LANSING – A day after officials from the film community asked Michigan lawmakers not to change the newly created tax incentives for their industry, which include the biggest tax credit in the country, the chair of the Michigan House Appropriations Committee said he has spoken with the speaker and is asking for a limit to the credits.
Rep. George Cushingberry Jr. (D-Detroit) said he would like to see the hit to the state’s pocketbook minimized by reducing how much can be spent on the credits to $10 million-$50 million a year.
Cushingberry said that would not mean the 40 percent Michigan Business Tax credit for film companies would go away, but simply they would have to collect their credit over some time.
Cushingberry said he is prepared to act on his own, but has talked with Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) about the budget implications of the new incentives, which fiscal experts have pegged at around $100 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
“We have to rein this mustang in. I like Dirty Harry, but this isn’t the Wild West, this is the Great Lakes state,” he said.
In other budget updates, Cushingberry said he is not prepared to move on the budgets for the Departments of Community Health and Human Services, along with community colleges and higher education, because of the uncertainty regarding federal Medicaid rule changes.
He said that while he was still gathering more information on those, he is prepared to send the full House budgets for other departments that originated from the Senate. He said those could go into conference, although the Medicaid issues prevent lawmakers from setting targets at this time.
It’s expected that the Appropriations Committee may begin action on those budgets by next week.
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