Michigan Voters Hike Sales Tax to Finance Schools

Michigan voters overwhelmingly chose a higher sales tax over an income tax increase Tuesday to generate $10.2 billion for public schools.

Proposal A, which will raise the sales tax from 4% to 6%, was the only measure on the special statewide ballot. If voters had rejected it, a law passed by the Legislature would have required the income tax to be raised from 4.6% to 6%.

With 88% of the precincts counted, 1,441,224 voters were in favor of the measure and 624,041 had voted against it.

The election marked the end of a saga that began in July, when lawmakers and Gov. John Engler ended the use of property taxes for school operations without having any replacement money in sight.

That wiped out about $7 billion that had been used for educating Michigan’s 1.6 million schoolchildren.

The sales tax increase was backed by Engler, a first-term Republican who campaigned in 1990 on a promise to cut property taxes.

Engler said the challenge was to get voters to understand their choices. “When they understood, they agreed with me that the sales tax was a better way to go,” he said.

Voters had rejected five sales tax increases since 1978 and had turned down seven other plans dealing with school finances or property taxes since 1972.