How it works: Created in 2024, the program is designed to spur absentee owners and speculators to fix up, redevelop or sell their vacant or overgrown property.
The city can charge owners of properties officially designated as blighted to pay 25 times the city's millage rate.
Yes, but: The program never got up and running, according to the audit. Processes are unclear and Mayor Andre Dickens has still not selected the officer who would decide which properties qualify.
The mayor's office told the auditor it planned to introduce legislation clarifying the blight tax and was identifying an officer to manage the program.
