A new study is suggesting the city of Detroit will be able to partially lower its property taxes if it enacts a new tax on sports and entertainment event tickets.
Detroit is one of the few large cities that does not charge admission taxes on events. Bridge Detroit reports the study by Citizens Research Council of Michigan predicts an admissions tax charged at Detroit’s sports and entertainment venues has the potential to generate between $14 million and $47 million annually, depending on the tax rate, which would allow property taxes to be cut between 1.7 and 5.7 mills.
Eric Lupher, president of the Citizens Research Council, acknowledged that an admissions tax could alleviate some of the difficulty in the city’s onerous property tax system, but he added, “Detroit would still be a high property tax city. All tax relief is welcome tax relief, but this isn’t going to help the property tax property owners in the city get out from the heavy burden that they’re already paying.”
However, any changes to the tax structure will first require state legislative approval. Previous attempts to pass a state bill on admission taxes repeatedly failed in the state legislature.
