POLL: Will You Vote to Support a DIA Millage in the August Primary?

Come August, Chesterfield Township and New Baltimore voters will decide the fate of funding for the Detroit Institute of Arts, as the proposed DIA millage will appear on the primary ballot.

With the Oakland County Board of Commissioners finally joining its and Wayne counterparts Thursday in voting to create an arts authority, voters in all three counties can expect to see a .2 mill property tax on the Aug. 7 ballot. All three counties had to establish their own arts authorities before the millage request could appear on a ballot.

"Our real job starts now," said Annmarie Erickson, executive vice president for the DIA," in an interview with The Detroit Free Press. "We've got to do mailings to catch the absentee-ballot voters, and we've got to raise between $1 (million) and $2 million for the campaign."

If approved by voters, the millage, which is estimated to cost homeowner's $10 for every $100,000 of their home’s market value, should raise up to $23 million a year for the DIA.