Detroit/Wayne County Property Taxes for 2016 - Plan Now to Save Later

By Richard C. Clement 

    Many Detroit Residents received certified letters from the Wayne County Treasurer in December of 2015 regarding their property taxes.  This letter is giving you fair warning that your will lose your home if you don’t pay the amount stated.  If you have contacted the Wayne County Treasurer and have a payment agreement then you are fine. If you own property in Detroit then you have an opportunity to redress your grievance about your property tax if you feel that the amount is not right.

     You have three opportunities to save your home, and lower your property taxes. December and January are the months to make the plan to appeal your assessment. On the first 15 days of February, the Board of Assessors allows a homeowner to apply to appeal their assessed tax amount. (ClickHere) for the details to appeal a City of Detroit Tax Assessment. To be successful at a hearing, you must do the following:

1. Get a current appraisal of your home/property
2. Keep up with your payment paperwork like receipts for payment and other maintenance work
3. Find 3 homes that are comparable in size to your home and the selling price. If the homes sold for less than yours is appraised, then your taxes will be lowered.
4. File an appeal before Feb 15^th with the City of Detroit
5. Get a hearing date from the assessor’s office
6. A decision is rendered by the Board of Assessors
7. If you are satisfied then you are done with it and the process ends here.
8. If you are not satisfied with the decision you can appeal to the Board of Review in writing on or before the second Monday in March which is March 14,2016 to get an appointment.
9. If you are not satisfied with the Board of Review's decision, then to protect your property rights, you must file an appeal with the  State of MichiganTax Tribunal

   Please be aware that some cases like buying a home dirt cheap in an auction, your property taxes may go up. Property taxes are driven from values in property surrounding your home in the neighborhood. Otherwise, there were many smiles from homeowners who left the 8th floor of the Coleman Young Municipal Center because of their savings.

     The second and third opportunities involve the certified letter from the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office.  When you turn the letter over to the back, you have two opportunities to save your home and, dispute the amount owed. The show cause hearing will give a home owner a right to dispute the amount owed or make arrangements to pay the balance. If you lose your appeal in this hearing, the next one is the notice of foreclosure hearing that will lay the groundwork for total loss of the home by March 31^st, 2016.

     However, if you make contact with someone right now, it will never get to this desperate situation of losing a home and becoming homeless. If you need help paying your property taxes (click here) for detailed information on what can be done.

For housing assistance these are some contact agencies that can help:

Wayne County Department of Human Services – DHS (formerly Family Independence Agency) can be contacted at (313) 456-1000. This is a general number from which you can obtain the phone number and address of your local DHS office. You can also simply go to your local office and apply for State Emergency Relief (SER). Offices are located throughout Wayne County.

Michigan Veterans Trust Fund, Wayne County Office, (313) 899-1162. If you are a veteran with at least 6 months of wartime duty, you may qualify for financial assistance.

Wayne County Veteran Affairs (Soldiers and Sailors Relief Fund), (313) 224-1862. If you are a veteran with any wartime service and an honorable discharge, you may qualify.

Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) – (313) 842-7010, Help is available to those who qualify and is not limited to those of Arabic ethnicity.

City of Detroit Human Services Department, Central Operations Division – (313) 852-5634. (Detroit Homeowners only.)

Money Management with Melody! 2015 Mackinaw Policy Conference

By Richard C. Clement

US Rep Harold Ford and Melody Hobson

One of the Benefits of attending the conference is listening to speakers who have the best interests of the citizens regarding finance. Melody Hobson gave a 30 minute presentation regarding how to instill the benefit of money management to future generations of youth. Through her company Ariel Investments LLC she outlined the progress of .her Company targeting under served communities in Chicago.  Training young students on the value of money and how to manage it is a "No Brain-er" and when given the opportunity to succeed they will. A brief snippet from their website www.arielinvestments.com describes and defines the mission and purpose of Ariel:

Through former Mayor Daley’s New School Initiative Program, Ariel was awarded a corporate sponsorship of a Chicago public school in 1996. Hence, the birth of Ariel Community Academy – a public school located on the south side of Chicago. Currently, Ariel Community Academy (ACA) offers classes from kindergarten through eighth grade serving 518 students and their families. Ninety-eight percent of the student body is African-American and over 85 percent of the students receive subsidized lunches. ACA chose to target the North Kenwood neighborhood precisely because it was one of the most under served communities in Chicago. Today, the neighborhood is more vibrant, and ACA is a center for community and family life. ACA's impact extends well beyond the building itself, creating higher academic standards and achievements through a unique corporate-family-school partnership. In short, the vision remains to create a model community school — where the doors are always open; where teachers, parents and members of the community work in partnership to provide world-class educational opportunities and where financial literacy is not just taught but practiced.

Programs like this can easily be set up in any School with an investment of time, money, and resources. Students as young as 8 years old can be trained to manage small portfolios and investments with the proper support and supervision. With the computing power of these smart phones and tablets, students can manipulate their transactions do well. Councilmember Pro-Tem Cushingberry is actively supporting programs like this in Public and Charter schools. 

Financial literacy is the second most important thing besides learning how to read. When these two are worked properly together, you will have given a child a foundation to keep a roof over their head. When that child grows to be an adult, they will have enough of a base of knowledge that one day, they will be able to manage a pension fund for health care that will be fair to the membership.