's jobs here and there's no property taxes.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
This is a this is an issue that's been a
problem here over the last you know, almost eight years
now that continues to sort of raise its ugly head.
You know, I understand that that folks are concerned. I mean,
it was COVID, it was the cost of living, it
was the taxes, it was everything going up, and I
can you can just imagine how that plays out over
(08:54):
time in a race here that we've seen already kind
of interesting. You've got an independent. I'm using the air
quotes for Mike Dougan, who's really a Democrat who just
shed the labels to speak and.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Throat and real quick, justin while you're since you mentioned
his name, I'm going to bring this up. This here,
this this report right here, and you can see all
of the listings. And this is double sided.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, it's a big fit report there.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
These These are the foreclosures in Wayne County since May.
How these are foreclosures in mister Dugan's Detroit. Eighty nine
of these pages are Detroit. Mister Dugan's Detroit eighty nine
pages double sided foreclosures in Detroit, one hundred and one
(09:52):
total in Wayne County since May. Right, I'm sorry, from
January to May. You don't think property taxes are killing Detroit.
He's the mayor, he wants to be governor.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It is, you know, I think it is a question
that's that's worthy of asking, how's Detroit really doing? I
mean that's a that's a question, and I think folks
would would want I made sure it's going well for
certain folks who got deals done there and whatnot for
some of the quote unquote fat cats, you know. But
what's it like on the ground for the average person.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And that's exactly what people are saying, is that Detroit
is becoming an elitist, an elitist area. The low and
the middle income people are being booted out. I think
they added something called a blight tax. And here's the problem,
justin where is the incentive for anyone to make their
(10:48):
house look nice? Because as soon as you do, the
assessors at your door, they reassess your house, they bump
up your value, and now you're paying how your property
taxes because you made improvement to your house. That makes
no sense to me. Some people can't afford that. They
can't afford the necessary improvements. They can't afford a new
(11:09):
roof because they're paying property tax. Those property tax dollars
could help pay that roof. And while you're putting that
roof on, you're hiring people, so you're giving someone a job.
You're generating state income tax, you're generating sales tax. You're
putting someone to work to do an improvement on your
house to make it livable instead of paying property tax.
(11:32):
And that property tax will go up as soon as
you put a new roof on.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Here's another question from the chat, and I think it's
a good one. Carlin, can you tell we know a
little bit about you because you've been on talking about
ax my tax for so long, but can you tell
us a little bit about your experience in business, law, enforcement, etc.
And how that might play out here if you were
to become governor?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You know. Justin and I have been Basically, I worked
at Herman Miller right out of high school in data
entry and then cost accounting and inventory accounts payable, so
it's always been about numbers. My husband and I started
a small bitsident. I have my residential Builder's license, so
I've been building houses for over forty years. I have
(12:20):
my real estate license. I develop property, you know, so
we take property and build it, make it into lots,
you know, suitable for building houses on. I had my
securities license, which meant that I could do stock trading
for people in financial planning, that kind of thing. So
(12:40):
a securities license again, more budget, more budgets, right. I
now own a little restaurant in Rockford or just outside
of Rockford, so I'm in the restaurant business. And I
have a little retail antique shop, so I'm in the
retail business. I was a totally uniformed, fully uniformed volune
tier deputy with Kent County Sheriff's Department. You know, that
(13:04):
was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful experience and I still have
friends from those days. I grew up on a farm,
so you know, when you look at things that I've done,
growing up on a farm, working at a you know,
working at a business in their accounting departments, building houses,
(13:25):
real estate selling, property law enforcement, that you know this
the real est, you know, the restaurant business, the retail business.
I have a wide variety of knowledge. I know, I
know a little bit about a lot of things, and
I think that is important for someone who's going to
(13:47):
run a business. And the state is a business. It's
it's like why Donald Trump does well, right, He's a
businessman first. He's a politician somewhere down the road, but
he's a businessman first. And you understand the fact that
if something's not working, you don't keep dumping more money
(14:07):
into it. You change. You have to be able to
change and go down a different path and stuff like that.
We have so many things here in Michigan that are
good that we should be one of the wealthiest states
in the nation, which mister Trump recognizes because he said,
we need to make Michigan the manufacturing capital of the world,
(14:28):
or at least of the United States. And we can
do that, but not with property tax not with property
taxes the way they are today. Well, I don't see
that ever happening.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Carlo Wagner ax My Tax is the name of the
website xaxm I tax dot org. Carlo is now running
for governor as well. Carlo, where's the best place for folks?
We just got about ten seconds here for them to
find you if they want to find out more online.
Definitely have you back on in the future.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, you know, of course the act my text. Excuse me,
I am getting my I'm getting a website built created
right now for my gubernatorial race, so we will have
that soon. I don't have it right now, so I
can't give it to you, but as soon as I
get it, I can always text it to you, justin
and let you know what it is. It was a
(15:19):
last It was a last minute decision. It was something
that I had thought about because I so frustrated what
I saw happening in Lancing specifically and in our state
and going around and talking to people across the state
of Michigan, listening to what their concerns were, and really
and really being you know, can I address those concerns?
(15:41):
Like I said, I think half of it can be
solved by eliminating property tax. But the fact is we
were not getting people in Lancing to listen to us
and that they represent us. There are representatives, but it
seems they have an agenda different in ours. That's unfortunate.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Carlo more with you hang on the line. We'll we'll
have Carlo back on soon, folks, so you can hear more.