Q: What is Not SMART?
On the ballot in Wayne County in November of 2026 will be a new tax for many Wayne County residents. This tax will fund bus service we don’t use. This tax is a bad idea, so our push is to let people know how NOT SMART this tax really is.
Q: What is SMART?
A: The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transit, or SMART, is the regional provider of fixed-line bus services in Oakland County, Macomb County, and Wayne County outside of Detroit and 17 other communities.
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Q: What areas does it cover presently? Which communities have opted out?
A: SMART is paid into by all residents of Macomb and Oakland County. Since 1994, municipalities in Wayne County could choose whether to participate in SMART, and many have not. Those that have opted out are:
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Belleville
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Brownstown Township
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Canton
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Detroit
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Flat Rock
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Gibraltar
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Grosse Ile Township
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Huron Township
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Livonia (opted out in 2005)
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Northville City
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Northville Township
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Plymouth City
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Plymouth Township
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Rockwood
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Sumpter Township
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Van Buren Township
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Woodhaven
Q: Why are municipalities that opted out now required to opt in?
A: State law was changed in 2024 that took away Wayne County communities’ rights to opt out.
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Q: Do the buses cover all of Oakland and Macomb Counties?
A: Not even close. Buses in Oakland County don’t go any further north than Waterford, and in Macomb County, they don’t go north of New Haven. Most of Oakland County and Macomb County are miles from a bus line.
Q: Are local partnerships for senior buses impacted? Will my local bus go away if this is voted down?
A: No, those services are partnerships with local communities, paid for by local taxes. As a result, services like Northville Community Connections and Liv&Go are not affected by this tax, and will remain the same.
Q: Ok, but how many people ride each SMART bus?
A: A shockingly low 4.5 people per bus. The system proudly reports “Passenger Miles” on its website. But reporting 100 “passenger miles” could be 100 passengers going one mile, 25 passengers going 4 miles, or one passenger going 100 miles.
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Although their website doesn’t report this, the federal government report they filed shows the number of “Vehicle Revenue Miles,” which is close to what we would see on an odometer.
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When you take the number of Passenger Miles and divide by the Vehicle Revenue Miles, you end up with passengers per vehicle.
SMART’s 2023 Passenger Miles: 43.282 million
SMART’s 2023 Vehicle Revenue Miles: 9.7 million
SMART’s average passengers per vehicle: 4.45
Q: How much of SMART’s revenue comes from bus fares? And how much comes from taxpayers?
A: Again, the numbers are hard to believe. 2025 revenue for SMART was $173 million. In that same year, fare revenue was only $5.8 million. So fares only make up 3% of the total revenue of SMART. Put another way, SMART already gets a 97% subsidy!
Q: Does SMART have any debts that we should be concerned about?
A: Yes, and they are large. Right now, SMART has an underfunded pension of $72 million. That means that SMART could collect $72 million from Wayne County taxpayers and we would get exactly zero for it.
Q: If this is approved, will local cities and townships get to pick the locations of bus lines?
A: No, they will not. This was brought up by Maureen Brosnan, Mayor of Livonia, in an interview with the Detroit News.​​​​
​​Q: Is there any guarantee that cities and townships will get any bus lines at all?
A: Again, the answer is no. Our biggest township, Canton Township, objected to a previous plan on those grounds. The Canton Township Supervisor, Anne-Marie Hudak, was quoted as follows:
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​​Q: Is ​​​this a partisan effort?
A: Not at all. Republicans, Democrats and Independents all previously voted to opt out of the SMART system, and they oppose it this time around as well.