Detroit's Tax Base: Where is it? Where does the money go?

[corktownyuppie]

Looking for someone who has access to data. You hear lots of grumbling about how Downtown/Midtown "get all the money" and the neighborhoods are left hung out to dry.

Does anyone have any hard numbers about:

[[1) Where does the city tax revenue come from?
[[2) Where in the city is that money actually distributed?

I hate to say this because I know it'll end any future career I have in Detroit politics, but in response to Daddeeo,

Downtown has gotten the money for years. How about some dough for the neighborhoods?
I hear story and plan after plan by Kwame and Bing but never see results.
Pretty soon the city center will be surrounded by a dead zone where everyone has left.

A city center with nothing left around it -- especially if that's where the city tax revenue is generated -- is a sustainable city model. A giant, sprawling Donut with a hole in the middle where all the rich taxpayers used to live but now have left is far less efficient, especially if the only residents left are the lower income residents.

But perhaps I'm projecting assumptions and admittedly, I'm ignorant.

So tell me. Where is the city's tax base? And where does that money go? And no fair counting private grants or incentives. If Illitch or Gilbert or DMC want to pay people grants to incent residential migration...that's on them.

Willing to listen...
CY

[j to the jeremy]

North of 6 Mile and West of Woodward there is a ton of density and population

[Novine]

You can get broad outlines of the city's revenues and expenditures from the city's budget documents that are online. If you're asking where in the city location-wise is that revenue coming from, that's harder to answer. But most of Detroit's revenue isn't coming from property taxes or any other location-specific factor.

[DetroitPlanner]

Good point Novine. You need to factor in where people live because Detroit's tax base includes income taxes. Most tax abatements are found in the central city area, as are the large non-tax paying landholders [[hospitals universities, churches, sports venues and convention centers).

Its true that the casinos pay a lot of taxes, but they also use a lot of services.

[French777]

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Portals/...ds_stamped.pdf

[Al Publican]

What is the current City of Detroit income tax rate for residents, around 2.5%? 1.25 for non-residents that work in the city? Curious how many cities over 100K pop. in the US have a "city income tax"? Philadelphia comes to mind as one.

[corktownyuppie]

You can get broad outlines of the city's revenues and expenditures from the city's budget documents that are online. If you're asking where in the city location-wise is that revenue coming from, that's harder to answer. But most of Detroit's revenue isn't coming from property taxes or any other location-specific factor.

So interesting stuff on page C25 of that link above.

Property tax from City residents is actually less than the combine taxes collected from casinos.
Both of those numbers are over 40% lower than the amount of taxes coming from income tax.

Both beg interesting discussions about the best ways to increase the revenue coming into the city in order to improve city services.

[313WX]

What is the current City of Detroit income tax rate for residents, around 2.5%? 1.25 for non-residents that work in the city? Curious how many cities over 100K pop. in the US have a "city income tax"? Philadelphia comes to mind as one.

New York, San Francisco, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati all have income taxes.

Chicago of course has its own sales tax.

Even Birmingham and Louisville I believe have an income tax.

That said, majority of those cities [[with exception of maybe Cleveland) do prove that taxes aren't the deal beraker when businesses are looking to find a location to invest in.

[Malcove Magnesia]

New York, San Francisco, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati all have income taxes.

Living in San Francisco, I can say with authority you don't know what you're talking about. There's the typical class warfare & rhetoric from the city politicians, but there is no city income tax.

[Detroitnerd]

Living in San Francisco, I can say with authority you don't know what you're talking about. There's the typical class warfare & rhetoric from the city politicians, but there is no city income tax.

As coffers lighten, that could change ...

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011...income-tax-yet

[313WX]

Living in San Francisco, I can say with authority you don't know what you're talking about. There's the typical class warfare & rhetoric from the city politicians, but there is no city income tax.

Oops, my mistake then, oh well.

All the other cities I listed do have asn income tax, and San Francisco makes up for no city income tax with a higher minimum wage.