Small businesses are at the cornerstone of all our communities across Michigan and also across this country. However, this is not the way to support our small businesses and communities. We have billions of dollars here in Michigan on the table that were provided for federal relief, and hurting our local municipalities is not the way to do this. There are so many things we can do to support our locals, by increasing revenue sharing that we haven’t fully funded in many years. We can also take and put billions of dollars on the table to provide a fund to help support our small business owners across this state, but that’s not what we’re doing here. Instead, we’re hurting communities like mine—like the city of Dearborn—who if this bill is passed today will have a deficit of $10 million. The locals are tired of paying for millages and that is definitely prevalent. For me, this is a “no” vote and this is an easy vote because there’s so much money we have and we do what we want and we prioritize what we want in this chamber and right now, this is not the mechanism that we should be pursuing. I think there’s also many opportunities to fund our small businesses; however, providing PPT for the small business owners and increasing that dollar amount through personal property tax will not suffice.
Senator Johnson asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Johnson’s statement is as follows:
I am not a fan of the personal property tax. It’s a bad tax. It’s a regressive and bureaucratic tax. It’s onerous and unfair. It hurts small businesses and it hurts people. And quite frankly, I think we should figure out a way to eliminate it completely.
That being said, I feel that if we are going to make changes, we need to hold our local units of government, schools, and community colleges whole. I’ll support this bill only because I have been given solid commitments that this body and our colleagues in the House of Representatives will work to address the loss in revenue from these changes that would otherwise hurt our local government and schools. I would prefer that we have this solution in hand today, but I understand this is not the case. And unfortunately, our current Governor has shown us on many occasions that her word alone cannot always be counted on.
So I’m supporting this bill today to provide tax relief to our state’s small businesses who have suffered disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also to attract new entrepreneurs to Michigan. But I am also making my public pledge here today to hold my caucus’ feet to the fire to ensure that the commitments that have been made to our local governments are upheld.
The following bill was read a third time:
House Bill No. 4082, entitled
A bill to amend 1921 PA 2, entitled “An act to promote the efficiency of the government of the state, to create a state administrative board, to define the powers and duties thereof, to provide for the transfer to said board of powers and duties now vested by law in other boards, commissions, departments and officers of the state, and for the abolishing of certain of the boards, commissions, departments and offices, whose powers and duties are hereby transferred,” by amending section 3 (MCL 17.3), as amended by 2019 PA 161.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: