No bills of general interest were voted on by the full House or Senate this week, which is not unusual for this point in a new legislature. Appropriations committee members have been receiving detailed briefings on a proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Legislative committees have been active however, and two made news this week by advancing the bills described below.

On Wednesday: The House Tax Policy Committee reported the following tax cut bill with the recommendation that it pass; Democrats all voted ‘no’ and Republicans all voted ‘yes’ except for Republicans Reps. Howrylak of Troy and Maturen of Portage, who both ‘passed’ on the bill.

House Bill 4001: Reduce state income tax rate

To cut the state income tax from the current 4.25 percent to 3.9 percent starting in 2018, and then gradually phase out the tax over a 39 year period with annual cuts of 0.1 percent.

On Thursday: A Senate Economic Development and International Investment committee 'favorably' reported the following package of bills with a unanimous vote by both Republicans and Democrats:

Senate Bills 111, 112, 113 and 114: Transfer some state revenue to big developers

To authorize a new way of giving ongoing cash subsidies to particular developers and business owners selected by state and local political appointees. This would use the device of allowing a firm's owners to keep the state income tax payments they withhold from employee pay checks, and also let them keep sales and use tax they collect on retail purchases. The tax revenue not sent in to the state Treasury would be replaced by taxes and fees collected from other taxpayers. The Senate Fiscal Agency estimates the process could transfer up to $1.8 billion state tax dollars to developers over 20 years.

SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit https://www.michiganvotes.org.

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