Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
LIVONIA, Mich. – The marine industry in Michigan has survived a heated state budget battle, which ended with a sales tax on a long list of services that excluded those offered by marinas, the Michigan Boating Industries Association said in a statement yesterday.
The state of Michigan is confronting a 2008 fiscal year budget deficit of $1.75 billion as a result of a sluggish economy mainly related to the auto industry’s impact on the state, according to the association. With the state government politically split (Democrats hold the House of Representatives, Republicans control the Senate and the governor is a Democrat), it struggled for months on how to effectively reach a compromise between budget cuts and tax increases to balance the state budget. As a revenue enhancement, the governor proposed a services tax on various luxury services including a tax on marina services.
MBIA and its lobbying firm, Muchmore Harrington Smalley and Associates, were able to have any marina or marine service tax placed on recreational boating activities excluded as one of the services taxed under legislation both chambers passed.
“This is a huge victory for Michigan’s recreational boating industry,” said Van Snider, MBIA’s president. “We were able to effectively express how implementing a luxury services tax on the recreational boating industry would devastate our industry and further erode the economic benefits that boating provides to our state. This success shows that marine businessmen and businesswomen, who communicate with their elected officials through the umbrella of a marine trade association can effectively get our message expressed and achieve legislative success.”
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