This afternoon the Senate Finance Committee reported Senate Bill 402, a bill that would ultimately reduce the rate of the state income tax from 4.25 percent to 3.9 percent.

The legislature is mandated by statute to provide revenue sharing payments to local units of government, yet in the last decade it has diverted $6 billion to fill its own budgetary holes.

We’ve repeatedly heard “there’s no revenue to share” even though that statement has obviously been uttered by those who do not understand that revenue sharing belongs to local units of government. The state’s role is merely to collect the revenue and remit it to the local units. It has broken that promise.

Either way now that there is “revenue to share” there has been zero discussion about giving that money back to local units in hopes of restoring the money that has been taken unlawfully. As a result the League opposes any sort of tax relief without a comprehensive discussion of how state resources should be allocated.

Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League.  She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org