I question the need to invest in improvements to attract or support business. Why should we invest in infrastructure to attract business when it is residents, not businesses, that pay taxes?
Conventional wisdom tells us that it is not business that pays taxes, it is people. While this is generally true, in Clawson 71.2 % of the revenue the City gets to fund its services and operations is from property taxes. That being the case, investing in our infrastructure to attract business can literally shift the burden of taxes from the residents to the business community. Looking around at our neighboring communities we find the following: Berkeley is a City with a population of 15, 531 and 2.2 square miles compared to Clawson’s 12,732 and 2.4 square miles. Yet, Berkeley has a total property tax valuation of 465.8 million dollars compared to Clawson’s 358.8 million dollars. Thus, Berkeley is able to provide services to their residents with a mil rate of 13.22 mils in contrast to Clawson’s 15.98 mils. Troy, with the lowest City mil rate in our area of 10.05 mils, not only enjoys a much higher total valuation of 4.76 BILLION dollars, but more than one third of this valuation is in t
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