Snyder’s budget shifts taxes from corporations to kids, senior citizens and workers

LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget he presented to the legislature on Thursday raises taxes on the most vulnerable and shifts taxes from corporations to kids, senior citizens and workers.

Reaction to the budget proposal was negative and widespread, with one Senate Republican saying Snyder’s proposal to tax pensions was a “non-starter.” Gilda Jacobs, the President o of the Michigan League for Human Services, said Snyder and Lt. Gov. Calley clearly broke their own rule when they said reforming the state's tax system should not pick winners and losers. The executive budget reduces business taxes by $1.8 billion but increases taxes on seniors and families by $1.7 billion.

"We have missed a great opportunity to modernize Michigan's outdated tax system,“ she said. “Instead, the administration has proposed one that simply shifts taxes from businesses to vulnerable kids, families and seniors.”

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, also said Snyder failed to follow through on his previous pledge of moving all of Michigan forward instead of the same old politics of putting corporate tax breaks ahead of the people.

“Governor Snyder’s idea of shared sacrifice seems to mean that working families will do most of the sacrificing while companies continue to reap the rewards,” she said. “He is balancing this budget on the backs of our kids, working families, and our seniors. Contrary to his rhetoric about ‘moving all of Michigan forward’, this budget picks out who he’s willing to leave behind.”

Among the cuts proposed include making all public and private pensions subject to state income tax, with the exception of Social Security income. This was discussed last legislative session because Michigan is only one of thee states that do not tax pensions, but the discussion included exempting a large portion of the pension income.

Among the many personal income tax credits eliminated or reduced including a reduction in the homestead property tax credit.

It also includes deep cuts to revenue sharing to cities, villages and towns, and it will trim the fund from nearly $300 million to $200 million. It will surely cause local governments to lay off police and firefighters. It will also push some municipalities into bankruptcy.

It comes at a time when Michigan Republicans are putting bills on the fast track that places dictator-like powers in the hands of unelected officials appointed from Lansing with no oversight. House Bills 4214-4218, approved out of committee on Wednesday, will repeal Public Act 72, the current law governing emergency financial managers (EFM), and give them more power and make it even easier for one to be appointed.

The Michigan State Police will have to pick up more patrols because of the loss of officers and entire departments, but the budget proposal calls for closure of Michigan State Police posts to save $3.2 million.

The campaign rhetoric of jobs, jobs, jobs is just that. He wants to eliminate business credits for brownfield redevelopment, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority, Next Energy, advanced battery, film and renaissance zones. Already, films are looking elsewhere to film, and advanced battery manufacturing has huge growth positional in Michigan. He is actually killing jobs.

He is also mortgaging the future at a time when high-tech jobs are the wave of the future, and he is calling for cutting some $420 per-pupil in public education funding. That will devastate school districts, sending many into deficit districts.

He is also calling for concessions of $180 million from state employees. He also plans to eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit, GOP Saint Ronald Reagan called the “best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” That move will raise taxes on some 800,000 Michigan low-income workers.

The various appropriations sub-committees will now start meeting to dissect the budget.

Senate Republicans give the finger to the working poor and the Gipper

LANSING -- Senate Republicans made it official today when they introduced a bill to eliminate something that GOP Saint Ronald Reagan called the “best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”

Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, introduced Senate Bill 103 on Tuesday that will kill the popular and effective Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and they thumbed their noses at those working Michiganders just trying to make ends meet. They took a stand to make sure the growing equity gap continues to grow that has the richest 1 percent of Americans taking home almost 24 percent of the nation’s income.

“It’s easy to say no to the poor, and it’s easy to say no to the sick, “said Sen. John Gleason, D-Flushing, who has been a skilled trade millwright for 30 years.” I didn’t choose to run for office or to represent this state by taking my legislative or political efforts out on the poor, particularly the working poor. To say that we can’t afford to help the least of these is a pretty powerful statement. “

The Michigan EITC is based on the federal EITC created by Republican President Gerald Ford and expanded by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. When it was signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in September 2006, it was introduced by a conservative Republican Senator, and it had overwhelming support; passing both the House and Senate by a combined vote of 141-3.

“So I have to tell you, I’m with the Gipper on this one,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “I think the earned income tax credit should stay because it is one of the best public policies we have on the books to actually help the working people in the state of Michigan.”

The Michigan EITC is a refundable tax credit given to working families, not welfare. People apply for it when they fill out their state income tax forms. All families who are eligible for the federal credit are eligible for the state credit.

“I have heard comments from people in the Executive Office to people who hold gavels in this body saying that it is a handout for people who are not working,” Whitmer said. “Let’s really talk about the facts. This is about helping people who are working and doing the best they can.”

The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Republicans want only the middle class and the working poor to sacrifice

The “shared sacrifice” new Gov. Rick “Chief Executive Outsourcer” Snyder talks about and budget cuts national Republicans want will only come from the middle class and the working poor.

National Republicans will continue the polices that are making the U.S. a banana republic and ushering in a new “Gilded Age,” and Snyder wants to kill the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the most effective anti-poverty tool ever invented.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. In 1965 the average CEO was earning 24 times what the average worker was making. But by 2001 the C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 531 times as much as the average worker.

Despite that huge gap that continues to grow, Republicans forced an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 2 percent in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits for people just trying to survive. That move will add more than $36 billon to the federal budget deficit.

In Michigan, while giving his cabinet large raises, Snyder proposed killing Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit for working people.

The Michigan EITC is a refundable tax credit given to working families. People apply for it when they fill out their state income tax forms. All families who are eligible for the federal credit are eligible for the state credit. The tax credit puts money into the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Michigan working families. The EITC brought $338 million into local communities throughout Michigan last year. That’s money spent directly into the local community on goods and services, not invested in offshore ventures.

“The Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit is a successful anti-poverty tool that helps low- and moderate-income families and small businesses in Michigan,” said Gilda Z. Jacobs, the President and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services. “Eliminating this credit amounts to a tax increase on our most vulnerable families and will tax working people into poverty.”

The Michigan EITC is based on the federal EITC created by Republicans President Gerald Ford and expanded by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. In fact, patron saint Reagan called the EITC “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”

In Michigan, the EITC went into effect for Tax Year 2008, and, ironically, the bill creating it was sponsored by one of the most rightwing lawmakers, former Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi.

“As this debate continues, let’s remember the faces of those in our economy who are helped by this tool: janitors, housekeepers, restaurant workers, daycare and home health aides, cashiers and retail clerks,” Jacobs said. “These are the very people who often are in charge of our loved ones, or who make our days easier.”