Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on February 4, 2004, to exempt methane digester electric generating systems from personal property tax. These systems are equipment used to generate electricity or heat from biogas, or to store biogas for the future generation of electricity or heat

The vote was 30 in favor, 5 opposed and 3 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 353 at Senate Journal 56)

Click here to view bill details.

Reps. Law and Hopgood, having reserved the right to explain their protest against the passage of the bill, made the following statement: "Mr. Speaker and members of the House: I voted no on SB 953 and SB 955 because: The state does not have funds available at this time to finance such a program, especially one that would basically benefit operations large enough to use a methane digester, usually multimillion-dollar CAFOs. The bill would amount to a $1.6 million tax payer subsidy for factory farms that in general have a history of environmental violations. Additionally, studies show that methane digesters have a failure rate near 50 percent. Tax breaks and financing incentives for large farms and CAFOs may encourage the development of these large facilities to the detriment of small and medium size family farms. CAFOs or 'factory farms' which may have thousands of animals have been responsible for numerous violations of state and federal environmental laws and regulations in Michigan. Those who argue for a free market system believe that the construction and operation of methane digesters and other alternative technology should be a cost of doing business and not subsidized by the taxpayer dollars."