Raising City Taxes is counter-productive.

I sent the following letter in response to the mayor's suggestion that the cap on city income taxes should be lifted. The headline of the article was: Bing seeks state help to raise revenue for Detroit

Dear Editor:

Unfortunately, most of our City's elected leaders appearclueless about how to move the city forward once the current financialcrisis is past. Fortunately, the soon to be implemented Council byDistricts structure will result in new employment opportunities formany of current City Council members. Employment opportunities thatdon't include the City of Detroit.  Only then, will our Citygovernment begin to be accountable.

Yes, basic city services are severely lacking. Yet, many of us chooseto move to Detroit (in my case, from Los Angeles), or to stay. Not forcity services, but in spite of the lack of city services. To encouragegrowth Detroit needs to remove the financial disincentives that discourage people from living and investing in our City. Major disincentives include the City's income tax, property tax rates, and automobile insurance rates that penalize city residents. Detroit should embark upon a five year step-by-stepreduction of the income tax. At the end of five years, the tax wouldbe eliminated. Additionally, the property tax should be pegged to themedian of the tri-county area. This would help to make Detroit housingmore attractive to residents, current and prospective. Cutting the taxrates, although painful in the very short term, would result in anincreased tax base. Raising the city's income tax now is not only short-sighted, but disastrous in the long-run. 
Thomas E. Page

Letter on crime sent to Detroit Free Press, March 5, 2012

Dear Editor:

There certainly are many dedicated, hardworking, ethical and professional police officers in the ranks of the Detroit Police Department. I've met many of them. The Detroit Police Department as a whole, however, has shown that it is incapable of effectively combating the embarrassingly and consistently high crime rate, including murder. As Stephen Henderson wrote in his March 4, 2012 editorial, "Violence, fear, distrust - and leadership too weak to break the cycle," "decisive and targeted" policing in Baltimore has resulted in its lowest murder total in 30 years. In Los Angeles, homicides have declined from approximately 1,000 annually twenty years ago to 300 today, less than Detroit. And Los Angeles has five times as many people, with fewer officers per capita. Quick police response to 911 calls is only a small part of the solution. It's better on many levels to stop crime before the call to 911, before the shooting, before the mugging. 

Stopping major crimes before they occur requires patrol officer-initiated investigations, including aggressive traffic enforcement. After all, most criminals drive to and from their crimes, often in stolen, unregistered, or uninsured vehicles. The best way to increase the visibility of the police - and increase the fear of getting caught - is through traffic enforcement.  The "Broken Windows" theory of neighborhood decline emphasizes that by enforcing the laws on the so-called minor crimes, big effects follow. The old ways of doing business haven't worked for the Detroit Police Department in many years. We demand better.  

Thomas E. Page