As absentee ballots make their way to mailboxes, voters in Kalkaska County will see that they have five countywide proposals to consider.
All five are millage requests, and four of the five are renewals.
Some townships also have renewals on the ballot so, depending on where county residents live, they may have some other requests to consider.
A millage is a property tax that, if approved by voters, charges them an amount based on the value of the property they own.
Most of the requests on the ballot are asking voters for $0.25 or less for every $1,000 in property value. For example, on a house worth $200,000, a quarter-mill would amount to $50 per year for the length of the millage.
The only millage request on the Kalkaska County ballot that is not a renewal is to support the operation of the county’s 911 dispatch center. That proposal, if approved, which would levy 0.6 of a mill.
Kalkaska Sheriff Patrick Whiteford said the $638,000 they estimate the levy will bring in would supplement the existing $625,000 the center receives in revenue. The millage is part of a 10-year budget plan for the dispatch center.
A major source of the expense of the operation is the need to replace technology such as the computers.
“All these systems run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Whiteford said. “So all of those different components are expensive and they need to be replaced every seven to 10 years at most.”
After visiting most of the county’s townships, Whiteford said the public reaction to the millage request seems supportive.
“I’m a taxpayer of Kalkaska and nobody likes to see an increase in taxes,” he said. “But I think our citizens realize the necessity in the benefit of making sure that we can continue dispatching in Kalkaska County for Kalkaska County residents with Kalkaska County people behind the scenes.”
One of the four countywide renewal requests is for operation and maintenance of the Kaliseum, a recreation complex complete with newly added pickleball courts. It has been approved every four years since 2008. In 2020, when the building was paid off, the rate dropped to less than a quarter-mill.
Kaliseum Director John Starr said the levy would bring in about $200,000 for the complex.
“It’s over a third of our operating budget, so obviously we want to be able to continue operating the Kaliseum,” Starr said. “Some of the major systems in the building are coming to the end of their cycle, so we would be paying for repairs and replacements.”
Another countywide millage renewal would support the Kalkaska Conservation District.
District Manager Mark Randolph said the vote was a close call when it was initially approved in 2016, but it passed by a 2-1 margin in 2020.
“We are asking for a quarter-mill renewal for operations,” Randolph said. “And that goes to site visits, surveying, managing invasive species, home hazardous waste collection, and more.”
The approximately $262,000 that the millage would raise makes up the majority of the conservation district’s budget, he said.
“We trust that the voters appreciate what we do,” Randolph said. “I am optimistic that it will be renewed, but it is up to the voters.”
The Kalkaska County Library also has a millage up for renewal. The levy represents about 50% of the library’s operating budget.
“If we didn’t have a millage, you basically wouldn’t have a library,” Library Director John Roberts said. “It would cease to exist.”
Roberts estimates that there are 83 libraries of the same size as Kalkaska’s in Michigan, and most rely on millage as part of their operating budgets.
Fines are another major funding source, but they vary from year to year, bringing in anywhere from $70,000 to $90,000. Roberts said those have been declining for the last 20 years.
Road maintenance is another millage up for renewal in Kalkaska County. If it passes, it will be in effect for the next five years, just like the renewal that voters approved in 2019 and the initial approval that voters OK’d in 2014.
John S. Rogers is the manager of the Kalkaska County Road Commission. He said in the last 10 years, the millage has been used to fund repairs and maintenance for 109 miles of the county’s 851 miles of roads.
“One of my biggest concerns is if we have to go back to operating the way we were before 2014,” Rogers said. “Local road repairs are 80% township funded and we pay the other 20%. Prior to the millage, they’ve had to fund 100% of that.
If it passes, he said the one mill would bring in about $900,000, almost 10% of the road commission’s $10-million budget.
None of the renewals will result in a change in the millage rate from the last time it was approved by voters, but these renewals may bring in more funding because the amount brought in is dependent on the value of the property being taxed.
