A tale of two road millage proposals

Hamburg Township is strongly considering putting a road millage on the ballot. That got my attention because half of Cunningham Lake road is in Hamburg Township. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods will be keeping an eye out to see what the plans are regarding the road list.

I am cautiously optimistic however that we won't see the same mistakes made by Hamburg Township as we had in Genoa. Smart officials learn from the past. Hamburg has had its share of drama over the years, but things have been much quieter there the past couple of years. That's a very good thing. They also saw what happened in Genoa Township just recently. I don't think they want a "Protect Hamburg Township Neighborhoods" committee to be formed there.

I'm not going to argue here whether Townships should jump in and fix county roads here in their area. That's up to the voters. Whether taxes in Hamburg should be increased for roads in Hamburg to be fixed is also up to the voters there. Whether about 1/2 of the people in Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods gets involved with a highly organized campaign will be based on the road list. What I am going to do here is compare the process that I've seen so far.

Three differences I've seen are timing, community involvement, and road list.

Timing - This is being discussed now in different focus groups. If Hamburg is going to go through with the millage, it will be in November 2014 according to their Supervisor Pat Hohl. This isn't a rush job, or something pushed under the radar by Gary McCririe. There's been three meetings already, and there's more meetings scheduled. This is one year before the election, and it's not going to be in a (usually) low turnout off year. Hamburg's so far doing this right.

Community Involvement. -  In Genoa, all involvement I saw was after the road list was picked. There were three meetings after the fact, with at least one (probably two)  of them well after the absentee voters were out. The attitude from Genoa Township was "all or nothing" regarding the road list. They got their wish. Nothing. I attended the last meeting (3rd) in Hamburg. Hamburg is prepared for a Genoa situation (as something to avoid). County Road Commissioner Mike Craine was there. That got my attention as he wasn't at any of the Genoa meetings I attended. Craine gave his presentation and it was informative. He didn't try and steer anyone in a direction, although his presentation focused on repairing paved roads instead of new projects on gravel roads. There was also a packet to inform the attendees with estimated costs of repairs of each segment and traffic counts on most roads. There were ideas for a road list that varied but all were fixing currently paved roads. There was a little talk about gravel roads, but only maintenance and not paving.

Road List - The three most important factors in a road millage are in reverse order, how long, how much, and the road list (where is the money going). In the Genoa Township plan, there were several questions to the manager in how the road list was picked. The manager said he picked the list. We can't unelect a manager, but his boss can be fired. Most thought that list didn't make any sense and the results showed election time. Hamburg doesn't have a road list yet. That will be largely picked by people at the meetings. The preliminary ideas there tend to be towards main roads you would expect. While Genoa strongly implied that Hamburg would pave Bauer road if Genoa paved their side, that turned out to be wishful thinking at best, and lying at worst. The road list in Genoa sealed the fate of the millage proposal. Hamburg is being careful in the road list, and it's a smart move learning from the bad decisions from the powers that be in Genoa.

I don't know whether a Hamburg millage will pass, but based on the process I'm seeing, it has a better chance than Genoa's did. There's certainly plenty of arguments on tax issues length of the millage, but I haven't seen the gamesmanship there so far that I saw with Genoa. Granted, I've been at one meeting there (compared to 3 with Genoa) but the process seems much better in Hamburg.

Elections Report - Livingston County 2013

I didn't follow out county closely, so I'll just mention the winners of those. 

South Lyon Millage Renewal passed easily.

Webberville School millage renewal passed easily.

Byron Schools proposal failed.

Mott Community College Bond passed (lost in Livingston)

Fenton Schools Headlee Override passed.

The other elections went as follows:

Howell Mayor - Phil Campbell was unopposed.

Howell City Council Member (Top 3 win)
Daria W. Devantier 183
Richard Grimes 241
Jeff Hansen 378 
Nikolas Hertrich 264
Scott Niblock 437 
Nick Proctor 384 
Write-in Votes 4

Both incumbents win, along with Nick Proctor who ran probably the most active campaign of the challengers. 

Howell City Board of Review (Top 2 win)
William J. Flattery 378 
Bob Parker 309
David Teggerdine 529 
Write-in Votes 2

Incumbents win there as well. 

Brighton City Council Member  (Top 4 win)
Ricci Bandkau 795 
Shawn Pipoly 791 
Kristoffer L. Tobbe 811 
Susan L. Walters-Steinaker 469
Shanda Willis 738
Write-in Votes 10

Both incumbents win there, along with newcomers Tobbe and Willis. Willis is a democrat (replacing another dem) so we'll have to keep an eye out there if she wants to run for another office in the future. I'd rather not deal with another Tipton situation.

