Sources: Mayor Bing’s plan to raise money for hemorrhaging budget is unrealistic, unfair

Mayor Dave Bing’s plan to raise $50 million for the city’s hemorrhaging budget largely depends on aggressively collecting delinquent taxes and outstanding parking fines from Detroiters who already are struggling and likely won’t pay up, some city officials told Motor City Muckraker today.

To reverse the city’s spiraling debt, Mayor Dave Bing has begun aggressively cutting services, including police and fire protection. Today, he announced a plan to offset some future cuts by going after people who owe unpaid taxes, fees and other debts.

Fair enough, right?

While Bing emphasized that his plan included collecting taxes and other debts from businesses, the lion’s share of the money would come from residents who already are paying the highest taxes in the state for inadequate services, finance officials told us on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Many are jobless or struggling to raise their families, which is why the money is delinquent.

And if they don’t pay? Under a new city plan, for example, the state is revoking driver’s licenses of residents who have just two unpaid parking tickets. And many of those tickets were written during extended enforcement hours over the protests of downtown businesses that also are feeling the economic pinch.

The city is aiming to collect $20 million a year in parking fines, compared to about $9 million in recent years.

Another target of collections is unpaid income taxes, which amount to approximately $155 million, finance officials told me.

“The big problem with this initiative is that it puts the city’s collection efforts on the shoulders of Detroiters who simply can’t – or won’t – pay up,” one official told me. “You can’t get blood from a stone.
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  Delinquent taxes, detroit, Finance Department, Fines, Income taxes, Mayor Dave Bing, Parking fines, Parking tickets, steve, Tax collections

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.

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