This viewpoint essay by Birmingham area photographer , who's also a certified planner and design consultant, is reposted with permission from his blog at cityphotosandbooks.com.
Voters in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties will be asked Aug. 7 to approve 0.2 mils for 10 years, which is approximately $15 per year for every $150,000 of a home’s fair market value. This money will go to provide one of many sources of funding needed to support a world-class art museum: the Detroit Institute of Arts.
As the vote nears for the Arts Millage in southeast Michigan, I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is an irreplaceable resource that brings incredible works of art, film, music, and so much more to our collective Detroit community. I personally choose to pay for a membership so I can enjoy these treasures many times throughout the year. My experiences at the DIA have been positive, exhilarating, educational, fun, and memorable.
Residents living in counties that approve the millage will receive free unlimited general admission, including students taking field trips to the museum, and there will be enhanced programs for students and seniors and bus subsidies for visits by seniors and students.
Making this resource available to residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties for no admission fee will broaden the ability of the DIA to reach out and enrich the lives of the people living here. Additionally, it will put the DIA on sound financial footing, helping to offset the losses in other funding sources that have occurred over many years.
I also see the DIA as a resource that can help lead the Detroit region out of a recession.
Detroit is already attracting young people, and it has particularly seen a surge of young adults under 35 years old with technology-based backgrounds. The writings of economic development adviser Richard Florida and others have documented how young people are seeking "place" over the highest-paying job. A world-class art museum and the other cultural resources in Detroit will help to fuel the growth in young professionals living in the City.
The overall value of the arts in a community is well-documented. Adrian Ellis, a cultural planning consultant, wrote and spoke in 2003 about four sets of partially overlapping arguments that have been particularly influential:
• Economic: Investment in certain arts has a high "multiplier effect," generating direct and indirect expenditure, through the first round of construction or other investment related activity and subsequently by attracting inward investment and tourism, and thereby creating jobs.
• Social: Investment in the arts can ease social divisions by creating a context in which otherwise socially disempowered groups can participate in society on a more equal basis; and it creates ‘social capital’.
• Psychological and personal: Participation in the arts can accelerate intellectual and motor skills.
• Civic: The civic argument, an amalgam of the above, is that a city with a vibrant cultural infrastructure, in which a range of different forms of public and private sector investment in the arts are undertaken, can create a virtuous circle of high economic performance, high inward investment, high educational attainment and high levels of civic engagement.
I believe the case for the DIA millage is compelling. Its failure would be disastrous for the region’s economy, its culture, and its people.
By approving the millage, the DIA not only maintains the treasures of the past, it enables the museum and the region to leverage these resources for future growth in the arts and the economy.
That is pretty good return for about $15 per year.
The Rochester Hills Police Millage is just as bad. The city spent $25K on mailers claiming this is an even swap renewal. That is simply not the case. It creates a NEW 2.5 mill police tax which leaves 2.5 mills free in the General fund they can spend anytime they want, without a vote.... I cannot understand how anyone could support such obvious attempts to fool the voters. And I support both the DIA and Police. Just not bad proposals....
Remember the old adage: Figures never lie, but liars figure. And, here's another one: If the shoe fits, wear it! DIA Tax Face-off: The Museum vs.Walker http://www.michiganview.com/article/20120726/MIVIEW/207260494
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It is simply a voluntary budget set-aside and the DIA board can use it for anything they want to use it for by simply voting to use it for something else. They keep changing their numbers on who uses the facility and lately attacked a writer who didn't agree with them, and me, on the source of the number that 19% of their visits were from Oakland County people. It was from THEIR OWN FACT SHEET and was used by all of the media in May and early June until they started fudging the numbers and now they have almost doubled them for Oakland. Never do they say what they base their numbers on but remember one important thing - each visit does NOT equate to different person. One person could go 100 times a year and they would count as 100 visits. Also, if they really wanted voters to have their say they would have put it on the November ballot. Whichever way this election goes it will be determined by a majority of the minority of voters. Voter turnout in a primary can be less than 10% in some communities and as high as a whopping 25-30% in very few communities. Most fall in the 15-20% range. So, a majority of the minority will decide this.
Representative McMillin is exonerated - the DIA is crying wolf. Furthermore, if the tax passes, the DIA will NOT use the tax revenue for an endowment for operations. The fund that they currently refer to an an endowment for operations is just a voluntary DIA Board-restricted budget set-aside and what the Board restricts, it can use for anything with a simple vote of the Board. The DIA's plan is to use the requested tax revenue for operations while they raise funds for an operating endowment. Through various management, over almost 130 years, they have not seen fit to drive money into a real endowment for operations so why should we trust them to do it now? The DIA seems to like to play word and number games during this election and the money that Rep. McMillin has referred to - they called an endowment when it really isn't a legal endowment. A real endowment takes permission from the heirs and the court to use for another purposes - a much trickier process than a simple vote of the DIA Board. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120727/METRO01/207270393/1409/metro/Debate-DIA-s-finances-heats-up
Why do I think that if the DIA were located outside of Detroit, your vote may be different? Enjoy the zoo much? You help pay for that. Use SMART? Your taxes help pay for that. It's called living in a society, and taxes are the fuel that the society runs on. Vote how you wish, I'm happy knowing that my yes vote will at least cancel out your no vote.
"Detroit" isn't just given a sack of money if this passes. The operation of the DIA is completely separate from the operation of the city An annual AUDIT is part of the requirement. But hey, go ahead and keep your uninformed (and I suspect more than a little rascist) opinions.
Give me a break.
And yeah, you support the DIA, right.
Anything you or McMillin oppose automatically gets support from me.
I will vote not on the current proposal and continue to support the DIA on a personal level.That's the way it should be. If this is so good for the country or the State, then the entire State needs to support this-not just a few, every county, every taxpayer--Anybody yet know what those yellow school buses that arrived in the mail using children as a pawn for votes cost the DIA? The DIA has used a lot money in it's political campaign for votes obviously, they still have a lot of money &the director has a $443,000.00 salary if I can beleive what has been printed.Tell that to our seniors stretching thier dollars, the unemployed in this State, those that can't afford to reitre and lost pensions and the families wondering how they can educate thier kids with such rising costs everywhere-tell them $20.00 is nothing, a paltry sum and if they don't pay they are selfish and ruining the socialization of this country and the culture. The DIA should be a choice, not a tax.
This hands out at every turn is getting to be old and is taking too much away from those that are still employed here--way too much--the govt is chipping away more and more from the paychecks and it has to stop. We work for ourselves and our families first and foremost-not the other way around.