DETROIT, Mich. — Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II announced Thursday that the Working Families Tax Credit checks will arrive early to families.
This is expected to put an average of $550 back into the pockets of Michiganders.
Lt. Gov. Gilchrist was joined Thursday by Gerry Brisson, the president of Gleaners Community Food Bank, and James Ribbron, the executive director of Detroit Champions for Hope.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer quintupled the Working Families Tax Credit back in March to deliver an average combined tax refund of $3,150 to 700,000 families.
“We are encouraging them to apply for the full Earned Income Tax Credit at the federal level and they will see, again, a $3,500 on average, from what? 700,000 families in Michigan. That’s a huge deal and real money at a time when stuff is so expensive, so what it shows is our aggressive posture on wanting to make sure that we can lower costs in Michigan…that we can put money in people’s pockets so they can do what they need to do,” Lt. Gov. Gilchrist explained.
The boost in funds is expected to impact directly nearly half the kids in the state.
"That's one of the first things that Democrats fixed without a Lowering MI Cost plan, which included this quintupling of the Lowering Families Tax Credit and included the repeal of a 12-year-old Republican-initiated tax on people's retirement income and pensions, and also, the work to deliver inflation relief checks," Lt. Gov. Gilchrist said.
The average of $550 will be mailed to the hundreds of thousands of Michigan households starting on February 13, 2024.
"The other piece of this that's important is we expected this, we had hoped to have this relief be in people's pockets earlier this year, but Republicans in the Legislature blocked that from going into effect immediately. People could have got these checks in May of last year, but they did not because the Republicans made a political choice," Lt. Gov. Gilchrist added. "But we had said that we were going to find a way to get this relief to them sooner and it will come in February of this year, rather than in April.
