NFIB/Michigan victories

NFIB/Michigan Victories: 

Elimination of the Michigan Business Tax - $1.67 Billion Tax Cut
After more than 36 years of double taxation and punitive tax policy on small business, NFIB/Michigan was successful in leading the way to repeal the confiscatory Michigan Business Tax (MBT) and replace it with a flat rate Corporate Income Tax. As a result, businesses that are not "C" type corporations will continue to pay their business tax through the state income tax and will no longer have any tax liability under the old MBT. This will end the "double taxation" that discourages many small businesses from expanding and growing jobs and represents a net tax cut of $1.67 billion.

Unemployment Insurance Changes Save Millions
NFIB/Michigan was successful in adding an amendment to a House Bill that will cut the current 26 weeks of state Unemployment Insurance benefits to 20. The move will save employers almost a billion dollars over the next three years. Follow up legislation passed in the last week of the 2011 session will implement strong fraud and waste measures in the Unemployment Insurance system and replace severe federal penalties for borrowed funds with a more manageable bond assessment. The bills were signed into law by Governor Snyder and go into effect in 2012.

Workers’ Compensation Reforms Lower Costs
NFIB backed legislation passed in the last week of the 2011 session will make important reforms to our workers’ compensation act. The changes will clarify and update many parts of the current workers compensation law that have become outdated or have been eroded by the efforts of the trial bar. By bringing stability and predictability to the law, the costs of workers’ compensation coverage paid for by Michigan job providers will also be stabilized and brought under control.

Ending Union Favoritism in Construction Bidding
After years of NFIB effort, legislation has been passed that will prohibit union-only “Project Labor Agreements” (PLAs). This will end a practice by many local governments that shut out small business, non-union, companies from the bidding process. When non-union contractors – who make up the vast majority of construction firms – are prohibited from bidding on projects funded with public dollars, taxpayers are forced to pay inflated costs due to the limitations on open bidding. This unwise stewardship of tax dollars entrusted to government by the citizens will now be prohibited.

A Balanced Budget With No Tax Hike
With NFIB support and action, Michigan has a structurally sound, balanced budget agreement that is based on solid financial principles, eliminates a $1.5 billion deficit and avoids tax hikes on small business. Through this significant action, Michigan citizens will know that the 2012 and the 2013 fiscal year budgets are structurally balanced. As a state, we can begin moving from the “Old Michigan” to the “New Michigan.”

Daycare Union Scam Ended
NFIB action has resulted in an end to a daycare money skimming operation concocted by the previous Granholm administration and organized labor. The new Department of Human Services Director, Maura Corrigan, has announced an end to this operation in March of 2011. The problem began when the Michigan Department of Human Services, working with the United Auto Workers and Association of Federal State County and Municipal Employees (UAW and AFSCME), forced home-based day care providers into a government employee union and had dues withheld from state subsidy payments paid to them by low-income families.

MIOSHA Ergonomics Rules Killed
For almost ten years, NFIB has taken the lead on slowing down the rule making process to keep MIOSHA at bay on a proposed “Michigan only” ergonomics rule that would heap new paperwork and training requirements on small business. In January of 2011 those efforts were rewarded when Governor Rick Snyder announced that the effort to draft the rule was dead. Had NFIB not led this fight, small employers in Michigan would have had yet another bureaucratic requirement to contend with.

The Governor’s Big Labor Appointees Rejected
NFIB efforts were instrumental in the state Senate rejecting a number of the Governor Granholm's last minute appointments to state boards and commissions in 2010. In a desperate attempt to preserve her legacy of moving big labor’s anti-jobs agenda, Governor Granholm attempted to appoint union officials and sympathizers to numerous boards and commissions on her way out the door. Many of these union appointees would continue this governor’s policy of union-only construction agreements as well as supporting her forced unionization of self employed workers that accepted state reimbursement for providing the state goods and services.

Union Assault on Independent Contractors Defeated
When big labor unions wanted to make it impossible for small business to hire independent contractors, NFIB worked to make sure the legislation would not make it to the Governor Granholm's desk. Many small businesses depend on independent contractors to do work when they cannot hire employees, such as specialized services or short term needs. However, big labor interests don’t like independent contractors because they are harder to organize into unions. So they pushed legislation that would impose fines and criminal penalties on a small business that incorrectly classified workers as independent contractors – even if the act was an error and was not intentional. NFIB efforts kept this bad legislation from seeing the light of day.

Services Tax Proposal Blocked
A plan by the previous Granholm administration and some big business representatives for a sales tax on services was successfully blocked by NFIB. The proposal called for lowering the sales tax rate to 5.5 percent and expanding the tax to consumer services. Most of the revenue would end up in the School Aid Fund and General Fund to lessen the need for cuts in state employee benefits and pay. Michigan business was promised cuts in the Michigan Business Tax over a three year period, but it is doubtful these cuts would ever have materialized with future budgets in deficit. NFIB action kept the plan from moving forward.