Michigan Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (center)

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (center)

Michigan Republicans want to raise taxes on low-income workers to pay for road repairs. Ending the state's Earned Income Tax Credit, a program Republicans helped create just under a decade ago, would only pay for a fraction of the repairs the state's roads need, but hey, every little bit helps, and is that much sweeter to Republicans if it comes out of the hides of poor people.

The state House has passed a bill that would kill the EITC, and state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof is all for it:



"The majority of this (credit) is federal money for the person. The state portion of this is very, very small," Meekhof, R-West Olive, told The Associated Press. "The public has pretty soundly told us they want the roads fixed and we have to redirect our priorities to that activity."

Eliminating the credit "helps ensure a flat and fair system to ensure investment in our state and to ensure that we are growing our economy," said [state Rep. Aric] Nesbitt, R-Lawton. The EITC "is how our state used to do business — handouts, giveaways."

Except that raising taxes on poor people isn't so much redirecting Republican priorities as it is using the need to fix roads as an excuse to carry out other Republican priorities.priorities might involve, say, taxing rich people and businesses. But no.Michigan Republicans already reduced the EITC in 2011 as part of a tax overhaul that cost individuals nearly $900 million, with the burden falling especially on low-income households, while cutting business taxes by $1.7 billion. Now, instead of restoring some of those business taxes to pay for road repairs, Republicans are once again looking to go after 780,500 low-income people who got an average $140 tax credit.