Gregory: Tax Package Passed Without 'Due Diligence'

State Sen. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) said that a package of bills passed Thursday will dramatically change Michigan's tax landscape.

The bills cut business taxes by a total of $1.8 billion, while taxing retiree pensions, eliminating or reducing a plethora of tax credits for families and homeowners, reducing Michigan's film industry tax credits and scaling back the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits the working poor.

"These are major, major, major changes," Gregory said.

When discussions first started, he agreed the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) needed to be eliminated. The problem with the MBT, he said, is that lawmakers rushed the legislation through.

"And here we are again," Gregory said. "That's exactly what we're doing now. None of this stuff has really been thought through well enough. We are rushing through tax proposals that may or may not work."

He added there's no guarantee that Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to tax only "C" corporations—large, publicly traded companies—will create jobs.

"We may end up further behind the rest of the states than we are now," he said. "I'd feel better if we'd done our due diligence."

Gregory said a number of votes today were split 19-19, with the tie-breaking votes cast by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley. The package now goes back to the House of Representatives; if passed there without changes, it'll go straight to Snyder's desk—where it started.

If the House makes any changes, the package goes to a conference committee to iron out those differences.