Lawmaker Says Special Tax Favors Are 'Cronyism'

By Tom Gantert | July 20, 2010

If a business is in need of a tax break, the quickest route may be the local politician.

State Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, recently called out his colleagues for submitting bills that created tax advantages for single businesses.

Amash called attention to Senate Bill 500, sponsored by State Sen. Tony Stamas, R-Midland. That bill was tailored to create a tax break for an electronics building in Gaylord. An expanded version was passed by the House and Senate.

Stamas didn't return an e-mail or messages left with his staff.

"Essentially, it's just cronyism," Amash said. "It's an abuse of legislative power. We are not supposed to be passing bills that help one person or one company at the expense of everyone else."

But it's not an uncommon occurrence, according to Michiganvotes.org.

For example, Rep. Bettie Scott, D-Detroit, introduced House Bill 6093, which would authorize a tax credit for a project. Many times in the bills, the project is not named, but the criteria is very specific. For instance, Scott's bill says the credit would work "for the construction of a new facility if the area in which the new facility is located is designated as a neighborhood enterprise zone by the governing body of the local governmental unit in September 2001 and if the building permit is issued for that new facility on March 3, 2003."

Working for tax breaks for individuals is a bipartisan effort, says one expert.

"Both parties have abandoned any pretense that the growing state corporate welfare empire doesn't include funneling favors to the owners of particular firms," said Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Senate Bill 500 was approved on a vote of 36-1 in the Michigan Senate and 90-16 in the Michigan House. The Michiganvotes.org roll call vote for the bill is noted below.

Contact information for all lawmakers is available at www.MichCapCon.com/9313.

~~~~~

Lawmakers voting IN FAVOR OF A SPECIAL TAX BREAK for a company in Gaylord:

HOUSE REPUBLICANS (28)

Ball	Booher	Calley	Caul	Crawford
Denby	DeShazor	Elsenheimer	Green	Haines
Hansen	Hildenbrand	Horn	Jones, Rick	Knollenberg
Kurtz	Lori	Marleau	Meltzer	Moore
Moss	Proos	Rocca	Rogers	Schmidt, W.
Stamas	Tyler	Walsh

SENATE REPUBLICANS (20)

Allen	Birkholz	Bishop	Brown	Cropsey
Garcia	George	Gilbert	Hardiman	Jansen
Jelinek	Kahn	Kuipers	McManus	Nofs
Pappageorge	Patterson	Richardville	Sanborn	Stamas

HOUSE DEMOCRATS (62)

Angerer	Barnett	Bauer	Bennett	Bledsoe
Brown, T.	Byrnes	Byrum	Clemente	Constan
Corriveau	Cushingberry	Dean	Dillon	Donigan
Durhal	Ebli	Geiss	Gonzales	Gregory
Griffin	Haase	Hammel	Haugh	Huckleberry
Jackson	Johnson	Jones, Robert	Kandrevas	Kennedy
Lahti	LeBlanc	Leland	Lemmons	Lindberg
Lipton	Liss	Mayes	McDowell	Meadows
Melton	Nathan	Nerat	Neumann	Polidori
Roberts	Schmidt, R.	Scott, B.	Scripps	Segal
Sheltrown	Slavens	Slezak	Smith	Spade
Stanley	Switalski	Tlaib	Valentine	Warren
Womack	Young