A pro-teacher, pro-union lawmaker wants to raise the state’s 6% corporate income tax to 10% to spend billions more on public schools while slashing corporate subsidies. The proposal, which would raise the tax by 66%, aims to use the additional corporate income tax revenue to make “historic investments” in public schools. According to the bill’s author, Democrat Rep. Dylan Wegela, the extra money could give teachers an estimated $20,000-a-year raise.
Wegela’s plan would raise the corporate income tax to 10% while also doing away with “corporate handouts through the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund (SOAR) fund.” The legislation earmarks the first $1.2 billion of corporate tax revenue to the General Fund. The next $50 million would still go to the Housing Fund. Everything else would go to the School Aid Fund. Wegela wants to eliminate $500 million for SOAR and direct more than $2.4 billion to the School Aid Fund.
The proposal amounts to a 67% increase in the CIT, according to Michigan Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Sara Wurfel as reported by MIRS. Meanwhile, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a $23 billion budget bill into law this summer.
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