The Detroit Public Library system relies on this millage for 85-90% of its operational budget. Their annual budget is around $30 million per year to support 21 branches and the main library. Without this millage, our library would perish.
Today, tax incentives are taking around 15% of the library millage annually. Meanwhile some neighborhood library branches are closed, and many need serious maintenance or lack compliance with federal ADA accessibility regulations.
Between 2014 and 2023 tax captures and tax abatements took a combined total of $53.9M from the Detroit Public Library.
What else could this missing $53.9M have bought us? It could have done ALL of the following:
All other library systems in Michigan are protected from tax captures by state law. Only Detroit is subjected to this unjust practice.
Since 2014, tax captures and tax abatements enacted by the DEGC have stolen $205.6M from Detroit’s schools to fund glitzy downtown development, while schools in the neighborhoods have rats, roaches, asbestos, and mold.
Literacy rates and test scores in Detroit are among the lowest in the state. M-STEP scores from 2023 reveal that only 12.4% of 3rd-graders throughout the district can read at or above their grade level. And our schools still struggle for basic needs like classroom supplies, paying teachers, busses, and building maintenance.
School libraries and busses were taken away by the emergency manager over a decade ago, and have never been reinstated. In 2023 DPSCD faced budget cuts of 300 jobs.
That missing $205.6M could have paid the salaries of:
It is impossible to ignore the obvious, racialized effects of this missing money. And yet the mayor claims it's not happening because DPSCD officials would have complained about it. This is false, because in 2022 they did complain about it but they were quickly silenced by the administration. Duggan has since claimed that the state has been reimbursing the schools for tax captures going back to 1975, but even if this were true it would be like "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
The affluent white newcomers to Detroit are also silent because they do not send their kids to the public schools, but to the private schools—which even have air conditioning and their own school buses!
From 2014 to 2023, there has been a total of $141.4M lost from the DPSCD millage to repay the schools’ debt due to DEGC tax captures and tax abatements.
Our schools are already hampered by the onerous bond debt that they have been saddled with since emergency management. In fact we are still paying off bond debt on some schools that have already been demolished! The unconscionable act of taking money away from this millage forces the schools to stay in debt longer than they should, unfairly burdening Detroit taxpayers.
Combined with the captures and abatements from the DPSCD Operational Millage, this amounts to over $347M taken from our schools' funding stream in just nine years.
Our aging school buildings were neglected under emergency management, and when state control ended in 2017, the school district tried to sell bonds to create a fund for major building repairs, and new school construction. However, according to DPSCD financial staff who have spoken with us, the bond market has told the district that the City is taking so much from the school millages to subsidize downtown development, that they aren't sure the district can repay current bonds and therefore refuses to sell new bonds to finance building upgrades!
There is a dubious claim that the school district is reimbursed for tax incentives via the School Aid Fund. First of all there are two DPSCD millages getting looted: operational, and debt. It would be illegal to use the School Aid Fund to reimburse the debt millage, so we know at least that half is false. And even if the DPSCD operating millage was reimbursed this way, then we are essentially draining the School Aid Fund in order to prop up tax captures for corporate Detroit. Is that fair to the rest of Michigan?
Also, the state is NOT reimbursing losses from tax abatements, which are an even bigger revenue hit to our schools than tax captures.
There are three millages for Wayne RESA, the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency. It is a regional educational service agency that offers a wide range of services and support to the 33 school districts and 99 public school academies in Wayne County.
This includes “special needs” education, and ensuring that all students with disabilities (such as autism) receive a free and appropriate public education. Some of the money goes to Detroit Public Schools for that purpose.
Between 2014 and 2023 alone, $64.5M has been tax captured or abated from the three Wayne RESA millages by the DEGC.
From the Special Needs millage alone, the DEGC took $40.7M! That money could have:
Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC looted $39.1M from the millage to fund the Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD). The millage raises only about $22M per year from taxpayers to fund the college system.
The voter-approved wording of a ballot proposal is considered binding legal language…for that much of our money to be diverted to other things not specified in the language of the millage seems illegal, and is definitely unjust.
The Wayne County Community College mostly serves working class Detroit students; 3 of its 5 campuses are located in Detroit, which means that it is mostly black, Detroit students who are fleeced by these tax incentives. In fact the college was founded as a black institution in 1967, in the wake of the Rebellion that summer.
It's also worth considering that until recently the WCCCD downtown campus sat just outside of the DDA's boundaries. So despite being downtown, they got tax captured and yet were carved out of receiving any benefit from being downtown. Now that they are part of the DDA zone, are they receiving any monetary benefits from it? And if so, would it just be simpler to stop capturing their millage...?
Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC tax captured $82.9M from the State Education Tax, a millage which goes toward general statewide education funding.
An article in BridgeDetroit from August 24th, 2023 cried that “Michigan Teachers are Still Scrounging for Classroom Supplies,” according to the headline.
$82.9M would buy a lot of school supplies. Teachers spend hundreds of dollars each year buying supplies for their classroom. School districts are supposed to supply basic necessities, but parents are still asked to donate items like tissue and hand sanitizer. Why should we do that when we already pay a tax for these things to be provided in schools?
This is the basic city tax that we pay for such services as busses, parks, rec centers, elections, police, fire, and EMS, the city airport, the Health Department, payroll for city workers, etc. Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC has looted $237.1M from this millage.
That money could have paid for ALL of the following:
Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC has looted $96.2M from the millage to pay down remaining city debt owed as part of the municipal bankruptcy.
This tax capture represents money that’s supposed to be spent on paying off that debt, in compliance with the terms of the municipal bankruptcy, but instead it’s being spent on private downtown development projects. The act of taking money away from this millage forces the city to stay in debt longer than it should, and unfairly burdens Detroit taxpayers. It is unconscionable.
Combined with the losses from the City General Fund millage, we have lost a grand total of $333.4M to the DEGC's corporate welfare!
What else could this lost $96M have done? Rather than giving it to rich developers to build luxury housing for people who already have their needs met, it could have been reinvested in the Mayor's failing, neglected Detroit Housing Commission, so that those who depend on public housing don't end up homeless.
Had the lost $96.2M from this millage actually paid for debt, bonds in the same amount could have been levied for building the following:
As of March 2023, there were 116 vacant housing units in Detroit for every homeless person; the worst such ratio in the nation.
Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC has tax captured $68.4M from the Wayne County General Fund millage.
This is the money Detroiters pay to the County for basic governmental functions, and services like road maintenance, and operating Metro Airport. Not only do tax incentives hurt Detroit’s pocketbook, but they also hurt Wayne County’s pocketbook because the taxes Detroit residents should be paying to the county are not getting where they are supposed to go.
$68.4M could have paid a lot of plow drivers. By comparison, Wayne County Roads’ entire budget for one year is only $30M!
Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC has taken $1.7M from the millage that funds the Wayne County Parks System.
Chandler Park on Detroit's east side is funded by this millage, as well as other parks Detroiters might enjoy outside of the city—like Hines Park, or Elizabeth Park.
The result of this theft is that the fair share Detroiters pay into the operation of these parks is reduced, leaving suburban taxpayers paying for a larger portion of our shared resources.
The millage on your tax bill labelled “HCMA PARK” represents money stolen from the millage meant to fund the general operating budget of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks. Between 2014 and 2023, the DEGC has tax captured $2.5M from this millage, on top of what it takes from the Wayne County's parks.
Between 2015 and 2023, the DEGC has looted $6.4M of our money from the millage to fund the Wayne County Jail and juvenile detention facilities.
The jail has been in the news for years due to understaffing, overcrowding, and lack of heat in the winter. The juvenile hall was in the news in 2023 for inhumane conditions. The new jail was also in the news in 2024 for inhumane conditions, just after opening, with inmates protesting and even committing suicide.
While Detroiters For Tax Justice does not support carceral punishment, we believe the DEGC's tax looting is directly contributing to the problem of maintaining humane conditions in our detention facilities—and we definitely object to that.
That missing $6.4M could have paid a salary of $40k/yr (more than they start at now) for 16 new deputies, for the whole 10 years it was captured.
The Detroit Zoo, Detroit Institute of Arts, and DDA millages are explicitly exempted from tax capture under the provisions of PA 57 of 2018. Why?
Because the Zoo and DIA are utilized by suburbanites and tourists—mainly white folks. Meanwhile, the schools, libraries, jail, and community college primarily utilized by black people are being looted. This illustrates the racist nature of tax captures, and of the DEGC. Only in Detroit is this level of austerity and avarice applied against the people; tax captures are wealth redistribution, mainly affecting poor and brown-skinned residents while simultaneously lightening the economic burden for affluent newcomers and businessmen. This is white supremacy in action.
By the way, the DDA millage (levied only on downtown residents) funds the Downtown Development Authority—which is one of the tax capturing authorities under the DEGC. Naturally they would never dream of tax capturing their own millage.
Naturally the DEGC and their supporters in city government and the corporate community claim that our view of tax incentives is false, saying that our millages are actually reimbursed for these losses. They even accuse us of spreading "misinformation." Here is a post from our blog breaking down their rebuttals:
Detroiters For Tax Justice
P.O. Box 34040, Detroit, MI 48234
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