Sen. Jansen to lead MBT Impact Assessment Subcommittee
LANSING - State Sen. Mark Jansen has been appointed to lead a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Finance, charged with soliciting and analyzing input from taxpayers on the impact of the Michigan Business Tax and suggestions for its improvement.
"I am honored to be selected to head such an important subcommittee," said Jansen, R-Gaines Township. "My Senate colleagues and I want to help ensure that businesses, the backbone of our state's economy, are not suffering from any unintended consequences of the MBT. By establishing this subcommittee we will be able to listen to taxpayers and work to make the new tax more fair and equitable."
Jansen was selected to chair the MBT Impact Assessment Subcommittee by Senate Finance Committee Chair Nancy Cassis. Other members of the subcommittee include Sens. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac, and Michael Prusi, D-Ishpeming.
"As chair of Senate Finance Committee I have heard from multitudes of small and medium-sized businesses regarding the devastating effects the Michigan Business Tax is having on their ability to keep workers and to stay in business," said Cassis, R-Novi. "It became increasingly evident that the next step had to be taken. It is for this reason that I have appointed a bipartisan subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee to hold hearings on the effects of this new tax."
The MBT replaced the widely despised Single Business Tax last year. Since the inception of the new tax, the Finance Committee has heard copious testimony that the tax is unduly harming small businesses.
"The Senate's MBT workgroup is a distinguished panel of legislators charged with reviewing the implementation of the Michigan Business Tax," said Senate Majority Leader Michael Bishop, R-Rochester. "The Legislature's intent was to replace a job-killing tax with one that allows Michigan's economy to grow. It's now our responsibility to assess the tax's actual effects with its intended effects - including the costs of compliance - and suggest modifications where necessary. I look forward to reviewing my colleagues' recommendations."
The subcommittee will make recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee by June 1. No hearing dates have yet been set.
Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008
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