Expect to pay more, treasurers say

By Don Rush

The cost of groceries, utilities and gas are up, so it should come as no shock this year’s property taxes are going up, too. Both treasures from Oxford and Addison townships, say summer taxes – mailed last week – will be up five percent over last year.

Residents in both townships can start making payments this week, while the deadline for paying summer taxes is September 14.

Oxford Treasurer Joe Ferrari said Oxford has a total of 8,879 parcels. “We do not mail bills to owners that have mortgage escrows so we mail out roughly 5,190 bills. For those that don’t receive a tax bill or have misplaced their bill, information can be found for free on bsaonline.com, including tax amounts and values,” he said.

According to Addison Treasurer Lori Fisher, Addison has 3,283 parcels, and like Oxford Township they do not mail bills to owners with mortgage escrows, “So we mail out roughly 2,400 bills.”

So, why the increase?

The treasurers say for 2023, the inflation multiplier is five percent, which is dictated by the state and tied to the inflation rate.

“Taxable value is only allowed to rise the rate of inflation or five percent, whichever is less,” Ferrari said.

According to Fisher, your taxable value will increase five percent, so if your value in 2022 was $100,000 it will be $105,000 for 2023. “Taxes are based on your taxable value multiplied by the individual millage rates, which for summer is mostly school taxes,” she said. “Addison has four school districts, so we have different millage rates for each of those districts. Additionally, we saw two new millages approved last November on the ballot which added 2.45 mills. Generally, millage rates ‘roll back’ to offset inflation, but this year we did not have one. The rollback is a calculation of growth and uncappings from property sales. This seems to point to the unusual economy we are currently in with high inflation but strong growth.”

Oxford Township has two school districts with different millage rates. 

The Oakland County Transit millage approved by county voters last also year added .95 mills to taxes.

According to Ferrari, the Oxford Schools Sinking Millage expired, however the Lake Orion School Sinking Millage has not expired.

“Proposal A protects owners from large increases by keeping taxable values capped at a maximum of five percent,” Fisher said. “Normally we see increases between one to two percent (and three percent in Oxford). Proposal A works well in situations where land values change rapidly as areas develop and in normal economic conditions where high inflation goes hand in hand with recession where you would see the millage rates reduced through a rollback to offset the percentage increase in taxable value.”

Fisher said Addison will collect $16.7 million in total taxes for 2023, $11.2 million in the summer collection. “Only $446,000 is kept by the Township for operating expenses,” she said.

Ferrari said it’s too early to estimate total 2023 taxes as the Winter millage rates have not been set. Oxford Township, he said, will bill roughly $30,226,278 for Summer 2023 taxes.

In 2022, Addison Township collected $16,025,000 in total taxes and $10,831,000 for summer alone. Oxford Township’s 2022, summer taxes were roughly $28,486,051.

Winter tax bills will come out in December.

Cutlines:

Oxford Township Treasurer Joe Ferrari

Addison Township Treasurer Lori Fisher