Feb. 20, 2026 | This Week in Government: Hall Floats $4B in Tax Cut Plan, Eyes Reductions in Property Taxes, Utility Bills

House Speaker Matt Hall said that although property tax cut proposals from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Sarah Anthony were a start, they weren’t good enough.

He would instead like to see property tax cuts somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion.

During her budget presentation last week, Whitmer proposed a property tax cut for seniors by increasing the income limit for the Homestead Property Tax Credit. Whitmer said this would cut about $90 million. Anthony, D-Lansing, followed up the governor’s proposal by calling for a more expansive tax credit for more than just seniors (See Gongwer Michigan Report, Feb. 17, 2026). Anthony said her plan would reduce taxes by about $300 million.

“I would like to go further,” Hall, R-Richland Township, said during a press conference on Thursday. “We need broader relief.”

Hall said he would like to eliminate the $6 million state education tax, personal property tax, the real estate transfer tax, and the pop-up tax when a home is sold.

Those cuts, by Hall’s estimations, would total around $4 billion.

By eliminating personal property tax, Hall said it would also force utilities to lower their rates.

“I will not go forward with eliminating personal property tax without also mandating at least a $1 billion rollback in our energy costs,” he said. “One of the things I hear a lot of people across Michigan is our energy bills are too high. By forcing them to roll back their rates by $1 billion and giving them an incentive to invest in the grid, we’ll be lowering rates considerably, and we’ll be improving reliability.”

Katie Carey, spokesperson for Consumers Energy, provided a statement in support of Hall’s proposal on Thursday.

“We support efforts to stop overtaxing Michiganders on grid investments,” she said. “Every dollar of personal property taxes paid by Consumers Energy is directly paid by customers dollar for dollar. Our personal property tax liability has more than doubled since 2017, and this proposal would provide meaningful reductions in utility bills for Michiganders.”

All of this, Hall said, would be achieved through a net tax cut while being mostly revenue neutral. He went on to say the eventual House Republican plan would backfill revenue for schools and local government.

“I have a plan to do that, but I’m going to wait to tell you what it is,” Hall told reporters. “There’s already $5 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse. … There’s a lot of other things we don’t need, but we’re also going to replace a lot of the revenue, but we’re going to do it as a net tax.”

Hall has rejected all proposals Whitmer put forward in her budget proposal to raise revenue, but he said he wasn’t opposed to “coming up with a more fair way” to raise revenue. He did not rule out an increase in sales tax.

“There’s a lot of ways you could do it,” Hall said.

Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, who sits on the House Regulatory Reform Committee, and Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said they were interested in hearing more about the speaker’s plan to cut property taxes, especially some of the smaller pieces, like the pop-up tax.

Roth said the pop-up tax has prevented him from downsizing his own home.

Both noted that eliminating personal property tax entirely would be more difficult because it would require a constitutional amendment.

Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn, the former minority vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee, was skeptical of what he heard on Thursday.

“I look forward to seeing his math,” he said of the speaker’s plan.

School groups were clear that they did not like Hall’s plan or the Governor’s.

Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity Executive Director Peter Spadafore issued a statement Thursday afternoon in coordination with the Michigan Association of School Administrators, the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, and the Michigan Association of School Boards. In it, he stressed that lawmakers need to stop using the School Aid Fund to support other priorities.

“Both Gov. Whitmer’s and Speaker Hall’s proposals to further erode tax dollars available to support essential services would blow massive holes in Michigan’s budget, and our students would pay the price. Schools are not a piggy bank to be raided for political tax cut talking points this fall,” Spadafore said. “Tax policy should strengthen Michigan, not sabotage it. Lawmakers must reject any proposal that threatens K-12 funding and instead commit to stable, sustainable investments in Michigan’s children.”

Lawmakers discussed a slate of bills on Thursday intended to address the housing crisis.

Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, and Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, presented legislation intended to reduce regulations around housing and provide more options for developers.

“Michigan is facing a housing crisis across our state,” Grant said. “Families are struggling with rising rents, higher home prices, and limited options … at the core, this crisis is about supply.”

The state needs somewhere between 119,000 to 150,000 more housing units, Grant said, citing data from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Grant said well-intentioned regulations for zoning and development have made it more difficult for housing units to be built.

“This housing readiness package is a bipartisan effort to modernize those systems,” she said. “It does not eliminate local control. It does not remove community input. What it does is create clear standards, more predictable timelines, and more efficient processes so that communities can respond to today’s housing needs.”

HB 5529, HB 5530, HB 5531, and HB 5532 are included in the package.

HB 5529 would prevent municipalities from enacting an ordinance that creates minimum parcel sizes of more than 1,500 square feet for detached single-family residences served by public water and sewer. The bill also allows that a residential lot may have an area below the currently required minimum of 12,000 square feet but not less than 1,500 square feet. Finally, it allows the minimum width and area requirements for residential lots to be waived, even if the lot is less than 7,200 square feet.

