Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) said Wednesday that a public safety trust fund and a ban on student cell phones in classrooms are top priorities heading into the Legislature’s spring session.
At his weekly news conference, the GOP House leader said he wants to dedicate a portion of sales tax revenue to violence prevention and to recruiting and retaining police officers.
“You’re going to see us doing some events talking in more detail and those bills are going to move through the House hopefully very early in April,” he said.
Hall also said he expects quick action on a bill to limit cell phones in schools, an idea endorsed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her State of the State address.
Discussions on road funding continue, but Hall said he is waiting on a counterproposal to the House Republican roads plan to put more money into roads without raising taxes.
“And it does that by taking money from the corporations, these big corporations that are getting special giveaways, it claws that money back, puts it into roads and bridges,” he said. “Our taxpayers, the people that we care about, our stakeholders, they want good roads. And if we, instead of giving this money to GM, we spend this money on fixing our roads and bridges, we’re going to have great roads and that’s going to help bring more businesses here to the state.”
Hall, the highest-ranking Republican in the state Capitol, also said the GOP is pushing for an income tax rollback after the rate edged up last year to 4.25% based on a formula in a state law that reduces the tax rate when general fund revenues outpace inflation, and -- Democratic leaders say -- returns it to its initial level when those conditions aren't met. Republicans say the Whitmer administration misapplied the law.
