we're back down with overtime with Kevin Rinke potential candidate for governor and Jordyn up to you.

So we've talked a lot about eliminating the the income tax.

I know last year there was an attempt to ax my tax.

It was a ballot proposal to try and do the exact same thing, was not able to make it onto the ballot.

You know, you talk a lot about wanting to be a change maker and an agent for change.

Is this anything that you are supportive of or interested in supporting, considering it aligns a lot with with what it seems like Ax my tax was a property tax elimination and I'm on record and I'll say it again here, there's a process that Ax My Tax has to go through.

Last time when they had their proposal, they didn't meet the signature requirements in the number of days that the state requires to hav it become a ballot initiative.

So here's my thought on it.

If in fact they follow the process and they get the required signatures and it becomes a proposal and the people of Michigan vote to eliminate property taxes, it's government's responsibility to be flexible enough to figure out how to run the business of the state.

But you would vote no on that?

I don't.

You want less taxes, Tim.

That wasn't the question.

I said you would vote no on it?

Don't you want lower taxes, Tim?

You're not asking my answering my question.

You know what you got your own TV show you can ask me.

You're gettin a little gray around the edges.

Maybe don't step in whe you still probably do it.

Okay.

But in all seriousness, okay, it's an easy question.

Okay.

If it was on the ballot you would have voted yes or no.

I would probably vote yes for it.

Okay.

Why did that take me 30 seconds to get that out of you?

Because I think that people's votes are their rights.

And I really don't want to say, are you going to vote for m or you're going to vote for me.

I think it's counterproductive.

I think the issues should compel people to act.

And when they are looked at and worded properly and presented properly, you can get movement on them.

So what tax do you believe in?

You don't want property taxes.

You don't want income?

No, no, that's a fair question.

Nobody wants any taxes.

Everybody wants everything.

That's not a rational comment To just be like, no one want any taxes and we shouldn't have.

That's what keeps your libraries open, your're zoo's open.

So of course.

So how would you fund the things that government has to do to make sure the people have lights on that when they go out?

Police respond if there's an emergency that the school I mean, why are you laughing?

Because I think it's funny that in a perfect world, I would want zero taxes for you.

I would want zero taxes for me.

You earn your money.

You spend it the way you want, and you don't have government telling you how or what I would want.

Perfect roads.

I would want perfect schools and education, but it's not.

So yeah, it's not in my point is this the likelihood of Ax my tax passing is very, very low.

You can have all sorts o arguments about how to property tax, property and whether or not it's righ because then it comes down to do you own your property if you're always paying somebody else to be there or do you own the assets.

So how do you fund the government?

I think we're going to have property tax.

I my position is that in Michigan, the first step is to eliminate the personal income tax.

That's what I'm focused on.

The Ax my tax peopl are going to do what they want.

Well, you would have voted yes, but you got to vote, too.

And it's got to get to the election.

Let's see what happens.

How do you replace $1 Billion in personal income tax?

I think it's $14 now.

I think it was 12 billion when you ran the first time.

Maybe it' between 12 and 14 billion.

Yeah.

So and for people who say, well the state budgets, 84 billion, a lot of that is federal money that's come in here.

The 12 billion through the income tax is really more like 12 billion out of like 40 billion.

That's the general fund.

That's a huge percentage.

Yeah.

And you're are you saying tha just sales tax revenue growth, do you think someone who's a millionaire out there and gets gets that income ta money back is going to spend it, or are they going to save it?

Well, in every state, that personal income tax has been eliminated.

Again, tax revenue collections have gone up.

I am not simply sayin that when we eliminate personal income tax, that we don't look a other segments of our tax base and make adjustments to them that are more that are more appropriate.

Now, you look, people always talk about Florida.

Florida has these sales tax similar to Michigan and a lower overall tax burden to the state of Michigan per citizen.

Massively different economy because of tourism.

I mean, we don't have I thought Michigan was a tourist state.

No.

Where you know that it's nowhere near here in Florida, no question.

But we are a tourist state.

We're a service state now.

We're not a manufacturing state anymore.

We should be.

We could be, but we we I won't use a bad word.

We've allowed manufacturing to creep out of the state.

We have to raise the sales tax.

Then we might raise the sales tax and then we'd have to rat we may have to raise some fees also just to make sure that, no, I think that we can, by reducing regulation, we can actually lower fees and have excess revenue coming in that you.

Guys Michigan has been strangled by government with.

We don't try and lead here in Michigan in anything.

It appears to m that that our leaders in Lansing say what's the average of the Great Lakes states or what's the average across America?

That's not how I work.

That's not how I look.

That's not how you lea your state back to prosperity.

And again, we have a choice status quo and complain about it or real change.

And some of that change is going to be different.

Some of that change is going to be scary.

But in my view, in m view, you're going to continue to lose your primary taxpayers to other states that are more progressive in their taxing than Michigan is for the sake of discussion, let's assume that you decide to run for governor.

Can you win the governorship without Donald Trump's endorsement?

Yeah.

I mean, if he endorses somebody else you could win?

Absolutely.

That didn't happen the last time.

Yeah, you're right.

I, I think this it's really tough to look at a primary because I've had friends in the Democratic Party tell me that they vote in the primaries for Tudor Dixon because Gretche wanted to go up against a woman.

An abortion was the primary issue and it absolutely torpedoed Tudor, absolutely destroyed or blew her out of the water.

