The Michigan Senate has sent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the bill to cut taxes in Michigan but did not have enough votes to send out $180 rebate checks for Michiganders.
The Senate had previously voted to pass House Bill 4001, but lacked the supermajority votes for it to take immediate effect, which would have sent the $180 checks. They needed 26 votes but were only able to get 20 votes.
Whitmer proposed the tax cuts under what she called the "Lowering MI Costs" proposal in early February which included a repeal of the retirement tax and an increase on the state's earned income tax credit.
The plan calls for a four-year, phase-out of the retirement tax on pensions enacted in 2011. When fully implemented, the governor says an average of about $1,000 will go back into the pockets of a half million residents.
It would also increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for lower-wage families from 6% to 30% of the federal credit, retroactive to 2022. That would impact 700,000 families.
The $180 inflation relief checks, as the governor called them, would have gone to everyone who files a tax return.
