In the summer of 2015 Wayne County placed a judgment of $39
million on our summer taxes. Inkster
placed several million dollars worth of taxes on Inkster taxes. This kind of thing goes on all over the
state. Their authority they say comes
from PA 236 which allows them to place judgment directly on our tax bills
without a vote of the people.
We believe that this is a violation of the Headlee Amendment
which is part of Article IX of the State Constitution which was passed by the
voters in 1978. It requires that
increases in taxes require a vote of the people. We requested the help of the legislature to
change PA 236. As a result we received a
response from Senator David Knezek (D) who informed us that he has requested
the legal council and legislative analysts to design a bill that will prohibit
the placing of these judgments on our tax bills. We never heard from him again
in spite of our attempts to contact him.
The Senate bills SB630 and SB 631 introduced by
Senator Shirkey now resides in the Senate local government committee and HB 5150 introduced by Rep.
Poleski and 5159 introduced by Reps. Yonker, Price and
Garcia has been introduced in the House and are now in the House local
government committee. These bills will bring judgments in line with
the State Constitution.
Please contact them and request that these bills be moved
for a vote. Ask your friends to do the same. When they are moved to the floor
contact your elected officials to vote in favor of their passage.
