why we OPPOSE AN entertainment TAX

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In 2023 Councilmember Calloway proposed an "amusement tax" to offset the drain on city tax revenue created by tax incentives for major development, but the idea soon faded. It was not the first time the idea of such a tax has been floated in Detroit. In announcing her mayoral bid in 2024, Mary Sheffield revealed that she would revive attempts to pursue an entertainment tax for Detroit. In 2025 mayoral contender Solomon Kinloch has come out in opposition to it.

Here we have yet another punitive tax that would be added onto the residents in a city that is already begging for relief from overtaxation, that is begging for an end to the looting of our tax millages via subsidies for billionaires, and that is already suffering from economic exclusion downtown. 

While we understand the intent of such a measure, an entertainment tax will do more harm than good. It would:

• Raise the cost of participation in downtown events for legacy Detroiters, increasing the economic divide between black and white, visitor and native.
• Distract from the real root of the issue, which is the diversion of city tax revenue for purposes of subsidizing downtown for investors and the amusement of nonresidents (ie, tax captures etc). Not only will an amusement tax distract from this, but it will serve as cover for continuing to use tax capture into the future.
• Create another pot of money for potential looting by an untrustworthy mayoral administration.
• Tax patrons in order to make up for the loss of previous arena revenue sharing agreements, while leaving billionaire venue owners completely unburdened; it is an anti-working class proposal even if Detroit residents are exempted.

The tax is being proposed as a way to offset or reduce property taxes Detroiters have to pay. While we could use the relief, this is like using a pot to catch water from a roof leak, and then using another pot to catch the water when the first pot overflows. One might get the idea that someone wants to have all these money pots around because they want to dip their fingers into them instead of just fixing the roof. Is this the real "trickle-down" economics?

Councilmember Calloway introduced this idea to increase "revenue for infrastructure, transportation, environmental sustainability, cultural programs and neighborhood investments." Council could accomplish that goal without raising the cost of downtown entertainment, by simply not letting the DEGC loot our tax millages anymore. Council could stop approving grotesquely subsidized tax incentive packages, such as those doled out for the Future of Health and District Detroit. Council could dissolve the DDA as recommended in the CRC reports that they themselves commissioned in 2024. 

It is also important to remember that by contract, the City used to collect a share of revenue from hockey games at the old Joe Louis Arena: 10% of home game ticket sales, 10% of concessions, 7% of suite sales, and 5% of souvenir sales, as well as some of the parking revenue from the Joe Louis Garage (a similar arrangement was in place at Cobo Hall). Now that the billionaire Ilitch family has convinced us to get rid of the old Joe Louis and build the new Pizzarena, no such agreement exists. In fact, despite the common misconception that the new Pizzarena is owned by the Ilitches, it is owned by the City (through the DDA) and the Ilitch family does not even pay rent to use it; it is pure profit for them, a cash cow provided for free by the City thanks to some really cozy dealings. An entertainment tax would hit patrons in order to make up for this lack of revenue sharing agreements, while leaving billionaire venue owners completely unburdened.

If the tepid response to Duggan's punitive Land Value Tax proposal in the legislature was any indication, trying again for an umpteenth time to institute an amusement tax could be doomed to the same fate, regardless of how well intentioned. Detroiters actually fought to get rid of the entertainment tax in years past. And we are tired of subsidizing private investment and tourism out of the funds meant to educate our children...we call on City Council to act now on addressing the root issues. We don't want bandaids, or distractions. We want tax justice now!