The article below caught my eye while scanning the webs this AM. Who would have thought that the black democratic leadership of Detroit would do such a thing to the black democratic followship of Detroit. A little digging seems appropriate as I empathize with the dilemma my fellow taxpayers are/were experiencing.
The direct article referenced by the head line reads:
About 100,000 Detroit’s residents lost their homes to foreclosures because the city overcharged them for property taxes. The city owned up to the mistake, but the residents are still waiting to be reimbursed five years later.
Detroit owes the mostly Black residents $600 million, according to reports. Between 2010 and 2016, the city assesses properties at 85 percent of their market value, going against state law. The Michigan Constitution prohibits property from being assessed at more than 50 percent of its market value.
Many Americans work to accomplish the goal of homeownership. However, for Black Americans, the dream of the white picket fence could be harder to achieve, data shows. Advocates said the over-taxation of the Detroit residents is racial injustice issue that blocks inter-generational wealth.
Before looking at the first two paragraphs I’d like to admit that as my mind ages it looses it’s ability to rightly rationalize. If it was working properly I’d be able to see how this is a racial injustice issue (as stated in the third paragraph) if everyone was treated equally. But then again when black folk treat black folk poorly I guess it really is whitey’s fault.
As for the first two paragraphs. 2010 to 2016 is 7 years. $600 M divided by 7(years) is $85.7M annually. $85.7 divided by 189,000 (number of Detroit households= 270,000 of which 70 % are homeowners= 189,000) equals $454 annually or $38 dollars monthly in over payment in property tax.
So if 100,000 folk lost their home in to foreclosure. And I expect that they are double or triple counting people (versus households) because if they were not, then well more than half of every home purchased ended in foreclosure!
But lets keep the 100K number. It seems to me that some of those 100,000 tax payers must have known they were overpaying and raised an alarm during that 7 year period. Unless, unless……they were not paying their taxes and did not care.
Doncha wonder? Here is how some of that happens (this taken from the link in the first paragraph below the very first graphic above):
In 2011, Detroit native Anna Bolden purchased her first home. She purchased the brick bungalow in a tax foreclosure auction for $4,800, according to the Detroit News. Yet when Bolden received her first tax bill from the Wayne County treasurer, her bill was $2,600, as if her home was valued at $57,000.
“My taxes shouldn’t be this high,” Bolden told the Detroit News. “My house was only $5,000, why am I paying this money?”
“I went down [to city and county offices] to ask questions, but it’s like everybody is giving you the runaround,” she added. “It makes you feel like they are cheating you…but what can you do?”
In the years that followed, Bolden’s home was assessed at a rate higher than its true value. Finally, in 2017, local tax officials lowered the value to $28,000, after the property was reappraised.
Bolden, who currently owes the Wayne County treasurer at least $4,600 in back taxes, is scared she will lose her home to foreclosure.
So here is the bottom line, when she closed on the home she was told what the taxes would be. She closed anyway. She currently owes the same amount in taxes as she purchased the home for (in unpaid taxes). That means that (assuming the taxes were more than halved in 2017 to roughly $1,300 annually) she has not paid her property taxes in 4 years. That’s a sweet gig if you can get it!.
And Detroit? Well it’s population is running at about 80 percent POC so you know it must be a racial injustice issue.
