MUSKEGON — State Representatives Collene Lamonte (D-Montague) and Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) held a press conference today in Muskegon to encourage the state Legislature to act on the House Democrats’ Middle-Class Plan to help families, seniors and kids. The plan is based on the response Democrats received during their recent statewide, Real State of Our State Listening Tour. Both Lamonte and Dillon participated in the Listening Tour stop in Grand Rapids held in February.

“Everywhere the Listening Tour stopped, people told us about their concerns, from cuts to school funding, losing their jobs to privatization, the loss of economic security and the need to repair our roads,” Lamonte said. “We heard this frustration from people living in Hancock in the U.P. to Grand Rapids and echoed around the state. The people of Michigan are tired of being ignored by Lansing politicians. They want us to do something about these problems; that’s why we’re introducing our plan to address their needs.”

The House Democrats’ Middle-Class Plan includes real solutions to problems facing Michigan’s families, seniors, kids and women. The plan calls for middle-class tax relief, restoring and protecting funds to public education, eliminating barriers to health care for women, and providing solutions for fixing our roads and bridges. Michigan’s Middle-Class Plan will:

  • Repeal the tax on seniors’ retirement income, restore the per-child tax deduction, restore the Earned Income Tax Credit to 11 percent and restore the Homestead Property Tax Credit.
  • Implement a fine for habitually overweight trucks, ensure existing transportation funds are used for road construction and refinance existing infrastructure bonds.
  • Make the School Aid Fund only available for use in funding K-12 education and increase per-pupil funding by $320.
  • Improve access to health care for women by removing barriers to health care centers and increasing access to family planning services.

“Michigan’s middle-class families have struggled too long already, and we can’t wait any longer to move on these items,” Dillon said. “I look forward to moving ahead with legislation that looks out for the best interests of regular people, not CEOs and big corporations.”

For more details, or to view the plan in its entirety, visit www.realstateofourstate.com