Tagged: macomb county

Oakland County is helping neighboring Macomb County get back online after a fire last week.

That suspected electrical fire seriously damaged Macomb’s IT department—shutting down phones and computer networks.

So Oakland County is offering Macomb staff, equipment and space to start re-building.

“Oakland County has opened up its data center to host Macomb County’s equipment and personnel on a temporary basis in order to get Macomb County back online,” says a press release from Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s office.

Some communities in Wayne County have been using tens of thousands of dollars in property tax money intended to support the Detroit Zoo for their own civic improvement projects.

Voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties approved a property tax increase in 2008 to help fund the Detroit Zoo. 

But the Detroit Free Press reports some Wayne County cities have collected the tax and spent it instead on sprucing up their own downtowns.  In some years, the money has added up to more than $200,000.

A hospital in Mount Clemens, east of Detroit, is offering free mammograms to uninsured women who are Macomb County residents.  It’s part of their “BRAvo for women” program.  

Pat Keigher directs McLaren Macomb’s Breast Center.  She says breast cancer causes nearly 40-thousand deaths each year.  But when it’s detected early, she says five year survival rate is 98 percent so women do not need to die from this disease.

Last Tuesday, the Detroit Institute of Arts got a major vote of confidence from area voters when they approved a millage request to fund the museum. Taxpayer support means the museum will have a stable source of funding for the next ten years.

The next day, the museum was free to the residents in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.

Grosse Pointe Shores' City Council is considering whether or not to move the city into Macomb County's jurisdiction.

The city, home to only about 3,000 residents, straddles the Macomb-Wayne County border. Most of the city is in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, while part is in Macomb County. A law from the 1970s allows communities in this position to choose one county in which it wishes to officially reside.

According to the city's website, research revealed that Macomb County taxes are nearly four mills lower than Wayne County taxes, and that the city "receives virtually no direct services from the tax dollars [residents] pay to Wayne County." Calculations by the Grosse Pointe Shores Move to Macomb Committee show the city could save $1 million in taxes if they decide to shift into Macomb County.

On Aug. 21, the City Council will decide if the question will go to voters in November, reports the Detroit News. In order to make the move, voters in Wayne and Macomb counties would also need to approve the idea.

-Elaine Ezekiel, Michigan Radio Newsroom

The Detroit Institute of Arts wanted to ask Macomb County residents to pay a tax to help bring in much-needed cash for the museum, which has already cut 20 percent of its staff and reduced its budget.

But county commissioners killed the idea.

Wayne County Commissioners last month voted to create an arts authority to look at getting a DIA millage proposal in front of voters.