No city income tax in Rogers City

Rogers City’s Calcite quarry has shipped limestone through a deep-water Lake Huron port since 1912. The industrial story is big; the local income-tax answer is simple. Michigan allows a municipal income tax, and 24 cities charge one, but Rogers City isn’t on the list. Neither is Onaway, the other city in Presque Isle County.

Distance does the rest. The closest city that does charge one is Grayling, about 85 miles southwest. Grayling’s split is the one most taxing cities use: 1% from residents, 0.5% from anyone who commutes in. Around Flint or Lansing, that nonresident half-percent follows workers home into every suburb and small town in reach. Up here, almost nobody’s drive to work ends inside a taxing city’s limits, so the rule just sits idle.

Local government gets funded the way it always has been: property taxes on the houses near the harbor, the cottages strung along US-23, and the rest of the roll. State and federal income tax still apply, same as anywhere in Michigan. The city adds nothing on top — the limestone leaves by boat, and the wages stay whole.