Free transportation services for students and seniors visiting two Detroit cultural institutions would be on the horizon for Wayne and Oakland county residents if Nov. 3 voters pass an operating millage request.
The “Yes to Our Story” campaign from the Detroit Historical Society and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is seeking approval of a 10-year, 0.2-mill levy to support operations.
Architects of the plan say the transportation offering is among the benefits and protections that would come along with voter support of the measure meant to support operational costs of the financially strained museums.
“Free transportation for students and seniors is one of the core promises of this millage, and we intend to deliver it quickly,” Chris Moyer, a spokesperson for the campaign, told BridgeDetroit. “The museums will work with school districts and senior organizations across both counties, with the goal of having buses rolling in 2027.”
Specific details on who would provide transportation will be determined after the election by a joint authority created to facilitate the proposal, Moyer said.
Historical Society President and CEO Elana Rugh said when the millage plan was unveiled in August that the proposal would bring financial stability to both museums while allowing the institutions to focus on what they do best – preserving local and Black history while ensuring everyone can experience it.
“You can’t get that feeling from a screen,” Rugh said at the time. “You get it by standing in the place where history becomes real. And that’s why these museums aren’t just amenities; they’re classrooms. They are repositories of memory, and they belong to all of us.”
The tax would amount to $30 per year for the owner of a home with an average value of $300,000 and support operating costs for the two institutions.
The museums are among three long-standing institutions seeking voter support on the ballot.
Meanwhile, another long-standing regional institution is seeking voter support as well. The Detroit Zoo is asking residents in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to renew a 10-year, 0.1 mill levy for its “Renew Your Zoo” campaign.
The millage would allow the zoo to continue caring for more than 2,000 animals and 200 different species. For a homeowner with a home worth $200,000, the average cost will remain about $10 a year, said Hayley Murphy, executive director and CEO of the Detroit Zoological Society. The nonprofit operates the Detroit Zoo and the Belle Isle Nature Center, which is also included in the millage.
“The millage is a real stable source of funding for us,” Murphy said. “It’s about a third of our revenue, so that helps cover both the zoo and the Belle Isle Nature Center. It helps us pay for the amazing animal care that we do.”
Residents in the three counties first approved the Detroit Zoo tax in 2008 and again in 2016.
Before heading to the polls, here’s what to know about the two millages, including what the funds will be used for and how the millages benefit taxpayers.
Who puts the millages on the ballot?
The Wright Museum and Historical Society millage was placed on the ballot by the Southeast Michigan Public Historical Museum Authority, a joint public authority established in July by Wayne and Oakland counties, according to the “Yes to Our Story” website. A five-member board governs it – two are appointed by each county, and a fifth is appointed by the county executives on an alternating basis, Moyer said. If the millage fails in either county, the authority will dissolve.
For the Detroit Zoo tax, three millage authorities are responsible for putting the proposal on the ballot – the Wayne County Zoological Authority Millage, Oakland County Zoological Authority Millage and Macomb County Zoological Authority Millage.
What will the money be used for?
Wright Museum President and CEO Neil Barclay has said the millage would allow both museums to have a more prosperous and unified future and more money to cover operating costs.
Beyond transportation services, residents of Wayne and Oakland counties would receive free admission to the Wright Museum and the Historical Society, which operates the Detroit Historical Museum in Midtown and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. Currently, only small children and museum members receive free admission.
Additionally, the millage would cover the cost of new curriculum and training for teachers and ensure that the publicly-owned collections for both museums would be protected in perpetuity.
Meanwhile, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents will be eligible for special benefits at the Detroit Zoo, including a $10 discount on memberships.
The zoo millage will cover the variety of educational programming the institution provides to children, from field trips to after-school programs, Murphy said. Seniors from all three counties will also receive free admission to the zoo on its designated senior days.
Why are two separate institutions on one ballot proposal?
The Wright Museum and the Historical Society have been preserving the region’s history for decades on budgets that were never stable. During a Detroit City Council budget hearing in March, revenue remained a challenge for the Historical Society, as it currently operates with a “small” budget deficit. The museum received a $2 million budget allocation for the 2026 fiscal year and received the same amount for 2027.
Funding is still needed for capital improvements between the three city-owned facilities it operates, including improving the electricity supply and repairing the design studio inside the 175-year-old Carriage House, which is where many exhibits are built, maintained, and stored.
For the Wright Museum, instability in state funding priorities led to the museum using lines of credit and its operating reserves to maintain programs that were under contract. In addition, the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives means that the museum cannot pursue grants geared toward the Black community specifically.
However, the Wright Museum’s budget allocation from the City of Detroit is $3.3 million in the fiscal year that began July 1, an increase from the $2.6 million directed toward its budget in the prior fiscal year.
The Historical Society and Wright Museum have been advocating since 2019 for a joint millage.
What if the millages don’t pass?
If the millage doesn’t pass, the Wright Museum and Historical Society aren’t sure what operations will look like moving forward, Rugh previously told BridgeDetroit, saying that there will be “tough decisions to make.”
“Things would change for sure,” she said. “We can’t keep going the way that we are. Both institutions are running a deficit budget right now, so we don’t have reserves to support it for much longer.”
Meanwhile, Murphy said that the first thing the Zoological Society would do is take a step back and figure out how to regain the support of the community if the millage is rejected.
“Beyond that, we’d have to really look at where we’ll have to make some difficult budgetary decisions and program decisions in order to make sure that we take care of our animals,” she said.
However, Murphy remains optimistic that voters will approve the millage for another ten years.
“We’re going to be 100 years old in 2028,” she said. “We want to be here for the next generation and many more after that. “I think our community recognizes that our presence here really serves their needs and that we’re a place to go for respite and to connect with animals and nature.”