A little more than two weeks before Michigan voters make their decisions at the ballots, the Cass County Board of Commissioners put the upcoming statewide sales tax increase proposal up for a vote of their own Thursday.

The results — a 5-2 decision against expressing support for the controversial ballot proposal.

The board shot down a resolution that would have endorsed the Proposal 1, which will be up for a public vote on May 5, during the commissioners’ regularly meeting last week in Cassopolis. Opposing the resolution were Chairperson Bernie Williamson and commissioners Skip Dyes, Dixie Ann File, E. Clark Cobb and Robert Wagel; voting in support were Vice-Chair Robert Ziliak and Commissioner Roseann Marchetti.

The board has held a number of discussions about the upcoming sales tax proposal for several weeks. Designed to raise more than $1 billion in funding for repair to the state’s battered roadways, the proposal, if passed, will enact 10 different bills into law.

Most notable of these is a law that will amend the state constitution to raise the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, in order to offset the potential losses in funding for schools and local governments from the elimination of sales tax from the purchase of gasoline, which would be another change made with the successful passage of the proposal.

In addition, the proposal calls for an increase on the gasoline tax rate, from a flat rate of 19 cents a gallon to a variable 14.9 percent of a gallon of fuel’s base value.

“The gas tax will ebb and flow with the price of gasoline, but the idea is that it won’t be too drastic that it will affect the economy too much in the state of Michigan,” said State Rep. Aaron Miller (R-Sturgis).

Miller, whose district includes much of Cass County, including the city of Dowagiac and the village of Cassopolis, was invited to speak before the commissioners before their vote on the resolution. The lawmaker, who was elected to his first term in Lansing in November, likes many of the changes proposed by the legislation, such as the limiting money from the school aid fund to just public schools and community colleges and increased accountability from the Michigan Department of Transportation, he said.

Despite these tenets, Miller shared that his own reservations about voting for the divisive proposal. Pointing out subsidies such as the one given to filmmakers producing works in Michigan, the legislator believes there are programs that could be cut to provide more funds for road repairs, he said.

“We didn’t go after funding that is being wasted in the current budget first,” Miller said.

Despite praising the increase to earned income tax credits to offset potentially higher sales tax and vehicle registration, Miller still feels that the proposal creates a heavy burden for many taxpayers on the lower end of the income scale, he said.

“Will I be able to pay the sales tax, my wife and I? We can shoulder the sales tax and registration increases, sure,” Miller said. “My problem is that there are too many families in this district who won’t be
able to.”

Despite the lack of backup in plan in case Proposal 1 fails to gather voter support next month, Miller believes that state lawmakers can come up with a better alternative, without the pressure of a deadline like the congress that came up with this current plan, he said.

“If we can take our time and get it right, I think we can see a better solution,” Miller said.