Taxes are the problem
I'm a returning Detroiter. After 25 years living and working in Los Angeles, I moved back to my hometown of Detroit. I certainly didn't move here because of the excellent city services. For the most part, and with few exceptions, city services aren't even adequate. City departments are rarely even minimally responsive to questions and complaints. In spite of these and other issues, Detroit is an awfully exciting place to be. I believe that those of us who choose to live here may partake in an urban renaissance without peer. The keys to that renaissance are not only the so-called big ideas, such as the Woodward light rail, but the individual, often entrepreneurial, decisions to live, play, work and create here.
Editorial Page editor Stephen Henderson's suggestion that Detroit needs to break its "high-tax habit" is right on the money ("Help Detroit break its high-tax habit," June 5). Even more important than improving city services, the mayor, Council, Wayne County, and the state should embark on implementing a policy of removing the disincentives for people to live and work in Detroit. In my opinion, city taxes and auto insurance rates are the primary disincentives. As Henderson suggests, the city's income tax for both residents and non-residents should be eliminated in gradients over a five-year period. In addition, the city's property tax rate should be pegged at the median for the metropolitan area.
Once the city-tax disincentives are eliminated, the trickle of entrepreneurs, new residents, and jobs will become a flood!
Thomas E. Page
Detroit
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