Detroit City Income Tax

[BrushStart]

I'm guessing the problem with that would be the "taxation without representation problem." Right now, I'm paying half a resident's tax because, in theory, I'm not getting the full benefit of city services [[snicker). The taxation without representation camp would have a much better argument if the numbers were the same, and I wonder if it wouldn't be illegal.

I see what you're saying, but for the sake of continuing the discussion, Detroit could study the effect of making the resident tax rate 1% and the non-resident tax rate .5%, that way it would still be half, but lower for both.

The basis of my argument is this; suppose Detroit had a tax rate of 10% for residents [[an extreme example), very few people would live in the city considering the alternatives. Now, imagine the tax rate is 5%, more people would be inclined to live in Detroit than at 10%, but less than at 2.5%. If you had the data and graphed it, there would be an intersection point that showed the best possible rate.

At 2.5%, there are people willing to live in the city, but the rate seems to be arbitrarily picked rather than based on calculation. The point is, Detroit might be able to lower its resident tax rate to say 1.21357% and it would still collect the same revenue it does now because more people would be willing to live in the city and pay that lower rate than the 2.5% currently levied. There needs to be some research done. I don't think the current tax structure is efficient. It seems arbitrary.