Written by Tanya Terry
The Poverty Task Force talked Thursday, Sept. 14 via Zoom, discussing with participants Gov. Whitmer’s budget wins for low-income Michiganders.
Kim Trent, deputy director of the Prosperity division for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, recently also spoke with the Courier about this topic. Trent is the key staffer to the Michigan Poverty Task Force, which is an entity of State department directors. The Task Force was pulled together by the governor in 2019 with the goal to lower costs and raise income for low-income Michiganders.
“So that constitutes about 39% of our population, and our goal is to help them,” stated Trent.
Trent said she felt the expansion of the state’s earned income tax credit match from 6% to 30% could be the most important win for low-income Michiganders within the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
The earned income tax credit (ETC) is for individuals who file their taxes, who have worked. It provides a tax credit of up to $2,080.
“…Cash like that could be the difference between you being able to get your car fixed if you need transportation,” Trent said. “You know you can pay a major bill. If you have a health bill that needs to be paid, it can be paid. I mean that it has really made a huge difference for Michiganders, and the 6% originally was a 20% tax credit.”
The state credit was dropped down to 6% when budget decisions were made around 2011.
“And so now this is not only are we back to the original level, but we’re actually 10% above that. We really believe that it has the possibility of raising about 100,000 Michiganders out of poverty. So it’s huge. It’s a huge victory.”
Michiganders must have an income of $60,000 or less to receive the earned income tax credit.
Trent discussed what else low-income Michiganders and other groups can expect.
“So we have a partnership to ensure that elderly Michiganders, people with a disability, people with limited English or people who earn less than $60,000 can get free tax return preparation. And so that’s something that we’re working on, and we’ll be ramping up soon.”
The Courier also talked to Trent about the $125 million school transportation fund.
“Transportation is a huge barrier to success for a number of low-income Michiganders.
You know, we really don’t have the kind of strong regional transit that a lot of people rely on. Then it’s even worse in rural areas where there is almost no transit. So, you know when we talk about barriers to economic mobility, transportation is a huge one, and particularly for children. You know, we actually have a system where parents who are receiving state benefits actually are penalized if their kids aren’t in school on time. So, one of the things that we recommended in our Poverty Task Force report was that we incentivize schools having transportation.”
In addition, there is a $2.5 million Jail Diversion Fund.
“We really wanted to have dollars in the state government state budget to help local court systems and others if they want to scale up initiatives to help you keep people who have mental health or behavioral health issues out of prison…The lieutenant governor a few years ago had a task force that was looking at criminal justice. And one of the things that they talked about is that is the criminalization of mental illness. And it’s really a problem for people of color, particularly they find themselves much more likely to be jailed or imprisoned because of because they have a behavioral health issue.”
A $16.5 million pilot called RX Kids provides payments to pregnant individuals in Flint who qualify for Medicaid.
“What we’re finding is women of color, particularly in our in our state and throughout the country, are still suffering from high rates of maternal death. And so in a lot of that is because patients aren’t getting their prenatal care.”
Missing Middle, a statewide housing plan, is being implemented across the state, including in Flint.
Also, the Michigan High Speed Internet Office is working to ensure equity in access and the ability to understand the internet.
Trent explained that even though the Michigan Poverty Task Force’s work is done internally as state government, they work very closely with a number of external stakeholders, nonprofit organizations that have been engaged in this work for decades.
For more information about the Michigan Poverty Task Force, visit https://www.michigan.gov/leo/initiatives/poverty-task-force
