Bumstead Casts an Aye and a Nay

State Sen. Jon Bumstead on Wednesday issued the following statement in response to legislation that passed yesterday in the Michigan Senate: 
 
“I voted in favor of House Bill 5351 to increase the true cash value, from $80,000 to $180,000, of industrial and commercial personal property for which a taxpayer may claim a personal property tax (PPT) exemption because of the positive economic benefit that property owners would receive.
 
“I had initial concerns with this legislation and how the local tax collecting units would be reimbursed for the lost tax revenue. However, before casting my vote, I was assured that the state would hold our locals harmless.
 
“Yesterday evening, a $1.5 billion-dollar budget supplemental was brought before the Senate for a vote. Senate Bill 85 includes funding to hold locals harmless for the revenue shortfall they would see from the change in HB 5351. Unfortunately, this bill also contained $1 billion of unnecessary taxpayer handouts for large corporations, and I voted to oppose the supplemental. SB 85 ended up passing the Senate by a vote of 25 to 11.
 
“I fully support the concept of increasing the exemption to provide much-needed tax relief to our small businesses and intended to vote to ensure our local governments would not experience a shortfall. However, I could not support a budget bill where the government creates winners and losers by giving away taxpayer dollars for large corporate handouts.”

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