Remember how the Green Oak Township board voted to upgrade to Charter Township status in order to keep the City of Brighton from annexing the site of the proposed mall, thereby gaining all the new tax revenue?
According to an article in the 9-18-06 Argus, the new $100 million dollar mall will not benefit Brighton schools and will provide little extra revenue to Green Oak Township.
"With its nonhomestead tax rate of 18 mills, the district could be looking at almost $1 million in new tax revenue from the mall. However, Brighton Superintendent Jim Craig said the mall won't boost the district's revenue that much because the state will reduce its contribution by whatever new tax revenue is generated by the mall."
Fair enough, since the new mall won't create any additional burden for the school district. However,
"St. Charles said the Green Oak Township Police Department will receive an estimated $76,000 in new revenue yearly. The Fire Department would see $70,000, and the township general operating fund would get about $40,000 in new revenue."
A major mall like this will generate frequent calls to the police and fire department, to cover both the mall itself plus problems from the additional traffic. The additional tax revenue won't even pay for the cost of adding 1 additional person to each department by the time the cost of training, equipment, and benefits is added in. The township gets an extra $40,000 per year, but how much will it cost to provide maintenance for and make improvements to area roads in order to accommodate increased traffic?
This hardly seems like a tax boon for the township. If this article is correct, at best the mall is break even and it could end up being a tax liability for the township. Is this information accurate and complete, or are we missing something?
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