Mich. Democrats: restore low-income tax break

The battle over Michigan's earned-income tax credit is heating up in Lansing.

Democratic lawmakers in the House and the Senate have introduced proposals to fully restore the state's tax break for low-income earners at 20 percent of a similar federal tax credit.

Lansing taxi driver and single father Terry Beasley uses the federal and state earned-income tax credit to supplement the $12,000 he brings home every year, pay off bills and buy new clothes for his son.

"It's going to mean I'm going to have a whole lot less money and be a lot poorer," he said.

About 800,000 low-income Michigan families, who qualify for the state's earned income tax credit like Beasley, will bring home less money this year due to a reduction in the state's earned-income tax credit.

It's now 6 percent under changes approved by Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican lawmakers in a 2011 tax overhaul.

House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel of Auburn Hills says the tax break rewards people who chose work over welfare and shouldn't be a partisan issue.

But Republicans say Democrats don't have a plan to pay for the increase, which they say will cost the state about $252 million a year.