Governor Rick Snyder and members of his budget team visited New York to meet with the agencies that set the state’s credit rating.
The state’s rating suffered due to the effects of the decade-long recession.
It's bond ratings are not that bad, but they could be better.
Governor Snyder traveled to Wall Street with state Treasurer Andy Dillon and Budget Director John Nixon. They made the case that Michigan deserves an upgrade because it’s overhauled its business tax and wrapped up its budget months ahead of schedule without resorting to accounting gimmicks and one-time fixes.
Sara Wurfel, the governor’s press secretary, said “one change in a state’s bond rating can actually mean millions of dollars in lower payments.”
The governor’s itinerary included meetings with Moody's, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's. The meetings only opened the discussions with Wall Street, and Wurfel says there will be further negotiations as the governor tries to reduce the cost to taxpayers when Michigan borrows money.
People and businesses that owe back taxes to the state of Michigan have until June 30th to pay up without paying fines and penalties.
There are potentially hundreds of thousands of people and businesses that owe the state unpaid taxes.
The state hopes to net $90 million dollars from the tax amnesty program.
State Treasurer Andy Dillon says if you owe, now is a good time to pay:
"It doesn’t matter why you didn't pay your taxes – the penalties can be forgiven. And the penalties can be quite stiff. It depends on the tax that you’re talking about, but it can be as much as 25% of the liability that can be forgiven, and the sooner you pay it off, the sooner you stop paying interest on that obligation."
This is the third time since the 1980s the state’s offered amnesty to people and businesses with unpaid back taxes.
The program requires payment of all back taxes plus interest.
The amnesty program was approved by the Legislature last year to find some new revenue to help balance the budget.
Governor-elect Rick Snyder announced this morning in Ann Arbor that he has picked Democrat Andy Dillon to be state treasurer. Dillon is currently the Speaker in the Michigan House of Representatives. Interestingly enough, Dillon lost the Democratic bid to be Michigan's next governor to his primary opponent Virg Bernero. Bernero went on to lose the general election on November 2nd to Snyder.
The Associated Press is reporting Govenror-elect Rick Snyder has chosen House Speaker Andy Dillon to be the state's next treasurer. Former Lt. Gov Dick Posthumus will be his legislative affairs advisor.
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