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After a protracted battle over its LGBT content, residents of Jamestown Township, Michigan, voted no (62.5% to 37.5%) on August 2 to a 10-year millage renewal and increase for the Patmos Library. (A millage rate is the tax rate used to determine local property taxes.) Bridge Michigan has reported that 84% of the library’s $245,000 annual budget derives from the now rejected millage, which means, according to library board president Larry Walton, Patmos will likely run out of funds in early 2023, despite the library having $325,000 in reserve. It will also mean residents won't have their property taxes raised...

Vote No: Schools must live within means Friday, April 29, 2005 BY KEN MOILANEN Special to The News Those proclaiming the "critical" need for additional school funding tell only part of the story. Here is a different perspective. Here is ... the rest of the story. Thomas Watkins, recent state superintendent of public instruction, had it right when he stated in his Dec. 6, 2004, Michigan School Funding report that "calls to raise taxes to fund education without a systematic overhaul will only serve to maintain the status quo. For our children's sake, this is unacceptable." He further said that...

Brighton pink-slips 32 teachers, some could be recalled 4/26/2005, 10:08 p.m. ET The Associated Press BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP) — The Brighton Board of Education has voted to issue layoff notices to 32 first-year teachers, some of whom could be recalled if positions open up. District voters decide the fate of a 3-mill tax proposal May 3. It would cost owners of a $150,000 home about $225 a year. "If the millage passes, we won't have to lay off anybody," Brighton Education Association President Barry Goode told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell after Monday's vote. "If there...

Michigan Education Special Services Association: The MEA's Money Machine This exhaustive report illuminates the inner workings of the Michigan Education Association's health insurance division, known as MESSA. It documents how tens of millions of the public's education tax dollars are wasted each year on uncompetitive teacher health insurance, and how MESSA is part of a systematic plan to subsidize the MEA's basic operation and political activity. 64 pages Executive Summary Over one year ago, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy was approached by a concerned parent who had watched his school district, during a heated contract negotiation, spend over half...

Lawmaker takes stand against millage election By Christopher Nagy DAILY PRESS & ARGUS State Rep. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township, has already come out against the May 3 enhancement millage, but he is now coming out against the election itself. Hune, who supported the election consolidation plan that reduced the number of elections in the state to four specific dates, eliminating the standard school election held each June, said school districts in Livingston County made a mistake by opting to hold their elections on the date in May provided under the consolidation. The move cost districts money that could have been...

Opposition group says 'this is a huge tax increase' By Christopher Nagy DAILY PRESS & ARGUS (snip) The upcoming countywide enhancement millage has been a different sort of animal, though, with dozens of opposition letters submitted to the Daily Press & Argus and a fully formed opposition group taking to the streets to counter the messages of pro-millage groups. Cohoctah Township resident Bill Johnston, who formed the Concerned Taxpayers Group in hopes of defeating the May 3 proposal, said a variety of factors play into the groundswell against this particular millage. "First of all, for the taxpayers, this is going...

Millage for survival? Districts' officials say they are trying to buy time for revamping of school funding Friday, March 25, 2005 BY LISA CAROLIN News Staff Reporter Officially, the 3-mill school tax levy that Livingston County voters will decide May 3 is called an enhancement millage. If approved, an additional $19.767 million will be spread among the county's five public school districts to help pay for operations. But school officials call it a survival millage. They argue that the three-year levy will allow the current educational program to survive another three years. They hope that will be long enough for...

Millage election proposed for May Howell, others eye countywide plan to beef up local school funding Wednesday, January 7, 2005 BY STEPHENIE KOEHN News Staff Reporter The particulars of a long-discussed regional school enhancement millage were spelled out Monday when the Howell Board of Education got a look at the draft of a resolution calling for a countywide May election to bolster school funding locally. The proposal asks voters for a 3-mill increase in property taxes for three years, from 2005-2007. School districts countywide have been considering the wisdom of requesting a millage seeking a temporary increase in property taxes...