A group of library patrons, Detroit taxpayers and a former library commissioner, Russ Bellant have taken on the task of #RestoringRespect to Detroit residents. Currently, #TaxCaptures take money intended for libraries and schools and divert it to #DowntownDevelopmentAuthority, which uses it to build up downtown.
Initially, the plan was to assist development during the Coleman A. Young administration when white flight and massive corporate disinvestment created an economic blockade against Detroit and our first Black mayor. It is now a reversal of that scenario; Coleman A. Young would never have shuttered libraries, closed schools,; hand off poor children's education to rich developers as Mayor Mike Duggan has done.
The tax captures had been limited to 5% of the library budget until Duggan came after more. Currently, the library's budget is being looted by upwards of 25% and there is no limit to what Duggan and the #DDA will take if we don't intervene.
In fact, only Detroit is subject to tac captures; every other city in the state of Michigan has banned the use of school and library bond money for anything except schools and libraries. Duggan lobbied the state legislature to exempt Detroit from the ban. Thus, #DetroitersForTaxJustice formed to reverse this apartheid practice.
State tuned. Join Friends of the Bowen Branch Library for more information. We need all of you!