I belive you are correct, Michigan residents have to pay $0.10 a can extra, then they get that $.10 back when they bring the can back. The program is intended to encourage recycling, the state is only borrowing the $.10 from it's residents until the can is returned. There is no real pay out, the residents dont gain because they had to pay $0.10 extra to begin with. Mean while out of staters dont pay the $.10.... so if thry take a can they didnt buy in the state in, then they are stealing tax payers money that they didnt pay in.

While I agree, there are other things of greater inmportance to be worried about thta are being smuggeled...... Half a mil, is nothing to sneeze at either.