Business leaders: Detroit regional transit plan not dead yet

Posted on May 31, 2018

Mackinac Island — Metro Detroit business leaders on Wednesday attempted to breathe life into a push for a regional transit property tax increase despite a virtual death-knell from Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and staunch opposition from Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

Using the high-profile backdrop of the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber and company officials announced a new coalition of 220 businesses who are urging a vote on a regional transit and millage plan. The employers boast a combined 267,217 workers.

“When you go from two businesses to more than 200, I think it becomes clear that their constituents are asking them to take this issue seriously,” DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson said of Hackel and Patterson. “It’s not a concern for a few. It’s a concern of literally hundreds and hundreds and thousands of their constituents represented by this coalition.”

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