HB 5530 would prohibit a zoning ordinance from imposing a minimum parcel size of more than 1,500 square feet on land zoned for single-family homes.

“What we’ve had developers tell us is it’s not technically illegal to build smaller starter homes, but based on the zoning requirements in areas across the state, it is illegal,” Grant said. “Because we’re not able to build the homes that families can afford, we have to build the $400,000-$500,000 or more homes.”

Lauren Strickland of Abundant Housing of Michigan, a grassroot housing advocacy group, testified in support of the bills. She addressed the issue of lot sizes.

“There is a direct correlation between larger minimum lot sizes and unaffordable housing,” she said. “Lots of varying sizes allow people to afford a quality home while still being served by local infrastructure.”

HB 5531 would amend the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act to provide exclusive conditions for when a local government may require additional or revised studies or documents as they relate to submitting a site plan.

Grant said these studies often delay projects and increase their costs.

“Ultimately, the people of Michigan have to pay for that if they become a renter or a buyer in that project,” she said.

Finally, HB 5532 would increase the signature requirements for protest petitions submitted in response to proposed zoning ordinance amendments. Additionally, the bill would add a requirement that the city or village clerk verify the land ownership of petition signers.

Grant said the goal with HB 5532 is to give local governments a clear metric and guidelines to make the best decision for their communities.

“These bills are designed to unlock housing supply, reduce unnecessary costs and create fairness and transparency in the process,” Grant said.

The intent is not to create a one-size-fits all approach to housing across the state, Aragona said.

“This is more of a freedom from allowing the government to say what you should and shouldn’t build,” he said. “We should have to ability to build a home that we want to build.”

Erika Farley, executive director for the Rental Property Owners Association of Michigan, also testified in support of the bills.

Farley said the current regulations make it difficult to update rental properties.

“As we look at housing, we are not in the era of post-World War II America,” she said. “Housing has definitely changed, and we have to, as rental property owners, change along with it.”

Jarrett Skorup of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, also testified in support of the bills. He said current housing regulations are making it difficult for the state to meet its housing needs.

“You might walk around your neighborhoods and think, I love how this looks … but if you actually look at the regulatory code, you can’t build like that anymore,” he said. “These rules came in after these communities were built.”

He also addressed the concern of local control.

“There are many things that we leave to our local lawmakers,” he said. “I think something like housing, which is a basic necessity that everybody needs, we should be looking at that from a statewide issue.”

Officials from the Michigan Townships Association and the Michigan Municipal League submitted cards in opposition to the bill package, but there was not time during Thursday’s meeting for them to speak.

No further action was taken on the legislation Thursday.

A bill that would allow a living organ donor to receive paid leave from their employer after donating an organ was discussed in the Senate Health Policy Committee meeting Wednesday.

SB 301, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Bellino, R-Monroe, would allow an eligible employee who donated an organ up to 12 weeks of 100% paid leave through a nonrefundable tax credit.

Bellino said that as an organ donor himself, he had to miss important days of work and was only able to do so due to support in his workplace.

“Without Leader Brinks doing that, I could have never been an organ donor,” he said.

He said if someone was willing to undergo surgery to save a life, they should be supported while they undergo recovery and should not have to worry about finances.

David Galbenski testified in support of the bill and spoke on behalf of living donors. He received a part of a liver from his brother-in-law while facing end-stage liver disease around six years ago.

“No Michigan resident should have to choose between saving a life and keeping a paycheck coming while on leave, recovering from the organ donation surgery,” he said.

Jon Hoffman, senior director of state policy at the American Kidney Fund, testified in support of the bill. He said nationally, 13 people die every day waiting for a kidney, and in Michigan, 23,763 residents are currently living with end stage renal disease.

Living donors play an important role in saving lives but a significant factor preventing people from donating organs is the financial strain that follows the surgery when in recovery, he said.

“Many motivated donors cannot handle the financial consequences of a multiple week period without pay,” he said. “This bill could be part of a solution for that problem.”

Dr. Mona Doshi, medical director of the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program at the University of Michigan, said that the tax credit could help the state save money in the long run.

“Kidney transplants save Medicare and Medicaid dollars … taxpayer dollars, because dialysis is extremely, extremely expensive,” she said.

She said 16,000 people in Michigan are on dialysis. These patients face a mortality rate of 20% but if they receive an organ from a living donor, their chances of dying could be reduced by up to 80%.

She said the cost of dialysis, which is $60,000 a year for three years, or a kidney transplant, which is $100,000 up-front and subsequent treatment of $10,000 for three years, ends up being more expensive. People who receive an organ no longer need dialysis.

Doshi said she had a conversation with a mother who wanted to donate an organ to her daughter but could not do so after realizing what the financial strain would be.

An estimated income loss of around $5,000 dollars occurs for donors, and in 2024, 80% of organ donors were working full time, she said.

“I think we owe it to these heroes to not face any financial disincentives,” she said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is aiming to reimagine Michigan as the Arsenal of Democracy for the 21st century.

