Karla Wagner burns Ax MI Tax petitions, evades questions and blames volunteers. The grift must go on!
Stirring controversy even among her devotees, Wagner extends the 180 day window for petitions. Its implosion is a win for freedom-loving Michiganders.
Axe My Tax Implodes
Michigan state law is clear: to qualify a ballot measure amending the state constitution, all signatures must be collected within 180 days of the date they are submitted. Any signature older than six months is invalid and cannot be counted.
After months of assuring supporters and volunteers that the submission deadline was October 31, Karla Wagner abruptly announced an indefinite extension, blaming volunteers for not collecting enough signatures. By doing so, she effectively invalidated all signatures gathered statewide in April and May, wiping out months of work from volunteers who had spent their own time and money on the effort.
The announcement sparked immediate outrage among those same supporters. Many had devoted substantial resources to the cause and now felt betrayed. Wagner demanded that volunteers start over and “redouble their efforts,” yet she has never disclosed how many of the 466,198 required signatures have been collected, how many remain, or when she intends to close the petition effort.
“Ok ..once again for those who don’t understand… I still have all signatures in my possession…. other than the ones you all are still hanging onto. I can only count the ones in my possession… I cannot count the ones in yours. Because the ones in your possession could not be counted… we did not have enough.” — Karla Wagner, Facebook post
Rather than thanking volunteers and donors for their efforts, Wagner chose to continue fundraising and soliciting unpaid labor.
One frustrated volunteer wrote:
“Remembering last year when we did this. I held an event and had several people collecting signatures. We had piles of petitions and were told to keep collecting. Then suddenly the plug was pulled and we were told it was over. None of those petitions got turned in and hundreds of signatures went uncounted. When I inquired about it my account was blocked. Guessing this one will now be blocked too!”
Another added:
“This is so sad, people cannot remember what month they signed in. This will cause us to lose people that did their part by signing.”
I’ve spoken directly with two county-level volunteers who invested significant time and money leading local petition drives. Both said they were disgusted and unwilling to continue working with Wagner.
Despite repeated calls for transparency, Wagner still refuses to share how many signatures have been collected—or how many more are needed. As the holidays approach, she gives no indication of any final deadline, suggesting yet another extension may come.
Wagner blocked me on X months ago after I began asking questions about her proposal. When invited to appear on my show to discuss it, she declined, saying she was “too busy collecting signatures.”
Really Bad Math
Attorney Matt Wilk joined me on The Bigger Truth Show to break down the financial absurdity of the proposal. In short, it claims to replace $17 billion in locally generated property tax revenue with about $4 billion in state-generated revenue.
The math simply doesn’t add up. It would gut local sovereignty—forcing municipalities, counties, school boards, courts, prosecutors, police, parks, and libraries to depend on Lansing for funding, inevitably tied to state mandates.
Worse, the proposal would prohibit local governments from creating any replacement tax without a 60% public vote—a restriction not applied to the state’s own taxing power.
When I’ve asked Wagner or her supporters basic questions—like “How would police, fire, prosecutors, and courts be funded under this proposal?”—the answers are inevitably evasive. The typical response: “They’ll have to figure it out.”
One influencer, James Dickson, a paid contributor for the Betsy DeVos–funded Michigan Enjoyer, took it a step further and suggested municipalities and counties “hold a bake sale.” When I pressed him for details, he blocked me—just as Wagner did.
Local Control
No one enjoys paying taxes, but property tax is the backbone of local governance. Every state in the nation levies it. Local government—schools, courts, police, fire, roads, parks, and libraries—all depend on it as a large, stable and locally-sourced revenue source.
Those who value freedom and limited government should also value local control over taxation and spending. The AxMITax plan would destroy local control and consolidate power in Lansing. The logic is inescapable: eliminate local revenue, and local autonomy disappears with it.
Supporters of the proposal often make false or misleading claims about property taxes—especially the notion that the money goes to the state. That’s simply not true. Only the state’s 6-mill education tax is statewide, and it’s redistributed back to schools, not kept by Lansing.
Here’s how Michigan’s $17 billion in property tax revenue is actually divided:
58% goes to schools
25% to municipal governments
17% to counties
The rest to local authorities like libraries, veterans programs, parks, and senior services
NONE of it funds state government.
If waste exists in your local government, ask yourself: do you have more power to address it locally, or if all control were centralized in Lansing?
Those who truly value liberty should recognize that local control is freedom. Wagner has managed to convince her followers that surrendering local control will lead to free stuff. History—and communism—show how that ends.
That’s why the abolition of property taxes isn’t just bad economics—it’s part of a broader psychological operation, one pushed by the Flynn network, designed to sow distrust in local government and redirect conservative activism toward chaos.
The Grift Must Go On
Refusing to accept failure—or even thank her donors and volunteers—has clear benefits for Wagner: she can keep raising money.
According to campaign finance records, she has raised over $140,000 from about 1,100 donors, mostly small contributions from individuals across the state.
The repeated extensions of the 180-day window, timed alongside her gubernatorial run, and her refusal to provide transparency to volunteers and donors about the true number of signatures all raise serious questions:
Is she profiting personally from the delay?
Could the supporter list be monetized or sold?
Is there dark money behind this?
Who benefits from exhausting well-meaning GOP volunteers, convincing them local government is more corrupt than Lansing, and keeping them occupied in a never-ending petition drive during a critical election year?
As a party, we must become less gullible and more discerning about the causes and candidates we support.
It might actually make sense to abolish state income tax and keep property taxes in place. Though it would likely result in a higher property taxes and an increase in the sales tax, it could be beneficial. Michigan should (though we never will) look to Texas as a reference point.