State lawmaker plan to change income tax providing relief to most, looks DOA

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Would you vote for a plan that forced the wealthy to pay a higher state tax rate, while the average family received a tax cut? That proposal is on the radar with state leaders in Lansing, but it appears to be going nowhere fast.

Progressive Democrats in the Michigan legislature for years have talked about chucking the state's flat-rate income tax - whereby everybody pays the same tax rate regardless of their income.

State Rep Julie Brixie (D) has a constitutional amendment to install a graduated income tax based on what you earn.

The more you make, you pay a higher tax rate - and for some, maybe 10% for those earning over a million dollars a year. That would mean 95% of everybody else would get a tax cut.

And liberal lawmaker Emily Dievendorf hasn't endorsed it but is eager to talk about it because it helps most families.

"I'm personally fine with exploring creative ways to increase revenue, but there are a number of ways we can do that, so we are not putting the burden on the folks who are struggling the most.

"Brixie has raised several times publicly and privately looking at the graduated income taxes."

Even though the governor has supported the concept in the past...she is not endorsing a petition drive that would give you a chance to vote on it.

"I honestly haven't thought about it," she said. "There's never been a serious effort to make any change and I'm not going to weigh in on something I haven't given serious thought to, yet."

"If I was in a room with her, I would say you really ought to give some serious thought to a graduated income tax," said Bernie Porn.

Porn, a longtime pollster, has solid polling data from 2015 that shows the graduated income tax would be popular with 82% of the Democrats and the majority of independent and female GOP voters.

And if voters knew where the money was going, he thinks it would raise billions.

"You could have potentially have several billion more dollars in state revenue that could go to education and fixing our roads," he said.

Porn thinks Democrats are hesitant about an expensive petition drive for this reason.

"The only thing that makes Democrats nervous about putting it on the ballot is that they know that the state chamber will probably spend a lot of money to try and defeat it," he said.

At this read, a statewide vote on this new tax system appears to be on life support, if that.