In a 4-3 vote, the Addison Township Board reluctantly approved a motion to place an operating millage increase on the May 3 ballot.
If approved, the proposed 0.3164-mill increase will bring the total operating millage up to 1.41 mill, the rate voters approved in 1978 and which has been subject to Headlee rollbacks ever since.
At the Feb. 7 meeting, Addison Township Supervisor Bob Koski informed board members the township is having severe financial problems which can only be helped by increasing the operating millage.
Koski requested that while the board prepares to review the proposed 2005-06 budget, they consider increasing the general operating millage to it’s original 1978 voter-approved rate of 1.41 mill.
‘In the 12 years I’ve been supervisor, we have never asked to increase the millage,? Koski said. ‘I don’t do this lightly, but we’ve had a lot of cuts and the township is becoming extremely tight.?
Koski said the general operating millage was originally approved by voters at 1.41 mills, but due to required Headlee Amendment rollbacks, the township is currently levying 1.0936 mills.
The proposed operating millage increase would raise taxes on real and tangible personal property by 0.3164 mills ? or 31 cents for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. If approved, township would begin levying the increase with the December 2005 tax bill continue levying it through December 2014.
However, township property owners would still not pay the total 1.41 mill because the Headlee Amendment would force both the current 1.0936-mill levy and 0.3164-mill increase, if approved, to roll back this year.
Although the rollback is designed to be balanced by annual increases in property values and new construction, township Treasurer Dan Alberty told the board that last year the township collected only $3,000 in additional taxes.
Koski said increased expenditures, such as employee wages and health care benefits, have all gone up, yet revenues continue to go down. The supervisor explained that $75,000 from the surplus budget has already been used to supplement these increased expenditures.
Citing multiple cuts in service instituted by the township in an attempt to balance the budget, including wage freezes and cutting road graveling and chloriding projects, Koski urged the board to support placing the operating millage increase on the ballot.
Last year, the township cut funding to road chloride and graveling programs, both of which Koski hopes to reinstate in the 2005-06 budget.
‘I feel very bad about this recommendation (for a millage increase), but I see no way out of it except further cuts to health care, staffing, and programs, but that would hurt too many people,? said Koski of his ‘I don’t feel it’s unreasonable to put it back to the people and bring the millage back to 1.41 mills.?
While the board agreed the millage increase would not be a budget cure-all, officials also agreed to look beyond the township tax base for increased funding.