Quote Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch View Post
Mike, that's true of all state taxation revenue -- isn't it. My last question still stands. So why the benefit for retirees from government and not other retirees. Why are they a favored class? If you want the $343 million to stay in taxpayers hands, why not just reduce all tax rates for all retirees to achieve that savings. Do you think non-government retirees don't deserve the same break? If so, why?
Government and private pensioners who were younger than 67 in 2012 are now both taxed based on the same set of exemption levels. Only the government pensioners who were 67 and older in 2012 retained their full exemption - unfairly in my opinion, especially for legislation that was touted as supposedly necessary to rectify an unfairness to younger workers.

I'm hard-pressed to think of any MI income tax exemptions like this that are predicated on the taxpayer's date of birth, particularly for something like pension income which in this day and age does not necessarily begin at the same age for everyone. If fairness was truly the name of the game, the change in exemptions would have affected only those who had not yet started collecting pension income so they could make their decision to retire with advance knowledge.

I believe there are more acceptable ways to resolve "unfairness" in the tax code than one chosen which takes more taxes from targeted age groups to fund the high cost of government.