Detroit Mayor Attempts to Bolster City With Property Tax Split

Michigan lawmakers will soon consider a Detroit property-tax plan aimed at reversing a half-century of decline by changing how the city taxes land use.

If approved by the state legislature, Detroit residents will see it on their ballots during next February’s presidential primary.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Thursday introduced the final version of his Land Value Tax Plan. The proposed tax system would function like a split-rate plan, which applies a higher rate to land and a lower rate to structures. Detroit’s version, however, substitutes levies rather than actually splitting rates, to work within the confines of ...