Group launches ballot initiative to fund public schools by taxing wealthy Michiganders
Underfunded public schools continue to be a political football in the Michigan Legislature, but a new coalition announced Thursday has a potential solution: taxing wealthy Michiganders and using the money to pay for schools.
The coalition, Invest in MI Kids, is seeking to place a proposal on the November 2026 ballot that would change the Michigan Constitution's flat tax rate of 4.25% for individuals earning more than $500,000 and couples earning more than $1 million, increasing that to a surcharge of 5% on their income in state taxes.
Invest in MI Kids noted in a news release that currently, average Michiganders – including the state's own teachers – and billionaires pay the same rate.
The state's schools are estimated to be underfunded at $4 billion to $5 billion annually, the coalition said. The ballot measure, which needs 600,000 signatures to be placed on the statewide ballot in the next election cycle, would direct new revenue to Michigan's School Aid Fund and allow funding for things like career and technical education, attracting and retaining teachers, and reducing class sizes. That would have a positive impact on underfunded and underserved communities, the coalition added, with the revenue estimated to generate $1.7 billion annually for public K-12 schools.
Rachelle Crow-Hercher is director of the Michigan Education Justice Coalition and part of the Invest in MI Kids ballot committee. In an interview with Michigan Advance, she said that most people agree that Michigan's education system needs to be fixed, but the main question she hears is whether that's a funding or a policy fix.
'I think it's a 'both/and' situation,' Crow-Hercher said. 'We're addressing the funding situation with this ballot initiative, but the other part of what we're doing is we're strapping our shoes on and going out to meet folks where they are and get their ideas for what they think we should change at the state level to make our schools better for all our kids.'
The coalition described the ballot initiative as an admittedly bold plan, one that could shore up existing 'tax the rich' sentiments but could face headwinds from anti-tax and ultra-wealthy residents.
Crow-Hercher said the momentum behind making those ultra-wealthy individuals pay their fair share in taxes to fund things like education is strong enough to get the initiative over the finish line, but she also believes that Michganders realize that the Legislature has failed continually to address adequate funding for schools.
'Between those two things, my sense is Michiganders across the state, rural and urban, are sort of ready for this type of bold plan,' she said.
Molly Sweeney, organizing director of 482 Forward, said in a statement that Michigan's flat tax system was designed to benefit wealthy residents, not working families.
'That's why we're coming together to rewrite the rules so those who aren't paying what they owe in taxes finally chip in to support the services we all rely on – especially public education,' Sweeney said.
Charlie Cavell, an organizer with Fund MI Future, said it was a matter of fairness.
'When you include sales tax and other taxes, working and middle-class families in Michigan actually pay a higher percentage of their income in state taxes than the top 1%,' Cavell said in a statement. 'That's upside-down. Our ballot initiative will restore balance and ensure that those at the very top finally contribute to our schools and communities like the rest of us already do.'
The campaign is being backed by Michigan Education Justice Coalition, the American Federation of Teachers Michigan and dozens of grassroots organizations.
'We know that for years Michigan schools have been underfunded and students are feeling forgotten and unheard,' Christina Yarn, a senior at Heritage High School in Saginaw and a member of the Michigan Education Justice Coalition's Youth Collective, said in a statement. 'We have been suffering in schools that are falling apart, with little to no school transportation, schools that have poor water and air quality, where students aren't safe in their own classes.'
