Senators Prusi and Cherry, under their constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill No. 1065.
Senator Prusi moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting “no.”
The motion prevailed.
Senator Prusi’s statement, in which Senator Cherry concurred, is as follows:
I apologize for not jumping up on the previous bill and explaining why I was not in support of it or in support of this bill. It’s not because I’m against giving relief in these cases. It’s simply because once again we’re making significant changes to the tax structure on the fly. We’ve had no committee testimony. We don’t have anything but ballpark figures—$20 million, $200 million, $60 million, $165 million. I’ve heard five or six different figures bandied about here. I think that’s a rather significant impact to the state’s revenue stream.
Without proper testimony, without proper and due deliberation in committee, and for that reason, even though I may at some point like what is in these bills, I haven’t even had a chance to weigh them or study them. I’ve not had a chance to take testimony from the people across the state of Michigan who might have an interest in this legislation.
At this point, I cannot support the bills, and that is as close to the subject as I can get.