I think a lot of people my age are frustrated with the policies created by those before us. Inflation isn’t new, and prices are continually rising. But incomes and economic security from the government aren’t rising at the same rate.
“Our state has long failed children, particularly those from families with low incomes, when it comes to education.”
For decades, sluggish tax revenue and difficult funding decisions defined Michigan’s state government budgeting process.
In our training as medical students, we have had the privilege to participate in the care of new parents during postpartum visits.
Thirty years ago, then-Gov. John Engler used to say that the best-educated state wins. Michigan has not been winning.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the year Republican Gov. Rick Snyder took office, an average of 79,660 Michigan families per month received cash assistance through the Family Independence Program (FIP). Eleven years later, in 2022, only 11,947 families received it.
On a bitter December day in 2012, the Michigan Legislature passed legislation — disguised as a measure to give workers more “freedom”— that in reality was designed to strip the financial and political power of labor unions.
On Thursday afternoon, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her support for increasing the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — or as she referred to it, the Working Families Tax Credit — as a proven, bipartisan policy to put more money back in the pockets of working families and small businesses.
In 2022, I cannot stress enough how important banking and credit access is to modern life.