Welcome to the Save the Detroit Public Library Coalition
The Detroit Public Library is currently facing extraordinary threats to its future, ranging from a political takeover of its governing structure, to unjust looting of its finances. The Detroit Public Library has been losing $3-4 Million of their operational budget every year since 2016 because it is being siphoned off by the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), which is appointed and chaired by Mayor Duggan, using “tax captures.” That money is being redistributed to rich private developers like the Ilitch family and Dan Gilbert, with no restrictions on its use. Detroit is the only city in the State of Michigan where this is done to the libraries by force; every other library in Michigan is exempt from tax capture under state law. Furthermore, other DDAs in Michigan typically capture less than 5% from the budget of any millage-funded institution, but Detroit’s DDA has been capturing above 12% of the DPL’s budget in recent years, and they are projected to climb even higher in 2023