Majority Of Michigan Homeowners Will Face Stealth Tax Increase With Lose Their Homestead Tax Credits In 2013

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

Back in the Spring of 2011, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder with help from his Republican friends in the state legislature and former DINO (Democrat-In-Name-Only) Michigan House Speaker turned State Treasurer, Andy Dillon, overhauled the way the state of Michigan collects it’s tax revenue.  The media and political pundits focused on the corporate welfare being doled out to deep pocket GOP donors like Dick DeVos and Bobby Schostak while forcing retirees to pay state income tax on their pensions to cover the lost revenue.

However, buried deep in this legislation was a stealth tax increase that is just now coming to light that affects not only seniors but the vast majority of Michigan homeowners.

MFI-Miami has received several frantic emails from pissed off homeowners from across Michigan who have received the following postcard in the mail from the Michigan Department of Treasury:

MI Homestead Postcard

Intrigued by this email, I searched Google looking for any information I could find about this and oddly enough there was nothing about it from any of the news wire services  or any liberal or conservative political blogs that cover Michigan politics.

So I went to the Michigan Treasury’s website and buried deep in the bowels of their website were the details:

You may claim a property tax credit if all of the following apply for 2012:

• Your homestead is in Michigan
• You were a resident of Michigan for at least six months during the year.
• You own or are contracted to pay rent and occupy a Michigan homestead on which property taxes were levied
• If you own your home, your taxable value is $135,000 or less
• Your total household resources are $50,000 or less
  (Part year residents must annualize total household resources to determine if a credit reduction applies)

Here is how it compares to previous years:

You may claim a property tax credit if all of the following apply for 2011 and prior years:

• Your homestead is in Michigan
• You were a resident of Michigan for at least six months during the year.
• You own or are contracted to pay rent and occupy a Michigan homestead on which property taxes were levied
• Your household income is $82,650 or less 
  (Part year residents must annualize household income to determine if a credit reduction applies)

So not only has the state of Michigan cut the income requirement to claim the credit from by $32,650, it has also now barred anyone with a home value of $135,000 or more from being able to take advantage of the credit.  Matter of fact, these these new guidelines are so restrictive, that 90% of Michigan homeowners living outside the  city of Detroit or the City of Flint would be ineligible for the credit.

It is also unclear as to what affect this will have on Michigan’s depressed housing market which has lost nearly 75% of it’s value since the financial crisis began in 2007.

This appears to have been another squandered opportunity for Mark Brewer and the Michigan Democratic Party to hold Rick Snyder and GOP House Speaker Jase Bolger accountable to the average Michigan taxpayer.