LANSING ? Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed one bill in a package giving Single Business Tax relief to businesses aimed at manufacturers and said the state will do all it can to both keep and bring jobs to Michigan.

She also said the federal government had to do its part to help the manufacturing industry in the United States, perhaps playing the greatest role in giving manufacturers a better ability to compete globally than could any other entity.

The federal government negotiates trade deals and regulates trade deals and sometimes “gives points to the other side.” The federal government could also help companies with health care and in protecting pension benefits.

While signing just SB 203, PA 296, at Industrial Metal Products Company, Granholm also signed the seven other bills in the package: HB 4982, PA 289; SB 909, PA 290; HB 5461, PA 291; HB 5460, PA 292; SB 910, PA 293; HB 5459, PA 294; SB 634, PA 295.

The bills “represent significant relief for manufacturers and keep jobs in Michigan,” Granholm said as she stood before two giant micro-finishers that polish the parts the company produces which are used in other manufacturing processes. “The state of Michigan wants to do everything it can to keep jobs here.”

The state wants to continue to improve its efforts to build a competitive working environment and when the Legislature returns in 2006, Granholm urged that members look again at her initial SBT plan which provided more in the way of personal property tax credits and lowers the SBT rate. That package was paid for by closing tax loopholes and instituting an insurance premiums tax.

The package provides companies with a 15 percent credit for the personal property taxes a company pays on its SBT bill and adjusts the sales apportionment from the current 90 percent of a company’s tax base to 92.5 percent in 2006 and 95 percent in 2008.

The package also calls for a 100 percent personal property tax credit on the costs of consolidating and moving jobs into the state. That measure is largely seen as a way of helping convince Delphi Corporation to consolidate its production facilities in the state. Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

Another part of the package extends a specific tax credit for Delphi and Visteon Corporation.

Granholm said the package should provide companies with a total of $600 million in tax savings over five years. And while the package cannot guarantee that companies will locate in the state, Granholm said it will help guarantee savings to Michigan companies.

Chuck Hadden of the Michigan Manufacturers Association said the package with its first action to eliminate the personal property tax is a “huge step for Michigan in terms of its future competitiveness because the PPT is a substantial barrier to investment in this state.”

The association intends to continue its effort to see the personal property tax eliminated and for “overall tax reform to address the inequities in the state’s business taxes that result in manufacturers paying far more than their fair share.”

House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) said the package was a real step forward for the state, and he was proud of legislators for turning Granholm’s original proposal that he charged would have “picked winners and losers” into a true tax cut.

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