News: This is a sleazy practice, and no amount of rationalization by those participating in this bait-and-switch scheme can justify it. . . . If Wayne County communities had wanted a special tax to beautify their downtowns, they should have asked voters to approve one.
Zoo officials tell the Freep that they get all all the 0.10-mill tax from Oakland and Macomb counties -- but not from Wayne County.
The Freep reports:
Since 2008, communities such as Grosse Pointe, Dearborn, Taylor and Van Buren Township have diverted a fraction of zoo-tax revenues to spend in their downtowns, on everything from a dog park and sidewalks to decorative pavers and streetlights, according to community officials.
In a regional snit conducted mostly hush-hush and behind the scenes until now, the communities repeatedly have said -- in official meetings and correspondence -- that they're entitled to capture some of the zoo tax.