Is the City of Howell asking voters for more tax money than
they need? Let’s examine the facts on
this moonshot request. A few years ago, the city assessed a “Rubbish Tax”, then
they raised taxes an additional 1 mill for “roads”. Then they attempted, without a public vote,
to raise taxes 3 mills for “Public Safety”.
Now they are asking for a 4.5 mills Headlee Override (1.5 mills
more than before) to balance the books and implement infrastructure projects. Doing the math, they first wanted to raise $864,000
in taxes without a vote but now they are looking for over $1,401,143. An
increase of $537,143 or 62% more than a few months ago! What’s up with that?
The city claims they are being shorted State Revenue sharing
but the State has been steadily increasing revenue to cities for the last 9
years, just not enough for Howell our Council says. If State revenue sharing is the problem we
need to pressure lawmakers to increase state funding, not punt the problem back
to cities.
So how has the city been spending money? Well, its deep in debt with 1 out of 8 tax
dollars paying over a million dollars a year for bonds. Maybe we should ask why and how the city got
so deep in debt? Also, many don’t remember a few years ago the city had to buy property
south of town for 2 million dollars to settle a lawsuit. It should have recently
sold for over 3 million outright but instead Council struck a deal to subsidize
a developer who has not paid for the land and taken it off the market for over
a year. It’s the worst deal ever, we may
never see this money come back in our lifetime, and we should trust this Council
with 1.4 million more dollars a year for 5 years?
During a public hearing for the Public Safety millage the
Mayor stated on the record (I have the recording) he did not trust the public
to approve a millage that’s why they tried to implement the assessment. So instead of putting the original 3 mills
increase to a vote they increased the millage amount and are asking for more
money than before. Am I the only one
scratching my head on this logic?
Maybe the city budget is also under stress by Council taking
on debt and expenses that should be the responsibility of the DDA. If fiscal
responsibly is the city’s goal, then why did they get late-in-the-season paving
bids for a parking lot that went $200,000 over budget? Is this the act of
fiscal responsibly with our tax dollars?
The millage override request is for 5 years. Why five? It
gives the city the opportunity to create dependency on the millage, and when it
comes up for renewal it overrides the Headlee limits again and resets the
millage capture rate to an even higher amount.
Do not be fooled with the claim the renewal would be a “scorecard” on
the city’s performance. Once the tax increase trap is in effect can never go
away, especially if the city takes on more debt.
And finally, we should not be bullied with the threat to take
away our brush and leaf pick if the millage does not pass, the actual cost is
minor in relationship to total city budget. After all, if Council can find
$74,000 for a downtown street study it can find the money for the one basic
service we residents enjoy with or without another tax increase.
