85% of voters approving Detroit Public Library millage

Detroit voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Proposal L, the Detroit Public Library’s millage that generates the vast majority of its operating budget.

As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, unofficial results on the Wayne County election website from 399 of 400 Detroit precincts, showed the library proposal winning approval from city voters, with just more than 85% voting yes.

The millage, officials have said, is crucial to keeping the library’s doors open and means more money in library coffers. 

Proposal L renews the current property tax of 3.9943 mills, or $3.9943 per $1,000 of taxable property value. This means that for a home with a taxable value of $40,000, homeowners would pay about $160 per year in property taxes. 

The 10-year renewal, according to the library, combines two millages voters approved in 2014, which ends June 2025. The 3.9943 mills is expected to generate an estimated $42 million in revenue in its first year.

"It's 85% of our operating budget. If it passes, then we are going to continue for the next 10 years to provide services — valuable services — to citizens of Detroit," Atiim Funchess, assistant director of marketing and communications for the Detroit Public Library, told the Free Press last month.

The Detroit Public Library will also be exempt from certain tax captures — a change that could add about $3.2 million next fiscal year to the library budget. The extra revenue would allow the library to address deferred maintenance, improve buildings and bolster programming.

More:Find all 2024 Michigan primary election results here

So-called tax captures are a function of what’s known as tax increment financing (TIF), a tool that allows entities, such as downtown development authorities and brownfield redevelopment authorities, to take a slice of the increase in property taxes to fund projects.

The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is among the entities that has been capturing incremental property tax revenue from the Detroit Public Library. In the 2023 fiscal year, the DDA captured $3.3 million, up from about $2.8 million the year before, according to library figures.

Critics of tax captures say the financing tool harms public institutions, like libraries and schools, when the money could instead go to residents and neighborhoods.

But the DDA has said it has revitalized downtown. The loss of the funds would impact the DDA’s “ability to invest in Detroit’s development,” a spokesperson for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., which staffs the DDA, said last month.

The renewal millage of 3.9943 mills would be exempt from DDA tax increment capture per state law, according to the city of Detroit's Office of the Chief Financial Officer and a law department memo. However, a permanent millage of about 0.64 mills will continue to be subject to DDA capture. Both of those library millages would also be available for brownfield redevelopment tax capture.

Detroit's library system — the second largest in Michigan — includes the main location in Midtown and 21 neighborhood branches.

The Detroit Public Library has a collection of more than 4.4 million items, including books and DVDs, and access to more than 800 computers.

Currently, 18 of the Detroit Public Library's 21 branches are open. The three closed branches are Conely in southwest Detroit, Skillman in downtown and Monteith on the far east side of the city.

Monteith, which is an older building that had fallen into disrepair, needs more than $6 million in remediation work. Skillman is in the construction zone of the Hudson site. Conely has some water damage, Funchess said. The aim is to reopen the Conely branch by the fall.

Free Press Summer Apprentice Sophie Hanawalt contributed to this report.