Legislation watch
2003 Senate Bill 824 (Senate Roll Call 202)
Passed in the Senate (36 to 0) on March 31, 2004. [History, Amendments & Comments]
The vote was 36 in favor, 0 opposed, and 2 not voting
(Senate Roll Call 202 at Senate Journal 34)
[Comment on this vote | View others' comments]
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The following legislators supported 2003 Senate Bill 824:
The following legislators opposed 2003 Senate Bill 824:
The following legislators did not vote on 2003 Senate Bill 824:
| Bernero (D) | Toy (R) |
Most Recent Comments
1) Yeah, right! [by Anonymous Citizen on March 4, 2004]A lot of good programs such as this one did for the soon-to-be former AB Electrolux employees.
Government should NOT be in the business of picking the winners and losers in the private sector.
This program should be abolished and the monies already budgeted towards it rolled back into the general fund where they can do more good.
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Win! Win! Win! Sign up for your MEGA credit here. Get rich!
If you are a corporation wanting to expand in Michigan, you may already be a winner!
Just fill out forms showing that you might have gone to another state, and MEDC will make sure you get MEGA tax credits and property tax abatements. Just pretend that the MEDC is responsible for bringing or keeping you here, and the endless wallets of Michigan taxpayers can be yours!!!
You can promise new jobs and not deliver! KMart and Aspen Bay did. We don't care -- it's not like it's our $37,000,000! We only take little amounts from all Michigan taxpayers, and they never notice!
But hurry and sign up today. We were going to expire, but now we are only wasting, er, investing in companies through 2009. Get yours now before it's all gone.
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Despite the very articulate response by Senator Schauer, he (and judging by the rest of the recent vote, the rest of the Michigan Senate) still fails to grasp the inherent problem with programs such as these: It is not a function of government to, in effect, assume a role of central planners in Michigan’s economy.
This bill is putting Michigan on a slippery slope, which according to history will only ruin the state’s economy in the long term.
This bill should be voted down when it comes back from the House for final ratification, the agencies covered under this bill should be closed and their budgets returned to the General Fund so that they cannot be used to implement another similar program.
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