New Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's first budget http://www.michigan.gov/... was released this morning. High points (or low points, depending on your point of view):
* Individual tax rates will fall from 4.35% to 4.25% as scheduled, but the further scheduled drop to 3.9% will be put on the shelf (why are we cutting taxes at all when we have such a huge budget hole?)
* Eliminates tax exemption for public and private pensions (seniors' groups are squawking, but Michigan is only one of three states to exempt pensions in the first place, and the poverty rate among seniors is lower than for younger people. Can't argue against this.)
* Eliminates the Michigan Single Business Tax, and replaces it with a flat 6% corporate income tax, that will not hit small businesses (The SBT was widely hated, but this amounts to a huge tax break for the business community - Snyder's real constituency)
* Eliminates business tax credits for films, Brownfield Redevelopment, new battery technology, etc. (There is an argument to be made that these never paid for themselves, and the state has not been great at picking winners and losers in business.)
* Shoves public universities and community colleges in with K-12 education, to share in the school aid fund. Cuts university funding by 15%. Cuts per pupil education funds an additional $300, on top of $170 cut already budgeted. (This will be an absolute disaster. We are grinding our seed corn with this one.)
* ELIMINATES statutory revenue sharing to cities, townships, and villages. Constitutional revenue sharing will continue. (For those cities continuing to receive statutory revenue sharing - among the poorest - this is the worst news possible. I hope the state has a bunch of receivers ready to go when these cities declare bankruptcy.)