LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Joseph Bellino has sponsored two bills to redirect $500 million in corporate handouts to a fund that supports bridge improvements as part of the Senate Republicans’ “Grow MI State” economic development package announced Wednesday.

“Rather than continuing the unfair and ineffective policy of handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to huge corporations, we should be using that money to support struggling families and improve our local infrastructure,” said Bellino, R- Monroe. “My bills would take funding from the SOAR corporate slush fund and invest it directly into fixing our local bridges, which will help make our communities safer and more attractive to new development and talent.”

Senate Bills 852 and 853 would cut the current earmark in the Income Tax Act that sends $500 million of business taxes to the SOAR Fund and redirect those funds to a bridge fund to be used to repair local and state bridges.

Bellino said his bills are part of a bigger plan to improve Michigan’s economy.

“I support a comprehensive economic strategy that boosts our entire economy by making our state more business-friendly with less bureaucratic red tape instead of picking winners and losers and growing the size of government,” Bellino said.

The Senate Republicans’ “Grow MI State” plan includes legislation to:

• Make it easier to do business in Michigan by ensuring state regulations are not stricter than those imposed by the federal government, requiring an annual review of all state agency rules to make sure they are still necessary, and forcing bureaucrats to receive approval from the Legislature before imposing costly regulations.
• Help people plant their roots in Michigan by improving licensing reciprocity in over 40 occupations for people from nurses and doctors to barbers and accountants and investing more in apprenticeship scholarships to expand Michigan’s skilled trades workforce.
• End corporate slush funds and reinvest in Michiganders by stopping cash payments to corporations and investing in desperately needed bridge repairs.
• Restore worker freedom to allow workers to decide for themselves whether they want to join a union and let job providers know Michigan is open for business again.

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