In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2014, the city of Detroit projected it
would bring in $55 million in property taxes.
Instead, it collected just $6.7 million, about $48.3 million short of what it expected.

People simply are NOT paying their property taxes.
“It's a combination of many factors,” said Bill Nowling, spokesman for Orr.
“Clearly, collections is an issue, but so it is the assessment process itself.
In many cases, the city is carrying assessments for properties that are
blighted or abandoned and those amounts go into making up that $55 million number.”