The measure on the Aug. 4 ballot to impose the SMART transit tax levy on all communities in Wayne County, whether or not they want the bus service, feels coercive.
All voters in Metro Detroit will decide whether to impose the county-wide tax, but only those living in communities not now served by the authority will pay the increase if the measure passes.
That amounts to roughly $100 to $200 a year for homeowners in the communities that would be forced into SMART. For everyone else in the region, tax bills will not be affected. Yet they still get to vote.
SMART was never intended to work this way. When its first tax levy was passed in 1995, the assurance to voters was that their communities could voluntarily opt into the bus service, and if they decided to stay out, they’d be spared the tax, but also wouldn’t be served by the regional transit system.
Since then, several large municipalities in Wayne County have chosen not to participate, including Detroit, Livonia, Canton, Plymouth and Plymouth Twp., Northville and Northville Twp. and much of Downriver. Detroit will be subject to the tax if the millage passes, but will not have to join SMART because it operates its own Department of Transportation. The $8 million in revenue raised by the tax in the city will largely go to D-DOT.
A similar tactic was used in 2022 to force all of Oakland County into SMART. A county-wide measure passed in 2022 with 57% of the vote. Macomb County has always enjoyed 100% participation. The loss of choice for Wayne County became inevitable in late 2024 when Gov Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill ending the opt-out option.
The only method of fighting back against coercion for the 17 Wayne County communities outside of SMART is to defeat the funding request.
Supporters of the measure are right that a regional transit system works best if it is seamless. That’s why we’ve long supported merging SMART, D-DOT and other local services into one transit service. But that’s not what’s happening with this proposal.
Rather, communities that are unconvinced SMART service will improve their quality of life will be forced to join anyway.
While SMART has evolved to meet changing commuter habits and incorporated some aspects of ride-sharing to individualize transit service, there are still too many nearly empty buses traversing fixed routes. Opponents have good reason to question the return on investment for the communities that will now be sending $57 million a year to SMART for the 10-year life of the millage.
The language of the Wayne County ballot proposal describes it as replacing a previous millage, but that’s only true for the communities currently in SMART. For the 17 opt-out communities, tax bills will go up significantly.
Another way SMART and its backers are greasing the proposal’s path to passage is by putting it on Aug. 4 primary ballot, when voter turnout is much lower than in the fall general election and tax measures have a better chance of gaining approval.
We generally don’t support primary ballot tax requests. Tax hikes should be presented to voters in elections with the highest participation levels to ensure maximum community input and support.
We see no reason to make an exception for the SMART proposal. There’s no urgency for its passage; it could have waited until November.
We also find the tax-your-neighbors mechanism of this proposal unsavory.
SMART was designed as a voluntary authority. Yet now communities are being forced to join, even if they don’t feel a need for the service.
The only way for voters to hold SMART to its original promise is vote no on the transit authority proposal.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Our View: Wayne communities shouldn’t be forced to join SMART
Reporting by The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
