Alleged Tax-Cut Fever In Lansing Hasn't Slowed State Spending

The Michigan Legislature has been controlled by Republican majorities since 2010, and periodically the talk there turns to cutting the state income tax rate. When it does, media outlets in the state generally deride the idea, sometimes with buzzwords like the current one, “tax-cut fever.”

The term appeared in a Jan. 27 article published by Crain’s Detroit Business. It said, “Piles of cash have tax-cut fever spreading in Lansing. ... Tax-cut fever is once again sweeping across Lansing – and even the Democratic governor has a mild case of the bug.”

Revenue collected by Michigan’s state government from state sources, not including federal money, is projected to total $37.9 billion in the current 2021-2022 fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. That is nearly 15% more than the $33 billion the state raised and spent here in 2019-20, just two years ago. In the 2020-21 fiscal year the amount was $35.5 billion.

So apparently, periodic tax cut fever epidemics in Michigan’s capital city haven’t slowed state spending. The last outbreak of tax-cut fever was in 2017, when 12 Republicans joined all Democrats in defeating an income tax cut, which would have reduced it from 4.25% to 4.05% over two years.