Quote Originally Posted by Lowell View Post
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.



Along comes Rep. Farrington of Utica who has the audacity to say EIC does little to help the working poor! to justify its elimination.


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.
So you find someone who has different ideas than you do, and instead of a discussion on ideas -- you decide they are 'heartless'.

Not everyone agrees with you.

In this case, I do agree. The EIC is a fine program for wealth redistribution -- and it does so in a very positive way.

Some don't agree with us. Let's work to change their minds. Not to belittle them as individuals with moral flaws -- although it may well be true.