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Election year tax cut among top priorities as lawmakers return to Lansing

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   State lawmakers return this week for the start of their 2014 session. Any bills that did not pass in 2013 are still active in the new year.

But the Legislature also has some new issues on its agenda.

For instance, lawmakers will need to figure out what to do with an expected budget surplus. Early estimates suggest the state has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, save, or send back to taxpayers. And it seems many legislators favor the last option.

“I expect us to look at cutting taxes,” said state House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall), “realizing that every dollar that the state has is a dollar that a hardworking taxpayer first worked hard to earn.”

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) says some of that money should also be put in the state’s savings. 

“If our overages of revenues versus expenses gives us some extra money, I think it would be a mistake to line up and spend it right away,” said Richardville. “Instead we should continue to manage it in, I think, a responsible financial way.”

House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) says he’d also like to see an election year tax cut. But he says he’d like to see half of the surplus money go to public schools and universities.

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.