Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

A judge’s ruling essentially raises Michigan’s income tax this year, costing 4.9 million workers an estimated $714 million to start 2024.

That’s according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which is appealing the ruling, claiming Michigan workers are paying $120 too much income tax on average to start the new year.

Patrick Wright, the Center's vice president for legal affairs, argues the judge wrongfully sided with the state attorney general’s claim that the income tax cut passed in 2015 was only temporary.

“The question is that tax cut permanent or not,” he says. “That requires an interpretation of that 2015 statute.”
Wright also takes issue with the AG’s argument that Michigan cannot operate without the income tax revenue.

“We didn’t even have an income tax until 1967. Nine other states don’t have an income tax. So, the idea that you would not have an income tax is not outside the realm of possibility,” he says.

“In 2023, we spent $3 billion in earmarks and special tax cuts. If you had spent that $3 billion on a permanent tax cut, you could have financed it four four-and-a-half to five years.”