LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm should have no problem signing the latest package of Single Business Tax changes, Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders said Tuesday, since the proposal consists only of elements already agreed to by the administration. But more proposals are coming.

House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) and Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) said changes will be coming in 2006, when the Legislature will focus on more controversial aspects of changing the SBT.

The proposal for the remainder of 2005 focuses on Michigan’s core industry, manufacturing, the leaders said, by creating credits for personal property taxes paid. The package would also continue a tax cut already in place for the Delphi and Visteon.

The two said this package would cost the state an estimated $500 million over the next four years; the net tax cut in the package that the governor vetoed because of disagreements over the SBT sunset was about $669 million over six years.

Granholm’s spokesperson said the governor did not endorse nor reject the proposal immediately, but would study it. Any proposal has to follow Granholm’s principles that it would neither transfer costs to citizens nor force them to endure cuts in education or health care spending.

Clearly still smarting by Granholm’s action of last week to sign a jobs development proposal while vetoing the tax cut portion (in a maneuver allowed because the language that tie-barred the package did not specifically mandate that all the bills be effective in order to be enacted), DeRoche and Sikkema said they were focusing on the future.

Asked specifically if the package were not an attempt to attract Granholm’s veto, Sikkema said no. If it were, he said the leaders would try to push a package that focused on the issues where there were disagreements between they and Granholm, such as the repealer on the 2009 sunset of the SBT.

“This is not a game,” DeRoche said. “We need to get past the ‘he said/she said’ aspect and some of the pettiness.” The people do not want bickering, he said, they want answers.

DeRoche said Republicans are still examining the legality of the actions Granholm took last week. And he said some of his caucus members wanted to push back against Granholm.

Sikkema said he and the speaker did have priorities for more tax cuts in the future, but were putting that on hold in order to get action on this proposal now.

Initial legislative Democratic responses were both critical and cautious of the proposal. Senate Minority Leader Bob Emerson (D-Flint) said, “Unilateral proposals only serve to increase the level of partisan rancor and make us question how truly committed those involved are to getting something done. As far as we’re concerned, this issue was resolved when the original agreement was made on a tax restructuring package and we can skip this political maneuvering by sticking to that deal.”

House Democrats did not officially respond to the GOP announcement.

Because the issues were part of the deal announced on November 4 that quickly collapsed is why Ms. Granholm should have no problem signing them, both Sikkema and DeRoche said.

The proposals will create a 15 percent refundable personal property tax credit beginning on January 1, and for 2007 and 2008 creates a 100 percent personal property tax credit on property used directly to support jobs moved into the state. The second proposal is also seen as an incentive to Delphi, which is reviewing what plants to close and consolidate.

There needs to be no further negotiation on this proposal, both men said. Sikkema said this piece of the proposal had been negotiated “ad infinitum,” and DeRoche said it had been talked about, “ad nauseum.?

This proposal alone with not turn the state’s economy around, Sikkema said, but it is a piece of the solution. He said he hoped the jobs proposal, that uses $400 million in tobacco securitization money, would be successful. But continued economic development will also require tax cuts, he said.

The proposal would also require no budget cuts in the current fiscal year because the state finished the 2004-05 fiscal year with more in reserves than originally anticipated, they said.

Chuck Hadden of the Michigan Manufacturers’ Association said he was hopeful the proposal would pass, but he added that manufacturers would also want to see the apportionment factor in the SBT moved to 100 percent sales from its current 90 percent sales basis.

Tricia Kinley of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce said the proposal was exactly the type of tax relief the state needs, simple and straightforward. “We don’t need convoluted tax relief that either complicates the system and leaves job providers thinking they are left with nothing or have something they can’t understand,” she said.

Boyd said Granholm was, “open to exploring a number of ideas. We will review their package in depth.” She acknowledged that the package may succeed in not cutting spending or forcing individuals to shoulder the cost of government, but the administration is sticking to its principles in the ongoing debate.

There will be seven bills in the overall package with three being introduced in the Senate on Wednesday. The other four bills will be introduced in the House at a later date, said Matt Resch, spokesperson for DeRoche. Votes on all the bills are set to occur next week.