Brighton City Proposal 13-01
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of improvement, repair and maintenance of public streets, public sidewalks and public storm drainage facilities, levy up to 1.2500 mills ($1.2500 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $487,061.21.

YES 541
NO 736

Brighton City Proposal 13-02
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of purchasing and maintaining public safety equipment, which may include patrol vehicles, body armor, weapons and law enforcement-related technology, levy up to 0.3800 mills ($0.3800 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $148,066.61.
YES 690
NO 590

Brighton City Proposal 13-03

Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of improvement, repair and maintenance of public buildings and public parks, levy up to 0.3700 mills ($0.3700 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $144,170.12.

YES 452
NO 825

Brighton City Proposal 13-04
Shall the City of Brighton, for the purpose of replacing the existing residential rubbish collection fee, levy up to 1.1580 mills ($1.1580 per thousand dollars of taxable value on all real and personal property) for a period of ten (10) years, 2014-2023, inclusive?  If this new millage is approved and levied in December 2013, the estimated amount of revenue that would be collected in the first year would be approximately $451,213.51.
YES 562
NO 708

Lastly, the Genoa Township Millage. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods has the whole run down there. Here's the results.

	Turnout	Yes	No	Total	Yes%	No%
Genoa 1 & 9	17.71%	186	378	564	32.98%	67.02%
Genoa 2 & 10	16.82%	117	249	366	31.97%	68.03%
Genoa 3 & 11	19.58%	92	374	466	19.74%	80.26%
Genoa 4 & 8	33.91%	181	698	879	20.59%	79.41%
Genoa 5 & 12	31.62%	161	417	578	27.85%	72.15%
Genoa 6 & 7	36.14%	291	778	1069	27.22%	72.78%
Total	25.93%	1028	2894	3922	26.21%	73.79%

I got involved in this for family reasons. I didn't ask the GOP to get involved in this partly because of family, and partly because I didn't want to be a distraction and didn't want this to turn into R vs D, especially as County Dems aren't the problem with this turkey of a proposal and its master plan. I was a consultant and the blogger. I was not and am not the face of the group. Others can wear that hat better than I can there. .  Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods had support from Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-political, establishments, tea parties, and all those in between. The 73.79% results with higher turnout than an August primary election showed that.

This was an old school grass roots campaign. It didn't have a lot of money, but enough for a campaign if it wasn't wasted and smart decisions were made. The committee knew if people had the facts and saw through the company line horse manure that this would lose. The postcards came out, as did the stories in the Argus, Brighton Patch, and WHMI. Word of mouth and old fashion small town and neighborhood politics did the rest and the people went out to vote. The Southern half of the township (South of Crooked Lake) all had 30%+ turnout. They all not only were impacted by taxes, but by the roads to be widened and paved. They didn't want to pay for it. They didn't want the property tax increase, increased assessments (and more taxes), reduced property from the widening of the roads, trees cut down, infringement of rural character, more speeding cars, and the waste of tax money.

If there's a massive projects plan, it would be more prudent to run these by the people in those neighborhoods long before putting this on the ballot and then claiming public support based on a survey of 450 people. If you claim that Mountain, and Prairie View want to widen and pave Cunningham Lake, you better be damn sure that's the case. That was either a bad read or an outright lie, I don't know which. Precincts 7 and 8 sure didn't support this or even run close to 50-50. A couple of outspoken individuals does not make a majority.

This goes beyond Cunningham Lake as well. Most didn't want southern Bauer, Beck, Conrad or Herbst roads widened and paved either. Crooked Lake was mixed, but a lot of people didn't want that widened and paved either. There was also jurisdictional issues between the road commission and the township. The roundabout wasn't popular either. Most important of all, this millage didn't fix the main roads.
 
This roads millage was bad all around, and the results showed that. Other things are in the works as well, but that's down the road. 

Argus opposes Genoa Road Millage

When you lose the Argus with a millage proposal, that's bad.

For starters, the survey supposedly showing the township that it had a green light to ask for road money had fewer than 500 respondents. Genoa has more than 8,000 households.
Just weighing those numbers against each other, we cannot agree with those who would suggest that a few hundred survey responses from about 20,000 residents constitutes a clarion call to raise $23 million in property taxes for roads.

