Post by Logan on Feb 24, 2017 20:47:34 GMT -6
LANSING — The future of tax cuts for Michigan families was at least temporarily in tatters Thursday after a marathon legislative session that ended early in the morning with a stinging defeat for Speaker of the House Tom Leonard when the House of Representatives killed a proposal to cut the state's income tax from 4.25% to 3.9%.
"We go on, we work on the budget for the next three to four months and we pick up the next big agenda item and go for it," said an obviously disappointed Leonard after the 52-55 vote that killed his top legislative priority. "This is not going to stop us. A vast majority of my members stood to defend the taxpayers of the state tonight."
But 12 Republican members abandoned Leonard and the tax plan, saying it wasn't prudent to bust a $1.1 billion hole in the budget over the next four years without a plan on how to replace the revenue or where budget cuts should happen.
That doesn't mean that tax policy is off the table for this legislative session. The House reserved the right to reconsider the income tax vote at some point in the future, perhaps after the budget is complete and there's a better idea of how much money would be available for tax relief. Democrats said they would love to talk about tax cuts that are more targeted toward the middle class and Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said tax proposals will be on the agenda at some point in the next two years.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/michigan-income-tax-cut/98300908/
"We go on, we work on the budget for the next three to four months and we pick up the next big agenda item and go for it," said an obviously disappointed Leonard after the 52-55 vote that killed his top legislative priority. "This is not going to stop us. A vast majority of my members stood to defend the taxpayers of the state tonight."
But 12 Republican members abandoned Leonard and the tax plan, saying it wasn't prudent to bust a $1.1 billion hole in the budget over the next four years without a plan on how to replace the revenue or where budget cuts should happen.
That doesn't mean that tax policy is off the table for this legislative session. The House reserved the right to reconsider the income tax vote at some point in the future, perhaps after the budget is complete and there's a better idea of how much money would be available for tax relief. Democrats said they would love to talk about tax cuts that are more targeted toward the middle class and Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said tax proposals will be on the agenda at some point in the next two years.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/michigan-income-tax-cut/98300908/