LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she is “skeptical” of legislation passed with bipartisan support during the Legislature’s lame duck session aimed at giving significant tax breaks to Grand Rapids-based grocer Meijer for the purchase and retention of automation equipment.
Whitmer must decide whether to sign Senate Bills 1149, 1150 and 1153, which remove sales tax from the purchase of automated material handling systems and remove personal property tax from such systems, once installed.
The bills have reached Whitmer's desk as the state is facing declining revenues and increased costs during the coronavirus pandemic, and as Michigan grocers are seeing sharply increased profits. Still, the bills have support from what many would consider an unlikely source — the United Food and Commercial Workers Union that represents tens of thousands of grocery workers in Michigan.