Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and legislative Democrats are marketing early tax relief for 700,000 Michigan households as a holiday gift in the form of a $550 check.

But her Working Families Tax Credit checks shouldn’t fool anyone. The rebates are a substitute for the permanent tax relief the governor denied Michigan residents. Taxes will go up overall, not down.

And the extra revenue will help Whitmer and the Democratic-controlled Legislature to continue their unchecked spending.

The rebate checks are part of the $1 billion in selective tax cuts Whitmer approved after wrangling away a broad-based, long-term tax rate reduction promised in a 2015 law to residents and small businesses if revenue significantly outpaced inflation.

Whitmer hoped to avoid the automatic roll-back by handing out $180 checks to every household, which would have reduced revenue below the rate-reduction trigger. She was stymied by Republicans, and so the rate will fall to 4.05% from 4.25% this year.

The lower rate will hold for just one year unless a legal challenge pending in the Court of Claims is successful. That case contends the intent of the crafters of the eight-year-old law was for the rate cut to be permanent.

The governor, however, prefers selective tax relief. Democrats decreased taxes on certain retirement income and boosted the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits low- and moderate-wage workers, to 30% of the federal credit from 6%.

They also created a retroactive provision requiring the state treasury to issue the new rebate checks “as soon as possible” to those who qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2022.

Despite the illusion of returning money to taxpayers, the state will end up with more tax dollars to spend long-term than if it had made the rate roll-back permanent.

Whitmer and the Democratic-controlled Legislature could have given Michigan families relief as early as January by allowing the permanent tax cut to roll through as designated by law.

But instead of helping all taxpayers while inflation was raging, they insisted on carve outs only for some earners, while throwing billions of dollars at corporations for questionable development projects.

Fleeting tax breaks in the form of one-time rebates do little to create a more attractive climate for residents and businesses.

But they will allow the governor to send fat checks to certain voters who have been harmed by President Joe Biden’s economic policies, just as the president is seeking reelection.