  Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 893 Registered: 11-2004 |
Detroit seeks to expand property tax cut Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News DETROIT -- The city today announced 24 new neighborhoods that will be eligible for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's expanded Neighborhood Enterprise Zones tax cut. The discount means anywhere from 18 to 35 percent off homeowners' property taxes The goal is to keep and attract residents to the city, and level the tax burden between new and older homeowners. To qualify, homeowners must have purchased their home after Dec. 31, 1996. The break lasts up to 15 years. Kilpatrick unveiled the first phase of 25 new zones last summer. It included some of the most well-known neighborhoods, such as Boston-Edison, Indian Village, Palmer Woods and Sherwood Forest. The Detroit City Council must approve the second-phase of neighborhood zones. The council will hold a public hearing on the proposed areas at 10 a.m. July 25. If approved, the discount would take effect for the summer 2008 tax bills, city officials said. The proposed zones are: Eight Mile and Five Points, generally bordered by Eight Mile, Telegraph, Pembroke and Five Points Eight Mile and Evergreen, generally bordered by Eight Mile, Shiawassee, Berg, Seven Mile and Evergreen Berg and Grand River, generally bordered by Grand River, Lasher, Berg and West Seven Mile Kentfield and Lyndon, generally bordered by Kentfield, Fenkell, Auburn, Westwood and Lyndon Curtis and Evergreen, generally bordered by Evergreen, Curtis, McNichols and Southfield Eight Mile and Meyers, generally bordered by Eight Mile, Meyers, McNichols, Southfield Freeway, Greenfield, Pembroke and Ashbury Park Greenfield and Puritan, generally bordered by Puritan, Greenfield, Fenkell and the Southfield Freeway. McNichols and Livernois, generally bordered by McNichols, Livernois, Santa Clara and Belden Meyers and West Outer Drive, generally bordered by Curtis, Meyers, Pembroke, Wyoming, West Outer Drive, Livernois and Seven Mile. Puritan and Meyers, generally bordered by Puritan, Meyers, West McNichols, Marygrove and Greenlawn Midtown and Brush Park areas, generally bordered by the Lodge Freeway, I-94 and I-75 Woodward and West Grand, generally bordered by Woodward, West Grand, the Lodge Freeway and Virginia Park Warren and Rouge Park, generally bordered by Warren, the west side of West Parkway, Outer Drive and West Parkway. Fielding and West Chicago, generally bordered by Fielding, West Chicago and Vaughen Woodbridge, generally bordered by Warren, Forest Grand River and Trumbull Woodward and Greendale, generally bordered by Woodward, Greendale, John R and Goldengate West Village, generally bordered by Baldwin, East Jefferson, Seminole and Agnes Morningside, generally bordered by Harper, Three Mile, East Outer Drive, Audubon, Nottingham and Barham. Cadieux and Mack, generally bordered by Cadieux, I-94, Kingsville and Mack Jefferson and Alter, generally bordered by East Jefferson, Alter, Lenox and the Detroit River Gratiot and East Eight Mile, generally bordered by Gratiot, East Eight Mile, Kelly and State Fair. Outer Drive and Gratiot, generally bordered by Gratiot, Rosemary, Wayburn and Evanston Riverside, generally bordered by the Chrysler Freeway, Gratiot, Mt. Elliot and Parkway Joy and Southfield, generally bordered by Joy, Southfield, Faust, Evergreen, Warren, Pierson and Trinity In addition to the 24 new neighborhoods, two areas from the first phase of neighborhoods were expanded to include an additional street in each. The Golf Club zone would also include the area bordered by Pontchartrain, McNichols, the east side of Pontchartrain and Palmer Park. The South English Village zone will include the area bordered by Warren, the west side of Cadieux and Mack. You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2396 or cmacdonald@detnews.com http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.d ll/article?AID=/20070716/UPDAT E/707160382 (Message edited by eric on July 16, 2007) | ||
Royce Member Username: Royce Post Number: 2302 Registered: 07-2004 |
Wow! That's a lot of areas covered. Can't locate Parkway in Riverside zone. Where is that? | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 1618 Registered: 06-2006 |
does the city have any sources of revenue left other than the casinos? | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9576 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yes. All sources can be identified here. Property taxes are actually a very small percentage of the city's income. These cuts will have a pretty nominal effect on the city budget but have potential for a major benefit for residents and future homeowners. http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/bu dget/default.htm | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9577 Registered: 10-2003 |
From the link - Wagering tax: 6.2% | ||
Wilus1mj Member Username: Wilus1mj Post Number: 203 Registered: 05-2005 |
At least they didn't make in confusing to figure out......why not a flat cut across the board??? | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9578 Registered: 10-2003 |
My guess is that they can try to level spending while rolling in the cuts. It is easier to take a hit incrementally and make adjustments than have them all come in at once. | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 1619 Registered: 06-2006 |
wow...looks like its the #4 source of revenue...and 8% is higher than I would have thought for Detroit...it has to be mostly commercial properties that account for that portion of the budget... | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3238 Registered: 02-2005 |
cool! I know most of these are well-established, densely populated neighborhoods. Why not cut across the board though, why not create incentive to buy in the places that need the most help? As long as there is a seperate strategy that aims to help our most depressed areas and urban prairies i.e. incentives for developers large and small, then I guess this complicated plan is okay. | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 1794 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think the short answer is that this more complicated (NEZ) tax cut was politically easier to make happen and easier on the budget than an across-the-board tax cut. So, that's why we have it. I agree that an across-the-board cut probably would have been better overall, but this is a lot better than nothing. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1321 Registered: 10-2006 |
