The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill providing middle-class tax relief by increasing the standard deduction — or 0 percent tax bracket — by $2,000.

The sponsor of the measure, Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, called the measure “a huge cut for the middle class.”

If approved, it would increase the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly from $15,500 to $17,500 by 2017. The first $1,000 increase in the tax deduction go into effect for the current 2016 calendar year, with the second taking effect next year.

“It basically removes 75,000 taxpayers off the rolls completely,” Rucho said. “They don’t even have to file.”

When completely implemented, the new tax break would save families an additional $115 a year, Rucho said.

Proportional tax breaks would apply for taxpayers with other filing statuses. The standard deduction for those claiming head-of-household status would increase from $12,400 to $14,000. The standard deductions for taxpayers filing as single and as married filing separately would increase from $7,750 to $8,750.

The tax break would apply only to taxpayers who use the standard deduction, not those who itemize deductions.

While all Democrats present Tuesday joined their Republican colleagues in supporting the middle-class tax break, some used the debate to argue for reinstatement of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

“It does not help those who are desperately poor,” said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, arguing that the EITC would accomplish that. “We could afford to do both.”

Sen. Andy Wells, R-Catawba, compared the EITC to the increase in the zero tax bracket.

“This bill puts more money in the pockets of those families than the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Wells said. The only category where families get more from the EITC is if they get a refundable credit, which he called “a welfare check.”

Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, said recent tax law changes, which include broadening the sales tax base, have placed more of a burden on people at the lower end of the economic spectrum. She said that the EITC would balance out that change.

“I think it’s wrong to characterize it as welfare,” Van Duyn said.

The state eliminated its EITC, along with a number of other tax credits, in the 2013 tax reform package.

At that time, lawmakers also began to reduce the individual and corporate income tax rates while broadening the sales tax base.

Donald Bryson, state director of Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina, praised the legislation.

“This is much-needed relief and it illustrates that leaders in the General Assembly are working to remove barriers to prosperity for North Carolina families,” Bryson said.

The bill now goes to the House, which as passed its own version of the zero tax bracket expansion as a part of an overall budget bill.

The primary difference between the Senate and House versions is that the Senate bill phases its tax break in over two years while the House version phases it in over four years.