Hearing Trump's tax plan a comfort to state Democratic lawmaker

Being a loyal and card-carrying Democrat, there’s little chance that Rep. Jim Townsend will vote for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. But at the very least the Royal Oak Democrat owes Mr. Trump a thank you note for the Donald’s advancement of Mr. Townsend’s favorite issue: the graduated income tax.
  
For months, Mr. Townsend has been trying to whip up support to push this issue. Since the GOP legislature would never go for it, his only alternative is to launch a statewide petition drive to get it before the voters.
 
How’s that going?
  
It’s not.
  
However he is convinced that the “frustration over income inequality and no raises in years” issue would resonate with the voters who are now responding to the Trump siren call to tax the rich more and everybody else less. But he has to somehow convince labor and the D Party to embrace this with more than just lip service.
    
Trump “mentioned it twice in the last debate,” Townsend reports.  Once in terms of taxing hedge-fund managers who are raking in the dough and sharing none of it with the government and the other time about the federal graduated tax.
    
“In a very perverse way” he is helping to promote the issue here, Mr. Townsend reflects.
     
So if this is so popular and voters would love it, where’s the support to move this from the talk stage to the “let’s do it” stage.
     
He reports, after talking to the labor movement, that everyone thinks the concept is the right thing to do; but there is no consensus that the ballot is the right way to do it.  “There is a fear-factor,” he indicates. “Labor is asking is the ballot a good return on our investment?” That is raised, of course, in the context of labor’s lack-luster record on advancing it’s agenda by asking the public to endorse it.
     
Given that, Mr. Townsend has not tossed in the towel. “There’s still a chance (but) I’m not predicting it will happen” which is the same analysis the know-it-alls are attaching to Mr. Trumps chance of moving into the White House