LANSING - State Representative Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem) today criticized a plan proposed by Senate Republicans as a limited and shortsighted proposal. The plan, which aims to create jobs through tax breaks, fails to address perhaps the greatest threat to economic growth and recovery, the rising costs of employee health care.
"Ask any employer 'what is the biggest threat to their ability to compete in today's marketplace and create new
employment opportunities and retain workers' and they will tell you, health care coverage," said Smith. "A job creation
plan that fails to address health care is a job creation plan that fails to go to the heart of the matter. We must be
very wary of plans that offer the soft seduction of 'solutions' but bear real costs to the state's revenue stream with
no immediate impact on a grinding deficit that has crippled the state year after year."
Smith also pointed to a
provision in the plan that would provide a tax credit of up to $5,000 for wealthy investors who lose money investing in
new, tech-based ventures, saying that it could also prove too costly, especially if the reason why many Michigan
businesses fail is neglected.
"Senator Sikkema is willing to commit tax dollars to offer relief to well-off investors and yet, in practically the same breath, he's talking about the need for Medicaid cuts, which would affect our children, our grandparents - some of the most vulnerable members of our communities," said Smith. "The fact is, new industries will not come to Michigan if the cost of health care continues to suffocate profits and growth.
"If the Republicans have indeed identified revenue to support yet another corporate tax cut, let's not use it to take the 'adventure' out of 'venture capital,'" she added. "Michigan businesses and families would be better served if we, instead, considered a tax relief to the employers of Michigan's 118,000 low-income, uninsured workers who rely on Medicaid. That would be a tax credit that offers both an immediate and real, long-term impact on the budget."