House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said he plans “to be very aggressive” in pursuing goals this year that include budget-cutting, overhauling property taxes, and backing Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s goal of improving student reading scores.
Hall said affordable housing is a major issue facing the state and high property taxes are a big part of that. The Republican leader has floated the possibility of putting a property tax overhaul on the ballot.
“I think people want to see relief on property taxes,” he said Tuesday. “I want to tackle the cost of health care, and also, Governor Whitmer has said her priority is literacy, so I’m really excited to work with her on figuring out how to improve literacy in our schools.”
Hall also said the Republican House majority will aggressively pursue spending cuts this year required, in part, by a flattening revenue picture. Hall is the top Republican at the state Capitol since the Senate and the executive branch are controlled by Democrats.
The House GOP leader successfully pushed for cutting state taxes on tips and overtime income while revenue was flush. Hall said that would have been tougher to sell now that official projections show revenue falling off – partially due to those policies.
“The reason I made the budget deal was because I was looking at the future years and I saw that the deal we made on roads, coupled with no tax on tips-overtime-Social Security, forces cuts to state government over the next few years in the projections,” he said.
Hall said the Legislature will have to make deeper cuts this year that he would have preferred in the first place.
“Because the budget will continue to get smaller,” he said. “We’re continuing to make government more efficient.”
Hall said he will support the Republican nominee for governor, but also thinks he could forge a good working relationship with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan if he wins the race as an unaffiliated independent candidate. There are contested GOP and Democratic Party gubernatorial primaries.
“I’m going to support the Republican, but I’m not afraid of the consequences of electing Mike Duggan,” he said.
