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DIA tax proposal heads to board Thursday for vote

The Oakland County Board of Commissioners is expected on Thursday, May 17 to approve the creation of the Oakland County Art Institute Authority, a five-member body that would approve the placement of a 0.2-mill, 10-year tax proposal on the Aug. 7 primary election ballot that would help support the Detroit Institute of Arts (above) by generating about $10 million from county taxpayers.

Following a divided vote in the Oakland County Board of Commissioners General Government Committee on Monday, May 7 to pass a resolution creating the Oakland County Art Institute Authority — a stepping stone toward getting a funding measure for the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) on the Aug. 7 primary election ballot — the county board is expected to consider the proposal tomorrow, Thursday, May 17.

Several commissioners, including Shelley Taub (R-Orchard Lake) and John Scott (R-Waterford, West Bloomfield) said they expect the county’s 25-member governing body to give the DIA’s request its blessing.

The 127-year-old DIA, located on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, is asking voters in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties to approve a levy of up to 0.2 mills for no more than 10 years to generate funding for general operations.

A mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value, which is generally equal to half the property’s market value. A 0.2-mill levy would cost the owner of a property in the county with a taxable value of $100,000 ($200,000 market value) $20 a year.

The authority would have two unpaid members appointed by the county executive and three unpaid members appointed by Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Gingell (R-Lake Orion), although that is a new provision in the resolution that originally called for the full county board to appoint those three members.

Scott said he took umbrage with that amendment that was approved in the General Government Committee earlier this month, but stressed that his displeasure has nothing to do with Gingell.

“They took the power away from the Board of Commissioners and the General Government Committee to vet (the three candidates),” he said.

The authority members appointed by the county executive would serve four-year terms and the members appointed by the county board chairman would serve two-year terms. The Oakland County treasurer would serve as a non-voting member of the board.

According to DIA Executive Vice President Annmarie Erickson, the institute’s roughly $25 million operating budget is funded largely from donations — 44 percent from private contributions, and another 39 percent from memberships and admissions, which are considered contributions to the museum — while another 15 percent comes from investment income.

Approximately 2 percent of the institute’s revenues came from a “small operating grant” of about $375,000 from the city of Detroit.

DIA Spokeswoman Pamela Marcil said that, if passed in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties, the levy that would first be collected with the winter tax bills would generate a total of roughly $23 million for the museum, with approximately $10 million of that coming from Oakland County taxpayers.

By Tuesday, May 29, ballot language would have to be submitted to the county Clerk/Register of Deeds Office in order for a tax question to appear on the Aug. 7 primary election ballot.

Officials in both Wayne and Macomb counties have approved placing the measure before voters in August.

5 Responses to DIA tax proposal heads to board Thursday for vote

  1. Lisa Plunkett

    May 16, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    The 1% Must Give More! No DIA BailOut!
    The Oakland County General Government Committee recently voted to form yet another governmental unit, “The Oakland County Art Institute Authority”.

    The main purpose of this Authority, if approved by the full Board of Commissioners on May, 17, 2012, is to levy a tax of 0.2 mills on all of the taxable property within Oakland County.

    The DIA is asking taxpayers of Wayne, Macomb and Oakland Counties for a new millage of 0.2 mills for 10 years to be put on the Primary Ballot for August 7, 2012.

    These tax dollars will be handed over to the DIA who pays its President and CEO $443,000 a year in total compensation (2010 Form 990)

    “Total Compensation for Key Employees” at the DIA: (The 1%)

    Graham Beal, President & CEO: Base Compensation $327,205 Bonus $33,000 Other reportable compensation $51,868 Nontaxable benefits $31,360: Total Compensation $443,433

    Annmarie Erickson, EVP Planning & Administration: $215,752

    Elizabeth Noble, P of Development: $206,878

    Loren Lau,VP & CFO: $179,590

    Total Salaries, Wages and Benefits: $14.3 million.
    Unfunded pension plan obligation: $6,908,637.
    Postretirement healthcare obligation: $1,581,630.

    The DIA has taken steps to reduce its budget:
    • 20% reduction in staffing – a reduction of 63 full and part-time positions
    • Across the board reductions in operating expenses
    • Work rule changes to allow greater efficiencies in scheduling union employees
    • Reductions in paid time off and holidays
    • On-going wage freeze and a 6-month reduction in pay for non-union staff

    Like the DIA many taxpayers have taken steps to live within their budgets, however, we continue to make cuts on a weekly and monthly basis.

    Much more must be done by DIA executives before our Board of Commissioners considers this new tax. (i.e., Permanent salary cuts from top to bottom; reduction in travel expenses, supplies, telephone, postage and shipping, equipment rental and maintenance, accounting, legal and lobbying fees, to name a few.)

    The median household income for Oakland County is $66,390. (Census Bureau, State & County QuickFacts). It gives me great pause when I consider the fact that it would take the average Oakland County taxpayer over six (6) years to reach the level of the income the DIA pays one key employee……. in one year.

    There are 13.3% of children ages 0-17 living in poverty in Oakland County. Macomb County has 17.1% of its children living in poverty and in Wayne County the number is a staggering 34.6%. (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/povertyrates/)

    It is the height of hypocrisy for the over-compensated executives of the DIA to claim…”Our [DIA] business model is broken! (Detroit Free Press 3/30/12)…..so let’s ask the taxpayers for a BailOut!

    What’s broken is the fact that there are thousands of children in Wayne, Macomb and Oakland County living in poverty! Yes, kids need art……but they need food more!

    It would be unconscionable, unjustifiable and unacceptable for any member of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners to vote “yes” to the DIA millage request!

    ….“Put it on the ballot……..Let the People Decide!”…. The DIA spent $111,000 last year alone on lobbying for support during development of the Michigan Senate bill that allows for the creation of the county arts authorities. It will spend the same, if not more on their millage campaign. How much money do you have in your budget to campaign against the DIA BailOut?

  2. I agree

    May 21, 2012 at 8:08 am

    This DIA funding thing is similar to police and fire millages. “We all will suffer if we don’t pass it.” You can throw in the SMART bus system in with it as well. I agree with Lisa on this one. Enough is enough.

  3. crazy townie

    May 21, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Lisa’s comments would have been more powerful without the first line.

    “The 1% Must Give More!”

    • Lisa Plunkett

      May 23, 2012 at 8:19 am

      Did you like the “No DIA BailOut” also in the first line? My point….this issue is relative to both sides.

  4. Mark White

    May 26, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    Detroit owns the 60,000+ artworks in the DIA, which means the City has a multi-billion dollar financial reserve if it chooses to use it. Instead, Mayor Bing, the City Council and the Founders Society would rather ask Tri-County voters to cough up new tax money. Tapping that City-owned financial reserve — a reserve that Detroiters and Michiganders helped build with prior taxes invested through the years in Detroit’s DIA art collection — would let Detroit and the DIA get along just fine as they start using those billions of dollars in artworks to generate cash income instead of continuing to senselessly use the artworks to generate more capital gains that don’t pay any bills. With art finance innovations, the City, Tri-County region and Michigan can have the same cultural access either way, so if you vote no, the DIA need not go into the controlled shutdown that the Founders Society threatens. The DIA can stay open — even expand programs outside Detroit! — by applying some financial creativity to Detroit’s assets… and isn’t the DIA supposed to lead the region in creativity? Let artworks fund the arts!

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