Resources
Legislative Service Bureau Publications of Interest to SERA Members
- Services for Seniors
- Planning for Your Peace of Mind, A Guide for Medical and Legal Decisions
- Consumer Protection Guide
- Veteran’s Benefits and Services
Tax Changes for 2012
The Michigan Department of Treasury has provided an overview of the tax changes for 2012 for individuals, retirees, and corporations. A description of a new Withholding Certificate is included. See the Treasury website.
Links to House Concurred income tax bills:
HB 4361 INCOME TAX, Rate,
Provide for general revisions and implementation of a corporate income tax
HB 4480 RETIREMENT, State Employees
Eliminate tax exemption for state employee pensions
Estimates of the Fiscal Impact of HB 4361 (H-1) On Pensions and Seniors
Tax changes affecting pensioners and seniors described in detail from House Fiscal Agency Analysis
Prepared by Mary Pollock, May 6, 2011
Compromise Pension Tax and Homestead Property Tax Credit
On April 12, 2011, the Governor and Legislative leaders announced a compromise on the Governor’s proposal to tax pensions and eliminate the senior Homestead Property Tax Credit in favor of an income-based HPTC. Here is a link to the Governor’s statement and the table to explain it.
The Department of Treasury, Office of Revenue and Tax Analysis has issued a brief description of the compromise.
Are Michigan Public Employees Over Compensated by Professor Jeffrey Keefe, Economic Policy Institute, February 3, 2011
This paper investigates whether Michigan public employees are overpaid at the expense of Michigan taxpayers. The research is timely. Conservatives in some policy circles have long claimed that public workers earn substantially higher salaries and an even greater magnitude of benefits than private sector workers (Hohman 2010). Some elected officials are promoting public employee pay freezes and major benefits reductions as the antidote to the alleged overpayment problem and the key to reducing Michigan’s budget deficit. Newly inaugurated Gov. Rick Snyder has said that public employee compensation at the state, local, and school levels must be judged in comparison with private sector employee pay (Egan 2011). This paper makes that comparison.
The research shows that state and local government employees (which includes school employees) in Michigan are not overpaid. Comparisons controlling for education, experience, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and disability reveal that public employees of state and local governments earn less than comparable private sector employees. On an annual basis, full-time state and local employee government employees in Michigan are undercompensated by approximately 5.3% compared with similar private sector workers. Read more here.