DIA MILLAGE, NO CORE SERVICE, SHOULD BE REJECTED
In an era of declining municipal revenue,
it would appear the George Orwell is alive and well. How else can you explain the logic of asking
for more money from homeowners for the arts when budgets for core services like
public safety, schools, and badly needed infrastructure repair are being cut
back year after year?
The Detroit Institute of Arts is asking
for a property tax increase to, well, uh, depending on the audience it is
before, stop it from closing its doors.
Oh, wait, it’s to raise new funding so that the DIA doesn’t have to
touch its $100 Million-plus endowment surplus. No matter what the reason, this
DIA millage proposal should be more like DOA (dead on arrival).
The arts community says this new money is
needed because the arts play a crucial role in the marketability of a
community. The DIA marketers insist that
the promised free admission to the Institute is well worth a tax increase that
only homeowners will have to pay.
Well, the word on the street is that a
picture will not respond to a home invasion call... a sculpture will not
transport you to an emergency room, tea and crumpets are no substitute for
feeding the hungry...no, the priority should be on people, not pictures, on
services, not sculptures, on roads, not Renoirs, on schools, not elite social
gatherings, or at this time, any other function which does not directly prioritize
using tax revenue to stabilize neighborhoods or make communities safer and
stronger.
Let the DIA marketers tell you, admission
will be free at the DIA while you drive through unsafe and decaying roads to
get there. Let the DIA tell you, the arts are critical to the region while you
fight just to keep your child’s neighborhood school open and your children safe
in that school. They will tell you
admission will be free while not telling you that the tax they want from you is
actually frontloading the admission price.
They will tell you, however, that the arts
are essential to the economics of the region…hasn’t worked in the past and
won’t in the future. Tell that to the
3,000 Detroit employees scheduled for layoff, or explain it to the Oakland and
Macomb County residents who are dealing with reduced services based on deficits
the likes of which have not been seen in decades. There are more important
things that bring business to a region, like public safety, good schools,
viable transportation systems, solid infrastructure, and diverse communities.
This DIA millage brings none of that to the table.
The promoters of this tax want you to bail
them out; where is your family budget bailout?
Haven’t we had enough of bailouts on the backs of hard working
homeowners who can’t get banks that got bailed out to help homeowners stabilize
and reduce their mortgages and by extension, help the families whose taxes bailed
out the banks in the first place?
What sense does it make to regionalize the
revenue stream for the arts when we can’t even agree on a regionalized
transportation system, nor a regionalized public safety system, a consolidated
school system, or a regionalized water system?
If we are looking at priorities to more efficiently utilize and leverage
tax revenue, taxes for arts should be at the bottom of any sane person’s list
for sure.
Taken one step further, how fair is it
that people who do not own a home can dictate that you have to pay more taxes
based on the fact that you do own a home?
Why should people like me, who lease or rent property, determine how
much a hardworking homeowner should pay in property tax that I and others will
never be on the hook for? It would be
different if we were talking about a flat sales tax or helping veteran or first
responders, fixing streets, or helping to keep schools open and safe.
As much as I deplore Leon Drolet’s and the
Michigan Taxpayer’s Association’s abject cowardice as exemplified by their running
from the issue of the state and Detroit imposing through the consent agreement a
new $137 million debt obligation on its residents, I have to agree with his selective
outrage over the DIA’s blatantly misleading media campaign to win over votes
for this ill-timed attempt to get at more taxpayer money.
This revenue stream would better spent on
core services that affect the quality of life...like police and fire services,
local roads, health and human services, etc., all of which are declining at
alarming rates due to declining tax revenue.
After it is all said and done, your vote on
art millage should boil down to this: If you want more, pay for it at the door,
and if you don't go, vote no.
