State Legislature Overrides Snyder’s Veto on Car Tax Bills

The bills speed up the phase-out of the sales tax on the value of a trade-in when buying a new vehicle.

Snyder at NAIAS 2017 2

Jake Neher/WDET
State Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof

The state Legislature went over the governor’s head Wednesday. It approved a veto override – something that hasn’t happened in Michigan since 2002.

The bills speed up the phase-out of the sales tax on the value of a trade-in when buying a new vehicle. Governor Rick Snyder vetoed them last year because of budget concerns. But Speaker of the House Tom Leonard says he’s not worried about the budget. 

“Since I’ve been here it seems like, that we’ve continued to put the state’s budget over the individual budgets of each of our hardworking citizens,” he said.

The Legislature and governor have butted heads recently over other potential tax cuts.

“I know that he doesn’t care for it, but again, I represent families – as does he – and I think the notation that government needs more money than our families is preposterous,” said Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive).

The override required a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate. That meant a bipartisan effort with the entire Senate voting in favor.

“It’s a bad tax,” said Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint) after the Senate vote. “It was a bad tax yesterday, it was a bad tax last month, it was a bad tax last year. It was wrong in the first place, we never should have had it in place and we’re finally fixing it.”

In a statement, Gov. Snyder said the state shouldn’t change the tax code without a plan in place to pay for it. He said the state needs long-term financial planning to maintain its comeback. 

Author

  • Cheyna Roth is the co-host and creator of WDET's state politics podcast, MichMash. She has been an audio journalist for almost a decade, covering major events like presidential elections, college scandals, the Michigan Legislature and more, appearing on NPR and across Michigan public radio stations. Cheyna is also a senior producer and podcast host for Slate.com, having produced and hosted shows like Political Gabfest, The Waves, and What Next TBD. Also an author, Cheyna has written two true crime books and her written work has appeared in Broadly, Slate, and MLive, among others.