I have heard much whining over the elimination of the film credits but very little about the cynical ending of the state earned income credit EIC. With the Sales Tax increase referendum on road funding in ashes, our state legislature has cobbled together a new funding bill that eliminates both.

The EIC is a tax credit created as an incentive/reward to the working poor with children for working instead of throwing up one's hands and going on public assistance. If your income is low enough you become eligible for a credit against taxes or may even get a return if no money is owed. Mind you, you still pay FICA taxes of between 7.65 and 15.3% of your income and other taxes such as the sales tax.

Roughly 780,500 taxpayers qualified for the Michigan EITC in 2013, according to the state treasury, with the average credit totaling $140. Larger credits are given to families at or near the poverty line with children.
From mlive.com
Along comes Rep. Farrington of Utica who has the audacity to say EIC does little to help the working poor! to justify its elimination.

Farrington testified the EITC "goes beyond being a credit -- it's a subsidy," because it can be paid to residents with no income tax liability. He said the average Michigan payout is only $143 a year, meaning it does little to help the working poor, but he said it is based on a federal EITC, which a federal audit suggests is rife with fraud.
From Freep.com
I am very comfortable in life now but not without struggle and lean years in my past when I qualified for an EIC and never took a cent of assistance. I know that $143 is just supper at Joe Muir's for Mr. Farrington, but for those struggling as I was it can be the difference between keeping one's lights on, getting gas for work or just taking your kid out the buck movies. I know.

This elimination will hit Detroit, and other jurisdictions, where the working poor reside, the hardest. $115 million will be taken out of those pockets and put into the pockets of road contractors. Shameful.