This August, Wayne County residents will get another chance to vote on a millage to fund public transit.
But this time, 17 communities, including Detroit, also will have a say.
The transit millage was thrust into the spotlight earlier this month after a group of Wayne County residents filed a lawsuit over what they said is a lack of transparency around the process of getting the measure on the Aug. 4 ballot and opposition to the tax that they say will be too costly.
The Wayne County Transit Authority approved the language for the August primary ballot during a March meeting, which the plaintiffs contend was held in “secret,” but that the county official who chairs the authority told the Free Press was done above board.
Transit providers and advocates say the millage would help close the service gaps for communities without Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) service. It also would have a ripple effect, they said, connecting the region, helping residents access jobs, attracting talent and providing an affordable option for seniors and people with disabilities.
“We’re not expecting everybody to hop on a bus,” said SMART’s General Manager and CEO Tiffany J. Gunter. “We’re expecting folks to be able to use a system reliably, whether it’s to get downtown to enjoy a game or a night on the town or to get to work every day. Public transportation should be for everyone.”
The Free Press recently spoke with officials from Wayne County, SMART and the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) about the proposed millage and how it will affect residents and taxpayers. Here is what to know:
What is the Wayne County transit millage?
In a couple months, all Wayne County residents — not just those currently in the SMART system — will be asked to vote on a ballot proposal that, if approved, would fund a transit tax. Property owners in 17 communities not currently in the SMART system would essentially pay a new millage. The 26 other municipalities already in the SMART system wouldn’t see an increase in their millage rate.
The proposal asks voters to authorize the Wayne County Transit Authority to levy a millage to fund public transportation services in Wayne County. That includes operations, maintenance and expanding services for seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and the general public.
The millage would be levied up to a maximum rate of just under 1-mill, or 0.9831 mills, which translates to $0.98 cents per $1,000 of taxable value for 10 years starting with the 2026 tax year and ending in 2035. That amounts to about $8 a month for a home with a taxable value of roughly $100,000. The millage would replace an expiring one. c
If approved and levied, the revenue would then be distributed to Wayne County, SMART, DDOT and other community and regional transit providers and is estimated to generate roughly $57 million in the first year.
Out of Wayne County’s 43 communities, 17 “opt out” of the SMART system. Services are like “swiss cheese,” Gunter said, essentially leaving gaps. Detroit is one of those opt out municipalities but DDOT and SMART operate buses in the city. In 2025, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a bill that ended the ability of Wayne County communities to opt out of the transit millage funding SMART.
“What this transit millage seeks to do is to close those gaps and create a fully connected public transit system in Southeast Michigan for the first time,” Gunter said.
Which communities are not in the SMART system?
- Detroit
- Belleville
- Brownstown Township
- Canton Township
- Flat Rock
- Gibraltar
- Grosse Ile Township
- Huron Township
- Livonia
- Northville
- Northville Township
- Plymouth
- Plymouth Township
- Rockwood
- Sumpter Township
- Van Buren Township
- Woodhaven
Which communities are in the SMART system?
- Allen Park
- Dearborn
- Dearborn Heights
- Ecorse
- Garden City
- Grosse Pointe
- Grosse Pointe Farms
- Grosse Pointe Park
- Grosse Pointe Shores
- Grosse Pointe Woods
- Hamtramck
- Harper Woods
- Highland Park
- Inkster
- Lincoln Park
- Melvindale
- Redford Township
- River Rouge
- Riverview
- Romulus
- Southgate
- Taylor
- Trenton
- Wayne
- Westland
- Wyandotte
Where would the money go?
The money raised would go toward continuing existing services and adding services in the previous opt out communities, Gunter said.
If the millage passes, SMART would add 8 new routes, 5 new route extensions and on-demand service over the course of approximately three years, though that depends on being able to get new vehicles to provide additional service, she said.
The money generated by the millage in Detroit — about $8 million a year of the total — would go to the DDOT system, she said.
SMART held meetings with the 43 communities to “build the concept plan” and it’s an “ongoing conversation with the community,” Gunter said. Smaller transit providers funded through SMART, such as Nankin Transit, which serves seniors, would get additional money as well to shore up services.
How will this affect Detroit?
