Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on March 2, 2006, to authorize property tax abatements for property used for warehousing, distribution, or logistic purposes, or as a communication service center, if the facility is at least 100,000 square feet. This is essentially the same bill as Senate Bill 175, which was vetoed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. This would allow a proposed Wal-Mart warehouse near Mt. Pleasant to qualify for a tax break

The vote was 21 in favor, 16 opposed and 1 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 241 at Senate Journal 36)

Click here to view bill details.

Senator Basham's statement is as follows: I read in the USA Today this morning that the worst infant mortality rate in the country is in Wyoming. It's also no coincidence that Wyoming is the best tax-friendly state in the country. These are directly correlated. Quite frankly, if you don't pay taxes and have no corporations paying taxes, then you don't fund public education, you don't fund the Department of Environmental Quality, you don't fund Corrections. Prisoners actually get out. There are a number of reasons that we pay taxes in this state and the residents of this state benefit as a result of us paying taxes. For a company that puts a smiley face as its logo and it's the largest employer in the country and half of the children of its employees are on Medicaid and 15.5 percent of its employees are on Medicaid and cost the taxpayers of this state $46 million a year for us to give their distribution center, which would normally be located where their stores are anyway regardless of a tax break, another tax break is just ludicrous. I find that we in this legislative body should be a little bit more deliberative about who we give tax breaks to and why we give those tax breaks just because a business recommends that we give them a tax break. They pay no taxes. I guess if I were Walmart, I would be asking for it too, but, quite frankly, I wouldn't be expecting to get it.

Senator Toy's statement is as follows: I am appalled. I cannot believe my ears. This state, as I've risen before and said, we're in deep, deep economic problems. It's time that we face this. I'm a small business owner, as you know. I want to provide jobs, and I want to provide good health care for those people I employ. I want to have customers come to my door and spend dollars. With this kind of attitude, we aren't going to spend anything in this state. We've got to become bold; we've got to become creative. We've got to incentivize this economy; we've got to jump-start this economy. We were just in Commerce the other day hearing testimony from a gentleman who read The World Is Flat, which is the new Bible of the world, I guess. I don't say that it's a bad book by any means, but I don't think it recites verse and text everything we have to believe about this world. But it makes some interesting theories. I think that we have to begin to listen to what is going on and be creative and be open to it. We're not going to get anywhere by operating the same way we have and that's what we continually do. We continually do that. If you only come to southeastern Michigan, where the economy has taken a dump as it is in a lot of other parts of our great state, you see houses for sale and you hear people saying, "I need a job. I'm middle America. I'm losing my job. My uncle, my aunt, my child can't find a job. They're moving to Chicago; they're moving to Indiana; they're moving to Ohio." Help us. Help us stimulate the economy. Don't make more red tape. Don't make more restrictions. Let's begin to open up the floodgates to say we're a great state; we've got great assets; we've got great attributes; we've got great colleges. We've got to begin to do some of these things or we are going to say, "The last one in Michigan, shut out the lights." Let's not go back to those days. Let's not put businesses up for sale like we are houses. Let's be bold; let's do something.

Senator Brown's statement is as follows: To the Senator from the 14th District, here are my frustrations. We have people out of work. To the Senator from the 19th District, this bill will create jobs and that is the larger point. To the Senator from the 8th District, the only smiley face associated with this legislation is the smiling faces of children whose parents could possibly have a job as a result of this legislation. Madam President, the main challenge confronting this state is the lack of jobs. The best way to meet this challenge is to create jobs. The best way to create jobs is to give locals the tools they need to compete not just against India, but Indiana. Our state's unemployment rate, and there's a litany that you're familiar with, but our state's unemployment rate--and we need to hear this--went up from 6.6 percent in February to 6.8 percent in March. Unemployment in Detroit area went up another 1/2 percent to 7.2 percent. The national unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. The gap between Michigan and the rest of the nation is growing, not shrinking. Hurricane-ravaged Louisiana's unemployment rate, as high as 12 percent in the months after the storm, is now at 4.3 percent. According to The Detroit News, Michigan has lost 1 of 3 manufacturing jobs since 1999 and 20,000 since March of last year alone. Just yesterday--yesterday afternoon--Klein Tools of Jonesville announced they were moving 110 quality jobs from Jonesville, not to 15 miles within the border, but all the way to Illinois. Last week, Federal Mogul of St. Johns announced the closure of its 420-employee plant in St. Johns. Just over two weeks ago, Delphi announced the eventual closure of plants in Adrian, Coopersville, Flint, and Saginaw--totaling 10,000 Michigan employees. When it comes time to fill these massive buildings and hire these workers, the replacement business, Madam President, could be, guess what?--a distribution or logistics company, a commercial warehouse that could fill some of the void left by these manufacturing companies. These modern-day commercial warehouses, if you read The World Is Flat, are engaging enterprises beyond our wildest dreams. Certainly, beyond what the founders envisioned when they established Public Act 198 in 1974-1975. But we won't replace these facilities with these commercial distribution centers if we don't give Michigan communities the same tools our neighboring states give their communities. Why would a distribution center fill a building in St. Johns or Adrian if they could fill a similar building and receive the incentive to do so in Indiana, as they have? Why would a logistics center move to Coopersville or Saginaw if a similar community in Ohio or Illinois can offer the same economic incentive that our communities cannot? Is diversification of Michigan's economy really our goal? Do we really believe in local control? Do we trust our local economic development directors in our cities, villages, and townships--15 miles, 100 miles, wherever--and township officials to make decisions in the best interests of their communities? Do we want to increase our chances of attracting quality jobs to our state when we desperately need them? The answer is yes. We need to vote for this bill. This is a small but important step that this Legislature can take to turn our economy around and I trust that the Governor will concur.

Senator Garcia's statement is as follows: With the state losing jobs by the thousands, it's imperative that we work together in a bipartisan manner to bring jobs to Michigan and to help create jobs in Michigan. The Governor has said that she would go anywhere, do anything to bring jobs to Michigan. It is my hope that she will keep her promise to do so and sign this piece of legislation. It was recently reported that Michigan ranks No.5 in the nation in home foreclosures, which means people don't have jobs to keep paying for their homes. They are going to leave this state. They're going to leave this state in dire economic straits and continue to foster a situation and economic climate here in Michigan where it's just going to get even worse. So it is my hope that the Governor will do anything and will specifically sign this piece of legislation which will create jobs in Michigan and will help real people.

Senator Schauer's statement is as follows: The sponsors of this bill and those who voted against the amendments that were offered would have this state reduce its School Aid Fund by giving broad, unfocused tax giveaways to all commercial facilities that meet this definition. I hope that you've read this bill. I'm sure you have and realize that the current law, which became effective December 16th in an amendment that I believe the sponsor of this bill offered to help this one community in his district, would allow these commercial properties to qualify under PA 196--again the industrial facilities exemption certificate if at least 90percent of the property, excluding surrounding green space, was used for warehousing, distribution, and logistics to provide food for institutional, restaurant, hospital, or hotel customers; at least 90 percent. This bill removes this. It not only removes the 90 percent requirement, but there is virtually no requirement at all. In fact, I'll find that. It just says that in striking that 90 percent requirement, it just says "is used for." So any percent--pick a percent--would have to meet that requirement. So really what we are saying with this bill is that any kind of commercial facility that has any percentage of warehousing would qualify for this abatement. The idea, I guess, is that those proponents want to replace lost manufacturing jobs with these kinds of warehousing jobs or other commercial jobs. Not the best idea in terms of long-range planning. It's certainly bad tax policy and one that would put our schools at risk. I would urge a "no" vote.