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13 minutes ago
- New York Post
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'We've been imploring Democrats where they have power on the state and local level to flex that power,' said Maurice Mitchell, who leads the Working Families Party at the left flank of mainstream U.S. politics. 'There's been this overwrought talk about fighters and largely performative actions to suggest that they're in the fight.' This time, he said, Democrats are 'taking real risks in protecting all of our rights' against 'an authoritarian president who only understands the fight.' Texas made sense for Republicans as the place to start a redistricting scuffle. They dominate the Statehouse, and Gov. Greg Abbott is a Trump loyalist. But when the president's allies announced a new political map intended to send five more Republicans to the U.S. House, state Democratic representatives fled Texas, denying the GOP the numbers to conduct business in the Legislature and approve the reworked districts. Those legislators surfaced in Illinois, New York, California and elsewhere, joined by governors, senators, state party chairs, other states' legislators and activists. All promised action. The response was Trumpian. Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York welcomed Texas Democrats and pledged retaliatory redistricting. Pritzker mocked Abbott as a lackey who says 'yes, sir' to Trump orders. Hochul dismissed Texas Republicans as 'lawbreaking cowboys.' Newsom's press office directed all-caps social media posts at Trump, mimicking his signature sign off: 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.' U.S. Rep. Al Green, another Texas Democrat who could lose his seat, called Trump 'egomaniacal.' Yet many Democrats also claimed moral high ground, comparing their cause to the Civil Rights Movement. State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., invoked another Texas Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson, who was 'willing to stand up and fight' for civil rights laws in the 1960s. Then, with Texas bravado, Romero reached further into history: 'We're asking for help, maybe just as they did back in the days of the Alamo.' A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 15% of Democrats' own voters described the party using words like 'weak' or 'apathetic.' An additional 10% called it 'ineffective' or 'disorganized.' Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman who is raising money to support Texas Democrats, has encouraged Democratic-run statehouses to redraw districts now rather than wait for GOP states to act. On Friday, California Democrats released a plan that would give the party an additional five U.S. House seats. It would require voter approval in a November election. 'Maximize Democratic Party advantage,' O'Rourke said at a recent rally. 'You may say to yourself, 'Well, those aren't the rules.' There are no refs in this game. F--- the rules. ... Whatever it takes.' Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin acknowledged the shift. 'This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to a knife fight,' he said. Andrew O'Neill, an executive at the progressive group Indivisible, contrasted that response with the record-long speeches by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. and the Democratic leader of the U.S. House, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, in eviscerating Trump and his package of tax breaks and spending cuts. The left 'had its hair on fire' cheering those moments, O'Neill recalled, but were 'left even more frustrated in the aftermath.' Trump still secured tax cuts for the wealthy, accelerated deportations and cut safety net programs, just as some of his controversial nominees were confirmed over vocal Democratic opposition. 'Now,' O'Neill said, 'there is some marriage of the rhetoric we've been seeing since Trump's inauguration with some actual action.' O'Neill looked back wistfully to the decision by Senate Democrats not to eliminate the filibuster 'when our side had the trifecta,' so a simple majority could pass major legislation. Democratic President Joe Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, he said, was too timid in prosecuting Trump and top associates over the Capitol riot. In 2016, Democratic President Barack Obama opted against hardball as the Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, refused to consider Obama's nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court. 'These unspoken rules of propriety, especially on the Democratic side, have created the conditions' that enabled Trump, Mitchell said. Even on redistricting, Democrats would have to ignore their previous good-government efforts and bypass independent commissions that draw boundaries in several states, including California. Party leaders and activists rationalize that the broader fights tie together piecemeal skirmishes that may not, by themselves, sway voters. Arguing that Trump diminishes democracy stirs people who already support Democrats, O'Neill said. By contrast, he said, the GOP 'power grab,' can be connected to unpopular policies that affect voters' lives. Green noted that Trump's big package bill cleared the Senate 'by one vote' and the House by a few, demonstrating why redistricting matters. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said Democrats must make unseemly, short-term power plays so they can later pass legislation that 'bans gerrymandering nationwide ... bans super PACs (political action committees) and gets rid of that kind of big money and special interest that helped get us to this place.' U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, added that a Democratic majority would wield subpoena power over Trump's administration. In the meantime, said U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, voters are grasping a stark reality. 'They say, 'Well, I don't know. Politics doesn't affect me,'' she said of constituents she meets. 'I say, 'Honey, it does' If you don't do politics, politics will do you.''
