Republicans Reverse Robin Hoods

Remember Robin Hood?  He was the guy who took from the rich and returned to the poor that the rich had been exploiting.  He followed Demand-side economics.  He demanded and wealth actually did trickle down, unlike Republican Supply-side economics where it always gushes up.  He was a hero.  Republicans, on the other hand are reverse Robin Hoods as Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snider demonstrates.

As we’ve been documenting, several conservative governors have proposed placing the brunt of deficit reduction onto the backs of their state’s public employees, students, and middle-class taxpayers, while simultaneously trying to enact corporate tax cuts and giveaways. Govs. Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Corbett (R-PA), and Jan Brewer (R-AZ) have all gone down this road.

Following suit, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school districts by eight to ten percent. At the same time, as the Michigan League for Human Services found, the state’s business taxes would be reduced by nearly $2 billion, or 86 percent, under Snyder’s plan:

Business taxes would be cut by 86 percent from an estimated $2.1 billion in FY 2011 to $292.7 million in FY 2013, the first full year of the proposed tax changes…Taxes on individuals from the state income tax would rise by $1.7 billion or nearly 31 percent, from an estimated $5.75 billion in FY 2011 to $7.5 billion in FY 2013, the first full year of the tax changes.

As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found, the practical upshot of Snyder’s tax increases is to place even more of a burden on Michigan’s poorest residents, who will see a bigger hike than those at the upper end of the income scale:

Michigan already has a regressive tax system, which Snyder’s proposal will only make worse. Currently, someone in the poorest 20 percent of Michigan taxpayers pays a tax rate of 8.9 percent, while someone in the richest one percent pays 5.3 percent... [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

If you make less than 17,000 in Michigan, Snyder the Snake now wants 10%, but if you make $335,000 or more, your rate is only 5.4%.  This is how Republicans take from those least able to pay to give to the rich, Robin Hood in reverse.