If the millage passes, residents will have more mobility and improved access to jobs and opportunities across Wayne County, said Robert Cramer, DDOT executive director of transit.
“DDOT remains focused on increasing the safety, timeliness and overall quality of our transit system, and would leverage any additional funding toward these shared goals,” he said in a statement. “We will use input from residents and stakeholders to guide how we spend any new revenue sent to DDOT from the Wayne County millage.”
DDOT, like other city services, gets its funding through the city’s general fund, made up of property taxes, casino taxes and income taxes. Detroit does not currently have a separate transit tax, Cramer said. If the millage passes, there’d be more funding for additional services, but it’s not a double tax, he said.
Did the Wayne County Transit Authority have a ‘secret’ meeting?
The lawsuit, brought by the group Not Smart Wayne, alleges that defendants — including the Wayne County Transit Authority — didn’t properly notify the public about a meeting and that the ballot language is “designed to confuse voters.”
“The ballot language is clear and accurate,” Assad Turfe, chairman of the Wayne County Transit Authority and deputy Wayne County executive told the Free Press. “It was reviewed by a team of lawyers, who are 100% sure that the courts will agree, and that we met the legal standard of publicly posting it.”
The county met the legal standard of posting information about meetings in the lobby of the Guardian Building, he said. He declined to comment further on the ballot language since it’s a pending legal matter. Plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction. A hearing is set for June 1.
Daniel Rosenbaum, an associate professor at the Michigan State University College of Law, said the proposed ballot language doesn’t appear to be intentionally or clearly misleading.
“The best read is that this is legitimately a millage renewal under state law, and therefore it’s a bit of a conflated argument to say that the millage renewal is misleading because for some people it imposes a new tax,” he said.
The plaintiffs want the court to declare that defendants violated Michigan’s Open Meetings Act, Freedom of Information Act, election law and General Property Tax Act. They say the question should be kept off the ballot in August or any future elections.
Rosenbaum, who focuses on local government law, said if the authority posted at the Guardian Building that would be “substantially compliant” with the Open Meetings Act.
But, there’s also the question of whether the authority should have been more transparent.
“It’s important that local government be transparent and accountable, and in an era of distrust and mistrust, take steps to counteract that whenever possible,” he said.
Who opposes the millage? Who supports it?
Patty Pozios, a Plymouth Township resident and a plaintiff in the suit, said she’s not against public transportation but questioned the efficiency of the bus system and wants the government to be “good stewards of our tax dollars.”
“To everyone’s home, including the people who take transportation, every dollar is a dollar, right? It’s no one else’s place to say what you should use that money for,” she said. “We like to talk about affordability. That applies to everyone.”
She and other plaintiffs say they don’t want the millage because of “excessive cost, low ridership and negative effects to their community,” according to a complaint filed Friday, May 8, in Wayne County Circuit Court.
It’s not the first time a transit millage has gotten pushback. Regional public transit has been a contentious topic for years, though voters in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties approved millages in 2022.
Supporters of the 2026 Wayne County transit millage say public transportation helps seniors and people with disabilities to be independent.
Livonia resident Kim Snider wants to be able to travel outside of her city — to a Tigers game, concert or a restaurant, for example — she said at a news conference organized by Transportation Riders United (TRU), a Detroit-based nonprofit that advocates for public transit. She says she typically relies on her 81-year-old mother.
“Who wants to be driven, when they’re 49 years old, by their mother to late night activities with friends or picked up from work,” said Snider, who has cerebral palsy and likes to say she has a “different ability” as opposed to a disability.
Her other current option, the Liv&Go transportation service, isn’t cutting it, either, she said. She needs to be at her job as a substitute teacher by 7 a.m. on weekdays, but her bus doesn’t start until 7 a.m.
TRU released a new report and website on Thursday, May 21, making the case for countywide transit.
What happens if the millage doesn’t pass?
Turfe said if the transit millage doesn’t pass, SMART will not have the financial resources to fund bus services in Wayne County. And that also would affect Detroiters who may use SMART, Cramer said.
“We’re all in and we’re all out together. This is a majority vote,” said Gunter.
Free Press staff writers Eric D. Lawrence, Christina Hall and Clara Hendrickson contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.
