School groups are hoping the Legislature’s Democratic majorities will come up with new revenue to support Michigan’s K-12 schools.
Peter Spadafore is with the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity. He appeared on the Michigan Public Television show “Off The Record.” Spadafore says the Legislature should consider extending the state’s six percent sales tax to also apply to services.
"The sales tax on service is one way to look at adding revenue to the state. A lot of other states do it on a lot of goods that we do not provide service tax on. You go to the movie theater, right? You pay sales tax on the candy but not on the tickets. A lot of folks don’t realize that, don’t know that.” said Spadafore.
But efforts over the years to expand the sales to services have failed. A law adopted in 2007 to expand the sales tax to services was so widely panned it was quicky repealed.