LANSING -- No communities in Michigan are considering a tax on food, pop or chewing gum, but the Michigan Senate wants to make sure than none take that step.

By a 31-5 vote, the Senate passed a bill Wednesday prohibiting communities from imposing an excise tax on food, pop or chewing gum.

Sen. Peter MacGregor, R-Rockford, warned of failing local economies, lost jobs and high prices when other communities across the nation have passed such taxes.

“This will kill a city’s economy,” he said, citing pop taxes passed in Philadelphia and Cook County, Illinois. “I’m trying to prevent our economy from going south.”

The Cook County tax — a penny per ounce for sugar and artificially sweetened drinks —went into effect in August. Other cities that have passed similar ordinances include Berkeley, San Francisco, Albany and Oakland, all in California, and Seattle, Washington.

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The Senate vote is the latest action taken by the Legislature that would prohibit local communities from passing ordinances that would control their own destiny, such as banning a tax on plastic bags and containers or implementing a minimum wage or benefits for employees that exceed state law.

That’s one of the reasons Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, objected to the bill, saying that communities are struggling with decreasing levels of revenue-sharing from the state and stagnant levels of property taxes.

“This has absolutely zero impact in Michigan because not a single community is considering such a tax,” she said. “If you actually talked with local officials, you’ll hear that they’re struggling with things like crumbling infrastructure and just trying to meet the needs of their residents. We should be giving them the tools to strengthen their municipal finances, not taking away one of those tools.”

Business groups supported the legislation. Dan Papineau, director of tax policy for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, told lawmakers during a committee hearing last week that a patchwork of taxes and regulations in communities would be an administrative burden for business.

“When enacted, these taxes cost jobs and hurt those who can least afford it. And they’re an absolute nightmare to implement, “he said. “The real motivation is to raise revenue, but communities are raising money on the backs of everyday taxpayers.”

But Chris Hackbarth, director of state and federal affairs with the Michigan Municipal League, said the proposal is a solution in search of a problem since no communities are considering such an excise tax.

“But the bigger question is, why would a community consider an alternative type of tax? It’s because we do have a broken system of municipal finance in Michigan,” he said. “We need to talk about different opportunities to find ways to help municipal finance in Michigan.”

The bill – SB 583 – now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration. The House Michigan Competitiveness Committee passed a similar bill — HB 4999 — on Wednesday.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal