Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
After being snowed out for its first informational income tax meeting, the City of Wyoming will host its next meeting Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the Senior Center, 2380 DeHoop Ave. SW. The meeting is at 7 p.m.
For those not able to attend, WKTV will be live streaming the meeting on Comcast Channel 26 and on wktv.org.
The meetings are designed to provide information about the city’s proposed income tax and millage reduction proposals that will be on the May 3 ballot.
Under the income tax proposals, the city is requesting to be able to levy an income tax of up to 1 percent for residents and up to .5 percent for non-residents. The second proposal would be for a city property millage reduction for property owners both homeowners and business owners. The millage would go from about 11.89 to 5 mils. The two proposals are tied together with both required to pass.
Approved by the Wyoming City Council in September, the proposals would minimize the overall tax burden to city residents while generating an additional $6 million in revenue each year. The revenue would be used to improve public safety and parks infrastructure for residents, business and visitors.
The additional funds would allow the Wyoming Department of Pubic Safety to add 27 firefighters and 14 police positions, improving public safety by decreasing response times, enhancing crime prevention efforts and adding more proactive traffic enforcement.
The funding also would provide $600,000 in sustainable annual capital investment in the city’s park system. Many of the city’s parks were built between 1950 and 1970 and while the city has made great stride in developing park properties such as Ideal, Frog Hollow, and Jackson, other parks such as Marquette Park, are 25-years-old or more and are in need of capital improvement. City officials have noted that the current parks millage does not have capacity to provide any funding for capital investment.
The city has five more informational meetings scheduled. The one on March 2 at the Gezon Fire Station, 2300 Gezon Parkway SW, also will be live streamed by WKTV on Comcast Channel 26 and WKTV.org.
The other meetings are:
March 9, Del Mar Community Room
March 15, Godwin Heights High School, 50 35th St. SW
March 24, City Hall, 1155 28th St. SW
April 19, KDL Wyoming Branch, 3350 Michael Ave. SW
All meetings are at 7 p.m.
For more information on the two proposals or to use the tax calculator, visit wyomingmi.gov/FundingForthe Future.
