Proposal to Eliminate Property Taxes Leaves Homeowners Divided

Michigan residents who wrote to Newsweek about a proposal to eliminate property taxes for homeowners and businesses in the state are divided between embracing the measure and strongly opposing it, with some expecting it to be “disastrous” for public services.

The initiative, dubbed “Ax Mi Tax,” was launched by Michigan real estate agent and small business owner Karla Wagner, who is trying to collect enough signatures to bring it to the state ballot in November. She previously told Newsweek she wants to eliminate property taxes “because people can’t afford them anymore.”

“With the high cost of living and everything else that has gone up, we are losing way too many homes, farms and businesses in Michigan,” Wagner said. “People are leaving Michigan because of the high cost of living here.”

Thomas B., a Michigan resident who asked not to use his last name, said he’s definitely “overtaxed,” so much so that he’s considering leaving the state, as Wagner mentioned. Thomas told Newsweek that he has lived in six different states and Mexico over the past 30 years due to his job, “and Michigan is by far the most heavily taxed state.”

“My modest home, in a remote area, has the same tax as my last home in Kentucky, which was twice as big in a very upscale neighborhood with the best schools in the state!” he said. “Had we selected a similar home, with equivalent schools, in a much more metropolitan area, our taxes would have been four times as much! It is outrageous.”

Michigan has some of the highest property tax rates in the country, according to the financial advice company SmartAsset, an average tax rate of 1.32 percent—well above the national average of 0.99 percent.

Jeffrey Erhart, a resident of Kent County in Michigan, said he would support the elimination of property taxes in the state. “I plan on retiring within the next four years. I built my house in 1994 in Kent county, and have lived there since then. I sent my boys through the public school system and have been paying property taxes for 30 years,” he told Newsweek.

“As my property is homesteaded, and it has never transferred, my taxes are supposedly reduced. My current taxes are $6,000 per year, or $500 per month. Although I have lived there for 30 years, I won’t be able to stay there when I retire,” he added. “That is sad.”

Bill Hiatt, a senior living in Kalamazoo, Michigan, told Newsweek that he would sign the petition “in a heartbeat,” as he’s “paying for about five to six different schools,” despite never having children, while struggling to pay his property taxes on Social Security income.

Cynthia Pataka, 64, told Newsweek that she “hundred percent agrees” with the petition as she currently says she can’t afford her house. “I’m so tired of moving because I can’t afford my taxes here in Fraser [MI],” she said. “My taxes are $5,500 a year, so now here I am, three years in this house, and I have to move,” she said, adding that taxes are stressing her out “constantly.”

Pataka called Michigan’s property taxes ridiculous, saying that because she doesn’t use the library she doesn’t want to pay for it.

“I don’t have children in school. I don’t want to pay for it. I don’t want to pay for any of this stuff,” she continued. “I want my money to repair my house and go out to eat or to even buy food for my refrigerator.”

Dominic Torres, a resident of the town of Shelby, told Newsweek, as a lifelong resident of Michigan: “I too am tired of the exorbitant property tax rates the people of Michigan are forced to pay.

“My wife and I have sacrificed to be able to send our kids to a private school from preschool to their current high school grade,” he said. “Not only do we pay for the public school system but also the tuition for their current high school. I have been yelling for a school voucher system that would give us back some of our property tax money so we could use it to help defer the tuition we pay to each month.”

But not every Michigan resident who wrote to Newsweek supports eliminating property taxes entirely, or at all.

Robert Vargas, a 54-year-old retired Lansing police officer and now business owner, told Newsweek that while Michigan residents don’t get the services they should for the amount of taxes they pay, he doesn’t believe it’s “practical to cut property taxes in their entirety. Instead, he said, “they should be cut in some fashion.”

Another resident, Eduardo Garcia, told Newsweek that while the initiative “sounds great on the surface, it’s a disastrous proposal with no real knowledge of economics.” He said that the town of Pontiac in Michigan “is in shambles because there aren’t many homes and people paying property tax, and therefore, there is no money for public services.”

Property taxes should be reduced, he said, “but eliminating them as this proposal states is moronic.” Garcia believes legal initiatives should focus on preventing people from losing their homes rather than cutting funds to public services.

Anthony Minghine, deputy executive director of external strategies for the Michigan Municipal League, previously told Newsweek that Wagner’s proposal would cut over $17 billion in funding for critical services and “will eliminate thousands of jobs from our local economy.”

He called the initiative “an attack on our schools, communities, our state economy, and will devastate the very fabric of our communities.”