A Michigan Senate committee advanced Wednesday a $2.3 billion tax cut proposal with majority Republicans contending the state’s financial surpluses should be used to provide “across the board” relief.
The Senate Finance Committee voted 5-2, along party lines, in favor of the bill that would cut the personal income tax rate and the corporate income tax rate and create a new $500 per-child tax credit.
The legislation would have to pass the full Senate, where now it goes, pass the full House and gain Democratic Gov Gretchen Whitmer’s signature to become law. Whitmer is expected to call for more targeted tax cuts, aimed at seniors and low-income residents, during her State of the State address at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
Sen. Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton, the sponsor of the tax cut proposal, tied it Wednesday to rising prices and the state’s budget surpluses, which he said were more than $4 billion in the General Fund and the School Aid Fund.
“We need to step up and help hardworking taxpayers, small business owners and our seniors and our working families,” Nesbitt said.
If enacted, the bill would cost the state about $2.3 billion in revenue in Fiscal Year 2023, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency. The price tag would increase as the state’s economy grows, the agency said.
