Well, we’re certainly enduring an unpredictable summer.

From horrendous storm surges to horrendous variant surges, we’re still battling a lot as a state.

But Michigan’s communities are standing strong and we’ve got plenty of allies across the nation who are working to build powerful recovery efforts.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution calling for $3.5 trillion more in spending to improve lives and create a stronger, fairer economy.

As the U.S. House prepares to take up those plans and policymakers on both sides of the Capitol gear up to craft legislation based on the budget resolution, now is the time for action.

For too long, Michigan families have been held back by racial and economic inequality. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a quarter of households in America — including more than one-third of households with kids and one-half of Black and Latinx households with children — were experiencing economic hardship.

But, in 2020, 55 of America’s largest corporations paid nothing in federal income taxes, and the nation’s top billionaires saw their fortunes grow by leaps and bounds, even as millions of Americans experienced hardship during the pandemic.

Michigan is 15th in the nation for income inequality: The top 1% of earners make more than 21 times as much as the bottom 99% of workers.

Yet the bottom 20% of income earners in the state pay nearly double the rate in total state and local taxes than the top 1% of earners (10.4% and 6.2% of income, respectively).

That income inequality is felt in every county around the state, too.

According to 2015 data from the national Economic Policy Institute, in Alcona, Montmorency and Presque Isle counties, the average income of the top 1% of earners is around 11 times the income of the other 99% of workers.

The numbers are even starker in Alpena County, where the top 1% of workers make an average of $517,333 — more than a half a million dollars — a whopping 17.6 times what the other 99% of workers in the county make (an average of $29,382).

Instead of widening that wealth gap and continuing tax breaks for wealthy Americans and corporations whose profits have soared, including during the pandemic, Congress can deliver what all our families deserve:

∫ Affordable and accessible health care;

∫ Housing vouchers, child care, and nutrition to help families meet their needs;

∫ Money back in people’s pockets through permanent expansions to the federal Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit;

∫ Subsidized jobs to help people facing barriers in the labor market build work experience;

∫ A modernized, stronger unemployment system that works for everyone.

Last week marked an important step toward passing the transformational policies our country needs to improve lives, create a stronger, fairer economy, advance racial equity, and ensure all people can share in the prosperity of our nation.

The plan would also tackle our lopsided tax code to pay for the investments necessary to create that better future — specifically by asking corporations and households with incomes over $400,000 to pay their fair share in taxes.

As summer comes to a close, it’s going to take all of us to help Michigan stay on the road to recovery.

Let’s mask up and vax up, if we can.

And the time is now to speak up and make yourself heard as our federal elected officials begin drafting recovery legislation.

We need to make sure our elected officials know that we want our government to support families and invest in communities — and that we want big businesses and wealthy individuals to start paying their fair share.

Gilda Z. Jacobs is president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy.