House's Property Tax Reform To Take Center Stage

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/29/2026) The House Government Operations Committee is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday to take up the 10 bills and a resolution that makes up the House Republicans' $5 billion property tax reduction plan that has received the acronym HELP UP (Hall Effectively Lowering Property Taxes and Utility Payments).

Under the proposal, the state-issued personal property tax, state education tax, the so-called “pop-up” tax and the real estate transfer tax would all be eliminated, as well as a mandate that utilities lower their rates to match their new, lower property tax rate.

Speaking to the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC) Wednesday morning, Speaker Pro Tem Rachelle Smit (R-Shelbyville) said the revenue-neutral plan would expand the sales tax on “luxury items” like golf club membership, limousines, political ads and more to the tune of $4 billion. The remaining $1 billion in savings would come from the presumed lower electric bills from the utilities, who would be required to pass their property tax savings on to their ratepayers.

At first blush, the proposal will struggle to get support from Democrats who are skeptical that the sales tax expansion idea will come anywhere close to $5 billion, and that critical government services will be cut because of the lack of revenue.

“We have a responsibility to our constituencies to ensure that we have quality services,” said House Minority Floor Leader John Fitzgerald (D-Wyoming) to MAC members. "I believe that people need to have relief where it can be sustainably done, but let's just call it for what it is.

“We cannot eliminate the property tax and still have quality services delivered by our cities, townships and counties. We can't do that.”

In response, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), also a gubernatorial candidate, told the crowd that someone who recently moved to Michigan from Tennessee told him that he's paying $5,000 more in state and local taxes than what he was paying in Tennessee, which doesn't have property or income taxes.

“I don't know about you, but as a farm boy, $5,000 is a lot of money while you're making less being here in Michigan,” Nesbitt said. “The status quo hasn't been working these last eight years (under Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer).”

He added that in having visited all 83 counties, the comment he hears day after day is that the state property tax needs to be eliminated.

After the applause to Nesbitt's gubernatorial-like pitch died down, Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), a frontrunner to be the Senate Democrats' next leader, said flatly, “I'm not interested in defunding public schools or defunding public safety.”

Camilleri said getting rid of the state's 6 mills for public education scales back all the progress lawmakers have put toward K-12 education in the last several years – free breakfast and lunch, teacher pay increase, career technology education (CTE) programs and much more.

Then there's the question of “Who's going to fund police and fire?”

Smit responded that schools “will be made whole” under the HELP UP plan. She added that under the House-proposed budget, K-12 schools saw a record investment. On top of that, she said schools across the state are building “larger, bigger and more beautiful campuses.”

“That's great," Smit said. "I want our kids to have the best, but are we using our dollars as effectively and responsibly as possible?”

To that, Fitzgerald hopped in to talk about an elementary school in the Godfrey Lee School district that has 400 students and one bathroom per gender. His point was that infrastructure is typically paid for through local millages, and that some districts are willing to pay for the best, while others cannot.

“These are not palaces, in many cases, in underserved areas,” he said, advocating for the weighted funding formula the Senate is proposing in their Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget.