VIDEO: Ann Arbor officials talk about the need for a city income tax

How nice that the residents of Ann Arbor get to decide if I get taxed for working here.... I've worked here for 23 years and have given my money to Ann Arbor businesses almost exclusively since then. That will change IMMEDIATELY if I start getting taxed to work here. I'll GLADLY take my money to Adrian or Jackson. Think about that city council members!

I do not support a city income tax for several reasons. I live in A2, but work outside the city. Why should I pay for services I don't use during the day. Secondly, the real question is why is additional revenue necessary? The city has cut some staff, but it has not cut salaries and benefits that are far above those of other public employees. Union contracts make it almost impossible to serve taxpayers at a lower cost like a private business. On top of that, over 90% of city employees, including the City Administrator, don't live in the city. They won't pay 1% of their income and my guess is they don't want to pay the out of town income tax. The City closed a Fire Station, but I still feel safe, because A2 rarely has any fires. Why not use Huron Valley Ambulance Service and get the firefighters out of the rescue and hazardous material response business? Our firefighters are grossly overpaid compared to surrounding communities; the same is true for other city employees. U-M now has its own police force so despite some police reductions, a large area of the city no longer needs the A2 Police Department. City employees have priced themselves out of the local labor market, with their salaries and excessive retirement benefits. The only answer is to starve the city of revenue until they reinvent themselves with private contractors and getting out of unnecessary activities like social service contracts to their non-profit buddies. Why does every ward need two Council persons? Why not reduce the size of Council and make it a non-partisan council so "normal" community members might serve instead of the steady stream of activists who do hold jobs in the real world. A recession is the wrong time to consider an income tax!

This fixation on an income tax is foolish. Ann Arbor is simply not big enough or isolated enough to be able to impose an income tax. Citizens can move out, businesses can leave (and never come). Ann Arbor CANNOT make more money simply by trying to gouge the captive commuters at the university. Look how well city taxes have helped Detroit and Jackson thrive. Never mind that I think Ann Arborites are too smart to give the city tax and spenders another lever to pull whenever they get the urge to spend more or your money. Say no to the income tax. Ann Arbor has to stop being a one party town.

Every Ann Arbor resident should do the math...you may have a net increase in tax. Ann Arbor itself only gets 16.7807 mills of the tax revenue. The rest goes to other government entities in Washtenaw County....though Ann Arbor residents pay almost 46 mills in all. Multiply your taxable value by .0167807, and subtract (or add) 1% of your gross income to see if you are a net winner or loser.

you know, they could have saved a lot of money if they hadn't kept a licquer license for themselves for a golf course that doesn't make any money.

they could have not spent all the money for the old Y in the hopes of having "low income" housing. (wow, those 10 parking spaces must be raking in the dough!)

people are selling property cheap b/c of the market so the greenbelt project gets funds to gobble up land while the price is low!

why give them $7.6 million more dollars to spend (never mind who's money it is) when they can't manage to control their spending now.

Needless to say they still cut cops, but NOOOOOO, this money would go for cops!

and did he say in this video that the money sitting in the general fund is only earning less than 1% in interest? REALLY, that is suppose to SHOCK US. That is the rate we ALL are getting from banks for the same kind of account!

If this makes just one of my customers mad and not shop at my store that is too many...way to CONTINUE to give A2 a bad rap and alienate us further from the rest of SE Michigan (excuse me, I MEANT ALL OF MICHIGAN).

Council needs to learn how to pace themselves with the money they already are in charge of, the well runneth dry and theres a drought coming

Here we go again Fraser. When this came up the first time he proposed this I asked him a question then, "...what would happen if Pfizer had to recal Lipator and pull out of town?..." Hindsight is 20/20. I'm employed by the University, I live in Pittsfield Township. What services of the city am I using? The roads are paid for by the state. The water I use the University pays the city for. I support local businesses through out the city. Do I use the Senior Center? Vets, Mack pools? The city is just pissed that the University brought the Pfizer property and took it off the tax rolls. Next will be their glorified development Lower Town. These are the same people that spent $3M on the old YMCA, and what is it, a parking lot! Lower staff salaries, sell the golf courses (money losers for decades!), outsource garbage, try to get your $40M back on the new city hall!! What next? Tax the art fair goers? The football crowd? The students? And only the "voters" of the city can decide? What's that line, "...taxation without representation...?"

Before we add the infrastructure/administration/personnel for more taxes, we need to see some benchmarking data to see how cost competitive Ann Arbor is versus similar cities for a comparable basket of services. In the present economic environment, increasing tax revenue to match expenditures without looking for opportunities is not supportable.

This is Michigan Reader again. I need to correct my earlier post. There is an error in my math calculation. It should be--multiply your taxable value by .0167807-you then get the amount you pay to the city. Multiply that amount by 15% (.15) and THAT is what you will save on property taxes. Then, you compare that amount with 1% of your gross income to see if you will be a net winner or loser.

Detroit's population has cratered by 45 per cent since the introduction of its income tax. Jackson's population has cratered by 26 per cent.

The introduction of an income tax is a death sentence for growth. It just is. Maybe that's what the city council wants, a smaller Ann Arbor, but is that what the average citizen wants?