Granholm: No sales tax on services this year

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the obvious on Thursday, saying that there was insufficient political courage in the Michigan legislature to pass legislation that would apply the sales tax to most services in order to shore up the state budget and prevent the steep budget cuts the state has faced on a yearly basis. The Detroit News reports:

Granholm said reconfiguring the tax structure is critical to Michigan’s economic recovery, but lawmakers simply won’t pass a tax increase in the run-up to November’s general election — and it’s unlikely they will during the lame-duck session that follows.

“I understand there’s very little desire in the Legislature to talk about anything with the word ‘tax’ in it,” Granholm said at a Lansing press conference. “It requires some political courage for people to vote in that direction, and I don’t see that happening before the election.”

The roadblock, as always, is the Republican-led Senate, which has steadfastly refused to raise new revenues and forced the state to make deep cuts in crucial services year after year.