by Scott McClallen
A Detroit lawmaker is pitching up to a 20-year, additional 0.4 mill tax hike to Wayne and Oakland County residents to fund museums – similar to the Detroit Institute of Art tax.
Sen. Marshall Bullock, D-Detroit, sponsored Senate Bill 653 that would apply only to counties with a population over one million – narrowing to the above two counties to fund the Detroit Historical Society and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Bullock’s office hasn’t responded to multiple requests by The Center Square for comment.
A new Wayne County “historical commission” would contract management of the museums.
If the bill passed the House and Senate and was signed into law, a majority of county electors must approve the tax hike in an August or November election. A county would incur millage election costs, but if successful, the authority would reimburse the county.
If approved, a 0.4 mills hike would cost homeowners who have a $200,000 taxable value an annual additional $80.
The Detroit Free Press reported the tax is estimated to reap $43 million a year, with $25 million flowing to the Wright Museum and $17 million to the Detroit Historical Society.
If enacted for 20 years, the 0.4 mills tax would collect $860 million from taxpayers regardless of whether they use the museums.
It’s unclear why these private museums require taxpayer money.
Ben Kohrman, an associate director at Compass Strategies that’s representing the two museums, said he would answer several additional questions but didn’t by end of day Friday.
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Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square. A graduate of Hillsdale College, his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org. Previously, he worked as a financial analyst at Pepsi.
Photo “Marshall Bullock” by Senator Marshall Bullock and photo “Charles Wright African-American Museum” by Quick fix CC BY-SA 2.0.
