Detroit mayoral candidate would push entertainment tax to offset property tax cut

If elected mayor, one of the first priorities Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield would take on is convincing state lawmakers to pass an entertainment tax on downtown events to offset a property tax cut for residents. 

Sheffield, who this week formally launched her long-awaited 2025 campaign for Detroit mayor, said she’s found a surprising amount of support for the concept among the business community. Charging fees on sporting events, concerts and other downtown activities could bring more benefits for Detroit’s neighborhoods, she said.

Reports from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan show entertainment taxes are widespread among states and major cities across the country. Detroit can’t impose the tax by itself – the Michigan Legislature would first need to pass authorizing bills.  

Last year, Sheffield asked District Detroit developers to volunteer a 2% surcharge on ticket sales from events at facilities managed by Olympia Development of Michigan. They declined. Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said then that state law makes it “impossible” to voluntarily pay an unauthorized tax or surcharge. 

Previous attempts to authorize taxes on sports and entertainment tickets in Michigan failed under Republican control of the Legislature. Democrats didn’t take up any bills when they held majorities. 

Republicans will again control the state House when the next mayor’s term starts in 2026, but there are signs of growing bipartisan support for the idea. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill allowing voters in historically-Republican Kent County to increase a hotel tax to fund sports and entertainment venues. 

Other Detroit council members have backed the idea. Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway, who had a front-row seat at Sheffield’s campaign launch, was working with state Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, and Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, to craft legislation. 

Sheffield talked with BridgeDetroit on Wednesday about other big ideas she has for Detroit, and what she brings to the table as the 2025 mayoral race starts. 

Editor’s note: This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.

BridgeDetroit: Does it feel good to make your candidacy public? You’ve been preparing this for awhile now, some say it’s years in the making.

Mary Sheffield: People have speculated about it for quite some time and have wanted just to know, yes or no, if I was going to do it. It feels very good to be able to declare this is the next step in engaging with residents over the next few months about key issues we can continue to work on together. 

BD: Was it important to be the first candidate to formally launch their campaign? 

Sheffield: That wasn’t my goal. I’ve been moving based on my timeline and how the campaign has been coming together. This was the perfect time. We had things in order, people were ready to speak and so we decided to move forward before the end of the year. 

BD: It was interesting to hear people talk about how this is the culmination of not only your decade on the City Council but really your whole life. What has it been like to grow up in the public eye, because of the prominence of your family, and have big expectations placed on you? 

Sheffield: For me, it’s just giving myself grace to find what my place was and how I wanted to serve Detroit. Being elected at the age of 26, there were a lot of expectations. There were a lot of people who thought I was young, maybe I would not be able to handle the task. People have been surprised and pleased with my growth publicly in this position. I’ve grown a lot. 

BD: You first ran for a state House seat in 2008, when you were 21. What did you learn from that experience? 

Sheffield: When it’s the right time that it will work. I learned the importance of failure not being failure but an opportunity to grow and learn.

It showed me a lot about the struggles of Detroit, the issues and ability to connect with residents about what I am passionate about. Losing that race really was an opportunity for me to grow and it taught me what a campaign really is. I learned the importance of being grassroots, of being on the ground.

BD: In 2020 you spoke at a Bernie Sanders presidential campaign rally. You talked about having a clear alignment with his progressive vision of supporting the working class and you criticized handouts for big corporations. Do you still see your politics aligned with Sanders? 

Sheffield: I’ve had a huge opportunity to grow in learning the needs of business more than I did when I first got to council. I’m still very people-driven, but I don’t think it has to be one or the other. You can be pro-people and pro-business at the same time. I really want to show the city and show this community that you can literally be an advocate of both. My values have never changed. 

BD: The mayor has a lot of influence over groups like the Downtown Development Authority and Detroit Economic Growth Corp. A recent report suggested the City Council should make more appointments to those bodies. Would there be anything different about your approach? 

