I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Though most of the Republicans elected to the state legislature ran on a platform of completely rejecting tax increases as a means of balancing the Michigan budget, the reality is that they and Gov. Rick Snyder have raised taxes significantly on most residents of the state.
Peter Luke looks at some typical examples:
That’s not likely to console a taxpaying couple making $55,000 who will lose their homestead credit, deductions for their two kids and will pay a higher tax rate in the future than under the old tax law. That’s hardly a unique couple and in 2013 their tax bill will be $739 higher, according to the House Fiscal Agency…
A couple with three children making $110,000, for example, will absorb a tax hit in 2013 of $190, $549 less than the aforementioned couple making half as much.
Or take a retired couple born after 1952 with $53,000 in income and a $4,000 property tax bill. Next year they lose their entire homestead credit and will pay income tax on every dime of their pension. It adds up to a $3,130 tax hit.
Next door a couple, in which the older spouse was born before 1953 but after 1945, also has $48,000 in pension income. And $27,000 in Social Security. They’ll lose some homestead credit as well, but the income tax will apply to only $8,000 of their pension. That’s because the first $40,000 is exempted for their year-of-birth group. Their tax increase is $590…
But consider the financial cost Michigan’s new tax code will have on a married couple with two children making $34,400. With the loss of earned income tax credit, it’s $396.
And those taxes were raised to help offset a $1.6 billion a year tax break for businesses.
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