Americans for Prosperity-Michigan

Bishop: No Tax Hike for '11

MIRS   –   1/13/10
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop today said that his caucus won’t be backing a tax hike in the crafting of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget, although he expects Gov. Jennifer Granholm to push for one.

That’s the position the Senate GOP took and stuck with for FY 2010, but it’s the first time Bishop has reiterated it since the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC) Monday pegged the FY ’11 hole at least $1.7 billion.

“I expect the Governor will put a tax increase on the table,” Bishop told reporters after session. “But we’ll put a viable solution on the table, as well.”

When asked if he backed the Business Leaders of Michigan plan to expand the sales tax to services, Bishop said he would consider it. But he noted other groups have ideas, notably the free-market Mackinac Center and the conservative Heritage Foundation.

MIRS asked Bishop why not raise taxes, since Michiganders have gone from paying 9.5 percent of their incomes in taxes in 1999 to 7 percent today (See “Kleine: Hard To Get Through ’11 Sans Tax Hike,” 1/11/10). He said that’s because people’s incomes have “dropped precipitously” and it’s not fair to ask them to pay more taxes.

Bishop’s solution will include a number of government reforms Senate Republicans will pop next week. MIRS has learned there will be education reforms, including finding efficiencies with Intermediate School Districts and local government reforms aimed at making consolidation and service sharing easier. There have been some discussions with the House and Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser.

In December, the caucus proposed benefit reforms. Although Bishop said the reforms will yield savings for FY ’11, he declined to put a price tag on them. He said he wasn’t sure what will pass, but the proposals could provide “enormous savings.”

“It depends if members will step out that far,” he said. “It’s the kind of reform we haven’t talked about — haven’t dared talk about,” Bishop added. “It’s about taking ourselves out of the comfort zone and challenging every aspect of government.”

Bishop vowed to be “as transparent as possible” about the reforms. He said it was about “defining what government is about” and reinventing it.

He did not sign on to Granholm’s “grand bargain,” saying he doesn’t “know what she intends to do.” Bishop said that he and the Governor are talking to some of the same people.