If you can cut 30 neighborhoods' taxes 50% for example, seems to me that that would actually be better than say 10% for the whole city. It would bring renewed interest into those specific neighborhoods rather than only minimal interest in the whole city itself from someone that might consider moving for example. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 5806 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yes, that idea is behind the "shrinking cities" movement/philosophy where you basically steer population into more intact neighborhoods, and out of devastated neighborhoods to reduce strain on city services such as trash collection, lighting, etc. In fact, for the first time, Mayor Kilpatrick brought that up himself when discussing NEXT Detroit neighborhood initiative, recently. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 2218 Registered: 10-2003 |
I just got a letter that finally explained how to calculate new neighborhood NEZ for my house in Rosedale Park. I did the calculations and I'll be saving $600 a year on what would normally be a $4,500 tax bill (including county taxes). That's about a 13% tax break. Big deal IMO. The new lofts around town with their NEZs are still a way better deal from a monthly payment standpoint. This neighborhood NEZ was a bunch of smoke and mirrors to get folks excited over nothing. | ||
Gildas Member Username: Gildas Post Number: 995 Registered: 12-2004 |
It's a start but without a reduction in the city income tax people still won't move in and many people (myself included) are thinking about moving out. I give to charities and things I believe in (DIA, Zoo, etc) however the city is not a charity I believe in and sending a few thousand dollars to the city for income tax, well, its days are numbered for my family. Hell that's an extra vacation I could take every year. Sorry to change topics, but we are talking about tax reductions after all. The city punishes those with an earned income and wonder why they move out leaving people with no / little / reportable income. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 1118 Registered: 11-2006 |
It is a start though. | ||
Trainman Member Username: Trainman Post Number: 442 Registered: 04-2006 |
Kwame promised that DARTA was the answer to save Detroit and public bus service. Instead, the DARTA primarily caused the SMART bus reductions and the drastic cuts in federal funds for minorities and the low income. You DY'ers will keep getting more promises until Y'all learn the TRUth about mass transit and taxes. Watch out with the state constitution change to raise county sales taxes. SEMCOG want to tax fast food to support the trucking industries. Get all the facts about Detroit mass transit. see the trainman website in DETROIT LINKS. | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 1796 Registered: 11-2003 |
Bvos -- I got the same letter. The letter specified that our assessment is now split up into a building portion and a land portion. (that part I already knew) The building portion is taxed at the NEZ rate of 51.8389 mills, while the land portion is taxed at the original rate of 64.6391 mills. Is this what your letter indicated? Fortunately, the building portion is almost all of my assessment for me. So, mine comes out to about a 19% cut overall. Not bad, although I wonder where these articles came up with the "18 to 35 percent" cut, since the upper limit looks to be about 20 percent. | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 897 Registered: 11-2004 |
quote: Exaclty, cutting taxes citywide would dilute their effectiveness in city trying to hold on to its middle class. What ever tax cuts were provided to the worst areas wouldn't be enough. For those areas project specific tax cuts would work best. | ||
7051 Member Username: 7051 Post Number: 36 Registered: 02-2006 |
I spoke with a city assessor a few months ago and she told me that 50% of all residential properties in the city pay $1,000 or less per year in property taxes. This seems to be true as I talk with many people in some of the lesser known parts of the city and I hear of some very low tax payments. Many of these houses have changed ownership multiple times in the last 12 years, but their uncapped taxable values hardly increased due to a lack of reassessing. I also remember hearing during the Archer administration that assessors were instructed to concentrate efforts on reassessing homes in the higher priced neighborhoods. When these homes sold, new owners received these much higher taxable values. I have lived 8 years in a neighborhood where the latter is definitley true. I understand that many of these lesser neighborhoods hardly receive city services, but there is hardly anywhere in SE Michigan where one can spend $70-120K (purchase price) and pay $1,000 or less per year for property taxes! Most houses in this price range (even if purchased 8-9 years ago) are paying $2-3k annual property taxes and $3-4k if purchased more recently. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 1134 Registered: 10-2003 |
Eric, thanks for the article. It's best to only quote some of an article and provide a link to the rest of it though, for copyright purporses. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1314 Registered: 04-2006 |
I'd find it hard to believe that many pay that little in taxes. I suppose he needs to define this. Does he mean direct tax revenue to the City itself independant of the school district, county, HCMA, or state taxes? Does he include the $300 per household 'Garbage Fee'? I know my house's taxes went up $200 alone as a result of the school millage. | ||
Trainman Member Username: Trainman Post Number: 443 Registered: 04-2006 |
A change in the state constitution to allow county wide sales taxes promises to cut both Detroit property and income taxes. Beware of the fine print. For example, the $60 Million per year DDOT gets from the state could be eliminated and shifted to pay for suburban rail and freeway expansions. Detroit schools could see even more cuts from the state. | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 1797 Registered: 11-2003 |
quote: Can anyone else confirm what the NEZ millage rate was in the letter they received? I'm curious about which way the NEZ discount works. It's either: 1. Everyone gets the discounted rate of 51.8389 mills for the building portion of their property, which means the variation in discounts is due to the differing proportions of your building assessment versus your land assessment. (Some people may have a house which is worth a lot more than the land, others may have land which is worth more.) 2. Or, everyone has a different NEZ millage, which means it's even more complicated than I thought. |
