One can, and will, argue until election day about how businesses will respond if M97 passes. That's exactly what the measure's authors want: uncertainty and constant debate about who ultimately will pay this huge tax.

As we try to make sense of what it will mean to the average person, focus on retailers. M97, with its single rate for all businesses, hits most retailers extremely hard, taking all of the profits of many, such as grocers and auto dealers. They cannot stay in business unless they raise their prices, so M97 becomes a stealth sales tax paid by us.

Most states that have a direct sales tax exempt food and medicine. Most states that have a gross receipts tax (like M97) have a much lower rate for retailers. Not M97. It is the ultimate in regressive taxation, hitting low income people the hardest.