Isabella County voters will cast their votes for or against a ballot initiative to renew the county’s operating budget on August 6th. Voters have been wary of renewing the budget after a previous millage vote in February was overwhelmingly rejected.
The majority of the budget is funded by a millage, also known as a property tax calculation. The budget includes services such as first responders, emergency management, animal control and more.
The February vote asked voters to raise the operating millage by 2.5 mills, increasing their property taxes. This vote will only renew the current operating budget, which has been in place since the 1970s.
Jim Engler is a real estate agent in Mount Pleasant. He is one of the voters who is wary about renewing the millage, citing what they saw as previous mismanagement of funds.
“There's valid points from both perspectives, in my opinion," Engler said. "Obviously the county has been very poorly managed, mismanaged would be a better word, for quite a while and it needs to be corrected. They don't seem to be making many or much of an effort to correct it.”
Engler added that this type of budget mismanagement has not provided a community for businesses like his to grow.
“The lifeblood of the real estate business is a healthy community. Where there's jobs and there's people are moving in and out, businesses are building and expanding and you don't see that happening,” Engler said.
Mark Reno is an Isabella County voter who will be voting “no” in August. He said that services the county provides are important, but is thinking about the economy first.
“I just think right now within inflation rates and everything else, it's kind of a a bad time. Maybe they could put it off for maybe another year or whatever so when inflation cools down a little bit,” Reno said.
Reno also added that not all tax increases are bad, but the county needs to be transparent on where the money will be going.
Tim Caldwell is a fellow voter who will be voting yes. For him, it comes down to paying your share to help the community.
“We have the county that takes care of the public health service, they take care of the roads, they fund the towns, the communities for the basic needs of our citizens. It’s something we all share,” Caldwell said.
Exact language about the millage vote and other elections can be found here.
