Another Old Income Tax Study

Dave Askins — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:01:16 +0000

Following the directive from councilmembers during a regular meeting, as well as at a city council budget retreat, to update the most recent study of a city income tax for Ann Arbor, the 2004 Ann Arbor Income Tax Study has been disseminated by Tom Crawford, chief financial officer for the city of Ann Arbor. But the 2004 study was by no means the first such effort to analyze the impact of a city income tax on Ann Arbor.

In 1997, a similar effort was undertaken by the University of Michigan School of Public Policy. Chronicle reader and Stopped.Watched. correspondent Vivienne Armentrout lent her perfect-bound copy of that 73-page document to The Chronicle, which we’ve scanned and converted to a 4 MB .pdf file: [1997 Ann Arbor Income Tax Study].

Although the document itself does not appear to feature any credit for authorship beyond the UM School of Public Policy, in a note to The Chronicle, Armentrout attributed it to Edward Gramlich, who went on to be appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Bill Clinton in 1997, a post he resigned in August 2005.

We have not examined the 1997 study in any detail, but note that it’s rich in historical background (referenda were held in Ann Arbor in the late ’60s and early ’70s, both of which failed) and offers plenty for mathematics mavens to sink their teeth into: ” … we transformed the equation 2.1 by taking the logarithm of both sides.”

We suggest that one use of comments on this article could be to summarize some bite-sized sections of the 1997 study for other readers.

The Ann Arbor Chronicle » 1997 study

Another Old Income Tax Study