LANSING – It took more than seven
hours, but the Michigan Senate eked out passage Wednesday of a road funding
package that includes a tax increase, pumping more money from the General Fund
into roads and a potential income tax cut despite sharp opposition from
Democrats and one-third of the majority Republican caucus.
The vote on the gasoline tax hike
was 19-19, prompting Lt.
Governor Brian Calley, who had not been presiding over session, to enter
the Senate chamber and take his place on the Rostrum to cast a rare
tie-breaking vote.
Calley, in comments to reporters
after the vote, made it clear his priority was to keep the process moving
toward final negotiations. And there is now the huge question of the House,
with its deeply conservative majority, can find 56 votes in the 63-member
Republican caucus, to pass the gasoline tax hike.
“I’m feeling this is another
step in the process that helps us get to a sustainable road funding solution,
and we’re waiting (for) our folks from the House side to weigh in with their
input. I think we have a pretty solid plan,” Senate Majority
Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) told reporters after session. “The
voters … asked us to look inside our budget to find efficiencies, and we’re
going to do that through the appropriations process. We’ve set the funding
framework in place with new revenue. And we also, I think, have found the right
way to control the growth of government by instituting the income tax rollback.
I think we’ve come to a pretty good spot.”
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce
also applauded passage of the bills.
“Voters have been consistent
that they want legislators to work together to fix the roads by reprioritizing
state spending, raising any needed revenue through user fees, not general tax
increases and ensuring that the tax dollars we send to Lansing to fix the roads
are actually spent on the roads,” Tricia Kinley, senior director of tax
and regulatory reform, said in a statement. “The Senate plan accomplishes
all three.”
The package consists of HB
4610
, HB
4611, HB
4612, HB
4613, HB
4614, HB
4615, HB
4616 and SB
414. HB
4609, which would eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit, was
not taken up in the chamber at all, but is also considered part of the overall
funding package. Mr. Meekhof said he expects to take that up at another time.
“Our folks had some heartburn
with it, as did folks on the other side, and it�s part of the House package, so
that’s a point of difference that we have with them,” he said.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To
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