Whitmer applauds passage of tax break for working families, seniors
(CBS DETROIT) - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer celebrates the passage of the Lowering MI Costs plan that provides a tax break for working families and seniors, but the plan does not include the $180 relief checks for every tax filer as initially announced.
The $1 billion plan will roll back the retirement tax, saving 500,000 households about 1,000 a year and quintuple the Working Families Tax Credit, which will return an average of $3,150 to 700,000 residents.
"This is long overdue relief for Michiganders after the rug was ripped out from under them in 2011, when the retirement tax was slapped on and the Working Families Tax Credit was gutted," said Whitmer. "It was wrong. Now, we are making it right. We've been fighting to get this done for over a decade and I am proud to have partners in the legislature committed to delivering real relief."
The plan was rolled out by Whitmer, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and Speaker Joe Tate on Monday, Feb. 6.
As part of the plan, the retirement tax will be phased out over four years, bringing the Michigan Working Tax Credit match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) up from 6% to 30%.
When the plan was announced, it also included $180 inflation relief checks to every tax filer, but the plan was amended to exclude the relief checks.
This comes as Democrats were unable to get support from Republicans to include the relief checks in the proposal after weeks of negations.