It was easy.

Abortion wouldn't have been the issue with me.

Because you're pro-choice.

Well, because I was, with the exceptions and because I am a male in the woman against woman conflict would not have been in Gretchen's favor.

Okay.

The people of Michigan have decided they voted in a very liberal proposal.

That sounded great.

And it is what it is.

Mr. Rinke what did you learn in that last race that you're going to take with you?

And maybe if you do run for governor, do to improve so that you are a better candidate would be more successful this time around?

I you know, I learned a what about the people in Michigan and I learned that getting the to understand and invest in you because last time I was a self-funder, even though I had people donate $800 and some thousand dollars to my campaign, it really wasn't an ask.

They dug in and they believed in what I was doing.

And remember, I was the second largest vote getter.

Tim, in answer back to your question, if you take Garrett Soldan and Ryan Kelly out of the race, I believe take 80% of their voters and put them to Kevin Rinke.

And I beat not only the Donald Trump endorsement, but I beat Tudor Dixon and go up against Gretchen Whitmer.

And that's a fight that you guys would like to have seen.

There's a Republican candidate in the race for governor right now who's run statewide twice.

He's won a battleground seat in the US House.

He's close with Donald Trump.

John James I don't believe that he's close with Donald Trump.

You don't believe he's close.

His voting record is 58%.

Voting in conjunction with Donald Trump are conservative values.

John James, his name recognition a mile wide in about a quarter of an inch deep.

And what name recognition doesn't do is say who likes him or not.

I'm from McComb County, and I think John James made a tactical mistake by taking the money of the people of Macomb County to say I want to be your congressman.

And 60 days after he gets in and Donald Trump's coattails says, I don't want to be your congressman anymore, I want to run for governor.

He was in one term and no he's in a second to second term.

He and now you're talkin about his second term.

Oh, yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Why are you a better candidate than him?

By the way John underperformed Donald Trump in the county that he was elected and he increased his margin but underperformed Trump.

Would you be a better candidate than John James for governor?

But I again, I am not a career politician.

He is?

Absolutely is.

He's run in the last five elections.

He's never been anything but a politician.

You can say, oh I worked in my dad's business, what, for a year?

Congratulations.

That doesn't make you a business expert.

And if you believe if you believe that the job of governor is to run the business of the state, why would you send a politician there if you believe that running a busines will help move Michigan forward?

You have to have people with proven track record.

You don't need politicians that try and recreate themselves to be the business person as well as the political figure to run Michigan.

I mean, come on.

Well, didn't they say the same thing about Mr. Snyder, who there are people on the Republican side and on the Democratic side that didn't like Rick Snyder.

But but I'm going to tell you, Rick Snyder di one hell of a job for Michigan.

He tackled tough issues.

And he when the state was done, Rick Snyder's term was done.

We had a budget surplus, of which the Democrats $900 million, I believe it is, have what would be the word, Kyle if I don't use the P word away?

Oh, that would be a great one.

We wasted away.

Yeah we wasted away the $900 million.

Just the Democrats and the Republican are in charge of the legislature at that time, 1920, when Judge Snyder left.

Yeah, they had th they had the Senate in the House from 19, 20 21 and 22.

Yeah.

And they didn't do a great job.

Okay.

Yeah.

I just want to make sure I know someone who wants to be governor.

Have to have some political experience or knowledge.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what is yours?

Okay, well, I've never been elected to anything.

I lobbied in Michigan for the businesses tha I controlled for over 30 years.

All right.

I was up Michigan working with my legislators at the Capitol all the time.

Were you Detroit Auto Dealers Association, Michigan Auto Dealers Association, The Brai Injury Association of Michigan.

I was on the board of Henry Ford Hospital and represented the hospita group up in Michigan in Lansing.

So it's not like Lansing is new to me.

Okay I participate in my community.

I am educated on my stat and I believe that I have issues and and solutions to issues for the state of Michigan that move it forward.

And I just as soon have somebody else do it.

But I'm waiting for someone to step up.

All right.

You jump into the race potentially.

Who's your closest competitor and why?

They're all close.

They're all close.

You know what?

Anybody who absorbs a vote is your closest competitor.

And again, make no bones about it.

If, in fact, Michigan wants real change, that's educational change that benefits their children.

That's tax structure and business regulatory changes that benefit the environment for the people of Michigan to be more successful.

And if they want a leaner government that is efficient, that is respond able and responsive to its citizens, then I'm the guy.

Because whil I may not be able to do it 100%, you won't find anybody who works harder or stays more focused on the issues until they are resolved.

Mr. Rinke So when will you call me and tell me you're running?

Oh, God, Tim, You don't answer the phone when I call now, so I get voicemail.

You too.

Yeah.

Come on, buddy.

Do I let you off the hook?

What would you need to do is you need to give me the hotline or something.

Or you go, All right, Mr. Rinke, it's always good to see you.

Nice.

Nice to have you back on off the record.

And you will call, right?

I will call.

And thank you guys for the questions.

They're tough issues and I realize tha what I'm proposing is different.

But you can't do it in 15 minutes.

Every single thing that I'm proposing, there are detailed plans and they have worked.

I'm not smart enough to create my own plans.

I'm smart enough to take what works in other place and make it better for Michigan.

And that's if I run what I would do.

Thank you, sir.

You bet.

All right.