Issue Position: Jobs
Issue Position
A warrior for Michigan's small businesses.
Jobs are the answer to nearly every problem that Michigan faces today. For far too long, the state of Michigan has geared its business development activities, regulatory environment and tax policy toward big business. Brian understands that Small Businesses are our future.
The state must focus on fair labor policies, reasonable (lower) regulations and a better tax system. There is no silver bullet that will turn Michigan around. It will take hundreds of small changes that culminate in an environment conducive to job growth. Department by department and industry by industry, the state must remove obstacles to success and lower the overall cost of doing business.
While he has been outnumbered in Lansing since being elected, Brian has still gotten results for small business:
- He has fought to exempt agriculture from the Michigan Business Tax - and he was successful.
- He's defended the merits of small businesses, making sure that more than 100,000 of the smallest businesses in the state were exempt from the Michigan Business Tax - and he was successful.
- He led the effort to expand the criteria under which small and mid-sized business receive access to the "alternative profits" calculation of the Michigan Business Tax. Today, over 50,000 businesses have seen tax reductions as a result.
It is no wonder that the Small Business Association of Michigan named Brian the "Legislator of the Year". Both the Agricultural and Small Business segments of the Michigan economy have seen a net increase in jobs in spite of the economic challenges we face. But Brian is not willing to rest on these accomplishments. His policies toward small businesses should be applied broadly across every sector of the Michigan economy.
The next steps to reform the business tax structure builds upon that which we know works:
HB 5816--Increase the filing threshold of the MBT to $1 million in sales, exempting hundreds of thousands of additional businesses.
HB 5816--Eliminate the owner income and net income disqualifiers to the Small Business Credit.
HB 4750--Repeal The MBT Surcharge
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