Hot on the heels of Wayne County voters’ overwhelming support of their first-ever countywide millage for public transit, Macomb County residents will vote this November on whether to renew the tax that supports the SMART bus system in their county.
Macomb County has had countywide transit since the 1990s. The last time the proposal was on the ballot was in November 2022, when 65% of voters supported it.
In 2022, however, transit barely made it to the ballot. The Macomb County Board of Commissioners only narrowly approved placing the proposal on the ballot, with a majority of Republican commissioners voting against it.
This time around, things were different. The commissioners voted unanimously to place the proposal on the ballot. As the Macomb Daily reported, even libertarian Macomb Township Treasurer Leon Drolet – a longtime transit foe who led a 2018 campaign against the millage – has begun to acknowledge the benefits of the SMART system.
The proposal is to renew the millage for 5 years at a rate of 0.94 mills, which is 0.01 mills below the current rate and roughly equivalent to the Wayne and Oakland County transit millages. This is significantly below the tax rate for transit paid by many other Michigan communities, including the Grand Rapids are (1.47 mills), Lansing (3 mills), and Ann Arbor (4 mills).
Given that the proposal is a renewal, not an increase, it will not allow for major service expansions. Most of SMART’s Macomb County routes run on a roughly hourly basis, even during peak hours, with the exception of the 9 Mile (every 30 minutes), Van Dyke (20 minutes), Gratiot FAST (20 minutes), and Gratiot Local (20 minutes). SMART’s SMARTer Mobility plan does call for adding a new Mound Road route at some point in the next several years.
Failure to approve the millage, however, would be disastrous, bringing SMART service in Macomb County to an abrupt end, including both fixed-route bus service and the dial-a-ride service that many seniors and people with disabilities rely on.
TRU, of course, strongly supports the Macomb County transit renewal and will be working to spread the word with voters in the coming months. If you’re a Macomb County resident interested in helping out, email Joel at joel [at] detroittransit [dot] org.