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ESCANABA -- Residents of Delta County will decide whether or not to approve a pair of millage requests -- and will vote on other matters -- next week. An election is set to take place on Tuesday, May 7, and polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"We have two county-wide proposals," Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki said.
If approved by voters, a law enforcement millage request included on the ballot for the upcoming election would levy a total amount not to exceed 1.3 mills, or $1.30 for each $1,000 of taxable value, from 2020 to 2029. The law enforcement millage request would both renew the county's existing law enforcement millage and add on to it, Przewrocki said.
".9 of it is a renewal, and .4 of it is new millage," she said.
Funds from the millage would be put towards road patrol, search and rescue services and the operations of the Delta County Sheriff's Office, and any other law enforcement purpose authorized by law. If the millage is approved and levied, the county would collect an estimated $1,550,000 in its first year.
The other county-wide millage proposal calls for the renewal of Delta County's 911 millage from 2020 to 2024.
"That's for up to .75 mills," Przewrocki said. Unlike the law enforcement millage request, this request is for a straightforward renewal of the existing 911 millage.
The county would collect about $875,000 in the renewed 911 millage's first year if it is approved by voters and levied in full. Millage funds would be used to "operate, furnish, and equip" Delta County's 911 emergency telephone answering and dispatch system.
According to Przewrocki, both proposals include language stating part of the millages may go towards local downtown development and brownfield redevelopment authorities.
"It's a very small amount -- about $800 (per year) will go to those authorities," she said.
While this is not new, Delta County Administrator Philip Strom said the county added language regarding the use of millage funding for the authorities to the proposals on its attorney's recommendation.
"The decision to include the language is a statutory requirement. We are committed to transparency to the voters first. In addition to complete transparency we also are interested in litigation mitigation and reducing the likelihood of a legal challenge to our community safety funding," he said.
For voters in some parts of Delta County, these will not be the only proposals they will have input on next week.
"There is one township proposal, and that's in Bark River," Przewrocki said.
Residents of Bark River Township will vote on a millage proposal asking if the tax limitation on general ad valorem taxes in the township should be increased by 1 mill, or $1 per $1,000 of taxable value, from 2019 to 2023 in order to operate and maintain the Bark River Township Senior Center and the Bark River Township Fire Department. If approved, the increased millage would generate an estimated $40,726 in its first year.
In Big Bay de Noc School District, voters will be asked whether or not they support the renewal of the current school district operating millage rate limitation of 19.7958 mills, or roughly $19.80 per $1,000 of taxable value, from 2020 to 2029. This would provide the district with operational funds; if the renewal is approved and 18 mills are levied, the district would collect about $1,645,300 in 2020.
According to Przewrocki, the rate includes two extra mills to compensate for a Headlee rollback.
"It'll allow them to collect the full 18 mills for the 10 years of the millage," she said. People in the townships of Fairbanks, Garden, Nahma and Inwood -- the last of which is part of Schoolcraft County -- will vote on the proposed millage renewal for Big Bay de Noc.