Sheffield: I’m not sure that I would get into whether or not I would change the structure of the appointments at this point. I do think I’ll bring a different set of eyes and elevate some of the concerns about the effectiveness of the DDA, whether or not it served its purpose and how we’re utilizing funds and public financing. 

That report that you’re referring to talked about how the DDA should not be able to reissue any more bonds. They should pay off the debt, and shouldn’t reissue any more bonds.

I’ve actually been talking to a lot of business people about this. There are some people who are in support of that, and possibly trying to figure out a way to amend state law that will allow some type of money to be diverted back to Detroit into neighborhoods. All of that money is going right back downtown, into the DDA, none of it goes to our neighborhoods. 

So there’s some room for some very tough conversations as relates to the DDA, into some of these bigger projects that I’m looking forward to having.

BD: The original idea of the DDA was to stop business from leaving the city. Seems like we accomplished that. But subsidies help reduce the tax burden and help with high development costs. You want to cut property taxes, how do we do that? 

Sheffield: Essentially it will be some form of entertainment tax or a ticket surcharge that will strictly be within the DDA boundary or the Central Business District, the entertainment venues of downtown. 

The idea is you’re taxing people who are visiting the city for entertainment, not necessarily residents. You will reduce some of the operating millages within the city of Detroit and that entertainment tax will offset the amount that you’re reducing. 

That theory is supported by a lot of people in Detroit – more than I thought. It needs to be worked out a bit more in detail. 

This would be a very concerted effort, something we would take on immediately, similar to Mayor Duggan’s proposal with the Land Value Tax. It was a huge initiative to go to Lansing and lobby.

It would be a full-force effort with several stakeholders here in Detroit working with our state partners to try to get accomplished. 

BD: What is your relationship to legislative leaders in Lansing? Is that something you’ll need to improve? 

Sheffield:  I understand that you cannot do this work without partnerships and without collaborative effort, especially as it relates to the strength of Detroit. I’m looking forward to continuing to build relationships with our state and federal partners to ensure that Detroit is getting the funding and the support needed to thrive and to grow.

I have great relationships now, and I’m looking forward to building upon those … to make sure that Detroit is at the forefront of everyone’s conversation as funding is being allocated and programs are being created. 

BD: Your campaign kickoff included speakers who said Detroit is ready for a woman mayor. How do you plan to navigate misogyny you might encounter? 

Sheffield: I just choose not to really feed into it, you know, I hear from an overwhelming amount of support of people who believe that Detroit is ready and that it is time for the right person, and it happens to be a woman as well.

I was the youngest elected to City Council. I’m not new to firsts and I choose to feed into the positive response I’ve been getting. 

BD: One notable thing about you is your relationship to rappers like Icewear Vezzo, Peezy, Skilla Baby and others. How did you build those relationships and what’s the intent behind partnering with people in the entertainment world? 

Sheffield: All of those relationships happen naturally. A lot of people reached out to me trying to connect with these people, and I tell them, ‘you know, it comes through just being authentic.’ Entertainers and influencers can see when someone is not real.

I think they admired the way that I’ve moved in Detroit, not just reaching out when there’s an election, but really consistent engagement with young people on the ground, connecting people with resources. 

I’ve always valued those relationships, because the reality is that our young people listen to them. They look up to them, and we have to have a way that we reach people where they are, especially our young people.

If I can get an influencer or a rapper who young people listen to, but when I’m talking with them, they’re talking about education or all the things that these young people need to listen to, I feel like my job has been achieved. Influencers and artists are a good way to bridge that gap.

A lot of them, to be quite honest, have a passion for Detroit. They want to give back. They want to contribute to the growth of Detroit. They also want to be seen as more than just a rapper in their lyrics. They actually have stories. They want to push education. They want to push some of the things that they did not feel was told to them.

I will definitely be engaging them as much as they want to be engaged, as long as the message is positive and it’s about education, it’s about civic engagement, it’s about utilizing our young people’s voice in this process.

BD: Who was your favorite artist of 2024? 

Sheffield: That’s a great question. Big Sean’s new album. 

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