Whitmer announced the release of Michigan’s Defense and Aerospace Strategic Plan Friday at the Munich Security Conference. The plan is a five-year roadmap designed to expand the state’s defense and aerospace sectors, strengthen national security, and create jobs to support Michigan’s economy.

The goal is to position Michigan as a global leader in defense, aerospace, maritime, and space innovation.

“Michigan has always stepped up when our nation needed us most,” Whitmer said in a statement. “We built the machines that helped win wars, powered global industry, and created generations of middle-class jobs. Our Defense and Aerospace Strategic Plan ensures Michigan is ready to lead again.”

The Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation developed the plan. The office was created in April 2024 as a successor to the Michigan Defense Center, which was started in 2006 to support, protect, and grow Michigan’s defense and homeland security industry.

The plan, Whitmer’s office said, is adaptable to meet the needs of the state, nation, and globe during the next five years.

There are three integrated focus areas in the plan: fostering business growth within defense and aerospace; leveraging the state’s workforce, research universities, manufacturing bases and defense assets; and accelerating applied research by expanding testing and evaluation capabilities and attracting new innovation-driven enterprises.

“Our mission is clear: to catalyze growth in Michigan’s defense and aerospace sectors by advancing industrial capacity, innovation and research,” Col. John Gutierrez, executive director of ODAI at MEDC said in a statement. “This strategic plan gives Michigan a focused, coordinated roadmap to compete – and lead – nationally and globally.”

The plan builds on Michigan’s continuing momentum in the defense and aerospace sector, Whitmer’s office said in a press release. Earlier this month, the Department of Defense designated Michigan’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center as a national range for deep uncrewed aerial systems testing. Last year, Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County was selected for the new F-15EX fighter mission.

“Reimagining the Arsenal of Democracy for the 21st century means ensuring Michigan’s defense assets, service members and industry remain central to innovation and operational readiness,” said a statement from U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Rogers, adjutant general and director of the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. “Michigan has a proven history of delivering decisive capability to the nation and that mission continues today. … By supporting, protecting and growing this ecosystem, we strengthen the Joint Force, accelerate innovation at speed and scale and ensure Michigan remains a strategic contributor to national defense and allied security well into the future.”

The U.S. Department of Energy ordered for the fourth time for the coal-fired J.H. Campbell Generating Complex in Ottawa County to remain operational, pushing its operations forward into mid-May.

On Tuesday, the DOE issued its fourth emergency order to require Consumers Energy Company to keep the West Olive plant running for another 90 days, this time through May 18.

This will extend its operations for nearly one year after Consumers planned early retirement of the plant on May 31, 2025. Plans to retire the plant date back to 2021, which was part of Consumers’ Integrated Resource Plan approved by the Public Service Commission.

In a Tuesday release announcing the order, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said keeping the Campbell plant open has been important in improving grid reliability, citing extreme winter weather that stretched for weeks beginning in January as an example of the need for the facility’s operations.

“The plant operated at over 650 megawatts every day before and during Winter Storm Fern, January 21-February 1, proving that allowing it to cease operations would needlessly contribute to grid fragility,” Wright said in a statement.

The Campbell facility began operations in 1962, with a capacity for generating 1,450 megawatts of electricity.

The DOE’s reasoning for the first extension of the plant’s operation was that there was an energy emergency within the North and Central regions covered by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which covers parts of 15 states, including all the Michigan wholesale electricity market. The subsequent orders have contended the situation still exists.

In Consumers’ 2025 yearly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it was stated that of the 7,320 gigawatt-hours of electricity generated by the Campbell units during 2025, 3,608 gigawatt-hours of electricity was provided to MISO to comply with the DOE emergency orders. The net financial effect of operating the plant by emergency order through Dec. 31, 2025, was $135 million.

Last month, Consumers filed a request with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, seeking recovery of the net financial effect of complying with the DOE orders.

“Consumers Energy will comply with this new federal order,” Consumers spokesperson Brian Wheeler said in a Wednesday statement. “On Jan. 23, Consumers Energy made a regulatory filing to recover over $41 million in net costs for the first 90 days to keep the Campbell plant open since a first Department of Energy order May 23, through Aug. 20. Consistent with a prior Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order, costs to operate the Campbell plant will be shared by customers across the Midwest electric grid region – not borne solely by Consumers Energy customers.”

A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission declined comment Wednesday on the latest DOE order.

Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director with the League of Conservation Voters, in a statement attacked the DOE’s move, saying the president pledged to lower energy costs after taking office and that continuing the Campbell plant does not achieve that goal.

“As energy bills skyrocket, keeping the Campbell plant open has racked up a $135 million price tag, and families in Michigan and across the Midwest will see it on their energy bills,” Johnson said. “Trump’s decision to once again force the coal plant open shows that keeping profits flowing for the fossil fuel interests that supported his campaign are his priority instead of reining in rising energy costs for Michigan families.”