KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – A group of educators and parents are collecting signatures on a petition drive to tax the rich to increase funding for public schools.
The organization is called Invest in MI Kids, and Kalamazoo parent Sheri Weber announced at last week’s Kalamazoo Public Schools Board of Education meeting last week that they have begun collecting signatures locally.
Constitutional amendment would add, beginning in 2027, an additional 5% tax on annual taxable income over $1 million for joint filers and over $500,000 for single filers. The tax would be in addition to existing state income taxes, and would be deposited into the State School Aid Fund and required to be used exclusively on local school district classrooms, career and technical education, reducing class sizes, and recruiting and retaining teachers.
They need to collect over 446,000 signatures statewide to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, and Weber says they are hoping to collect 20,000 signatures in the Kalamazoo area.
Weber says the surcharge would bring in $1-billion that could only be spent on public education.
Small business groups say it will hurt them and have already begun campaigning against it.
The State Board of Canvassers initially approved and then deadlocked on summary language, spelling out the specifics of what happens if it passes, leaving the ballot issue open to court challenges, and subject to questioning by voters.
It faces a number of hurdles, the first and the biggest will be collecting the required number of signatures. The group has set a goal of collecting 700,000, just in case some of them are collected improperly or come from unregistered residents.
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