By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
The Charter Township of Oxford Board of Trustees had a special meeting to determine the 2022 township budgets on Wednesday, Sept. 22. The final budget came out to around $16.93 million, an increase from last year’s budget which was about $15.07 million.
Divided into several sections, the meeting combined “Truth in Budgeting” hearings with the regular annual budget meeting, though the public in attendance had little to say about millage rates.
Rather, those who attended — and some who were unable to attend and had their comments read by Township Supervisor Jack Curtis — were more concerned with what the township was budgeting in preparation of gypsy moths in 2022. All who spoke were displeased with the township’s lacking response to the issues caused by the invasive caterpillars.
Curtis stated that since the township was caught unprepared for the moths this year, the township has been speaking with various county, state and federal officials to find out how they can get money to pay for spraying trees.
“The reason that we allocated $150,000 for gypsy moth spraying is because we haven’t been sitting on our laurels,” Curtis said. “CJ (Carnacchio) our grants manager and myself have contacted (State) Senator (Rosemary) Bayer, we’ve contacted Dave Coulter’s office, we’ve contacted Mike Spiz, we’ve contacted Elissa Slotkin, we’ve contacted Debbie Stabenow … Mike Spisz has informally told us that we have to be prepared with money in our budget and show … that we have money allocated for [moth spraying].”
Curtis said that the county is willing to put money into the county budget for spraying if local governments allocate money for the moth spraying. Curtis reassured the public in attendance that all $150,000 might not be spent depending on how much support higher-level authorities provide and if American Rescue Plan Act funds can be used.
Following the discussion on moth spraying, most budgets were approved without much discussion. The only change from the proposed budget was moving $200,000 for safety paths from 2021 into 2022. Budgets for the Oxford Public Library, the North Oakland Transportation Authority and the Polly Ann Trailway Management Council were also approved by the board.
The property tax millage rates for 2022 are 0.8944 mill for township operations, 0.9809 mill for parks & recreation, 3.8461 mill for police contracting, 4.4500 mill for fire and EMS, 0.6343 and 0.6768 for the Oxford Public Library, 0.2341 mill for NOTA and 0.2300 for parks & recreation bond debts.
Last year’s millage rates were 0.9045 mill for township operations, 0.9920 mill for parks & recreation, 3.8866 mill for police contracting, 3.3024 mill for fire and EMS, 0.6415 and 0.6844 for the Oxford Public Library, 0.2368 mill for NOTA and 0.2300 for parks & recreation bond debts.