It was generic question anyway on the lines of "Would you pay more in taxes if it fixed the roads?". That's a whole different ballgame than this. 

Indeed, we are swayed more by the ongoing, turbocharged negative response from community residents who have voiced concerns about the road millage. Some have said they are concerned about speeding on paved roads instead of gravel roads. Others have said they are worried about widening roads and taking out natural features in their community.



Surely, nobody wants to pay extra taxes. Frankly, the tax tab isn’t really even the issue with this proposal. When a proposal like this is going to sock everybody in the township with a tax increase for a perceived public gain such as better roads, and the people along those roads — who are in line for what is perceived to be a $23 million public benefit — are crying foul, there needs to be a reassessment of the plan itself. The road projects very well may not be a benefit, in light of their concerns.
We can’t endorse a proposal that has generated such a swirl of controversy. Voters should say NO to the road millage proposal on the ballot Tuesday.

The residents on these streets to be paved are the supposed beneficiaries. That's news to them. There's nothing wrong with a perfectly good dirt road. Most don't want it paved. Some would accept it if the roads aren't widened as well. The widening of the roads  really piss off the residents. Most of us didn't like it when they did it to Bauer around Hamburg Road. It was bad.  The road was widened and a large number of trees were clearcut along the rural country road for no good reason whatsoever. That was on state land however (bad but less of a property rights issue). This here is on private land. That's worse.

If this was simply a proposal to fix existing roads, "Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods" would not have been formed. There would have been no votes and yes votes, but there would not have been a full blown ballot question campaign. Widening and paving the roads changed the ballgame. You're now messing with people's castles. These are just trees, but their trees, their land, in some cases their farms. This isn't just rural character, but their rural character. Everyone is also paying for it in the township, something that isn't needed, nor wanted by the residents. $5000-10000 in taxes for some homes. This is not only a tax increase, but a wasteful one. Other subdivisions would receive a lot of cut through traffic with this widening and paving which would increase speeding traffic in that sub. That's messing with their safety. Most of this plan is bad all around.

This needs to get knocked out, preferably by a 3-1 margin so it doesn't come back for another 25 years.

No sale on the Genoa Township Road Millage

There's plenty of coverage on the millage in today's Argus over the Genoa Twp Millage. You can find in depth comments on this at the Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods blog. Here I'll comment on Mike Archinal's guest column. Needless to say, I disagree with it. On this blog, I'll speak for myself and not the group, so I'll be a little more blunt here.

On Nov. 5, Genoa Township residents will have a choice to make about the condition of roads in their community. They can vote yes on the Genoa Township road proposal to fund a 15-year, 1.5-mill increase to fund projects throughout the township or they can vote no. It’s that simple.
Anyone who drives in Livingston County — or in Michigan, for that matter — knows the condition of our roads is poor. That’s a hard fact to argue. Livingston County residents have been negatively impacted by a system that is tied to lane miles and vehicle-registration fees, making our county roads the lowest-funded in the state on a per-capita basis.
Without additional revenue, much-needed improvements will not occur. We, as Genoa Township residents, can fix our roads. We have control over what happens here.
That is why our Board of Trustees has decided to give residents a chance Nov. 5 to vote on a proposal to improve roads in our township.
The Genoa Township road proposal goes to voters Nov. 5. They will decide the fate of a 15-year, 1.5-mill increase to fund a number of road improvements throughout the township.
If the proposal is approved, a home with a market value of $200,000 and a state-equalized value (SEV) of $100,000 would pay $150 per year. The first bill would appear on the 2013 winter tax.
The proposed road projects affect all areas of the township and would be completed over the next three years beginning in 2014:

It's a $3000 tax for a $200,000 home as this is a 15 year millage. For many homes in the township, it would be closer to $6000 and in some cases like Pine Creek, $10000. Most I know would consider a millage, if it actually fixed the roads. As the PGTN postcard says - "Does not fix Brighton Rd, Grand River, and Chilson." It also doesn't fix other main roads like Hacker, most of Challis (the heavily traveled part), Coon Lake, Dorr, or the paved portion of Bauer.  Those are the main roads people expect to be fixed. If the millage passes, improvements on those roads will not occcur. This is wasting $22 million dollars if I trust the township's numbers regarding costs (I don't). In addition, how much will it cost to maintain these paved roads, as the paved roads right now aren't well maintained to begin with. This created more costs, with limited benefits (and in some cases detriments).

Some board members mention that Brighton Rd among others will receive federal funds for improvements. If so, why have the millage in the first place?

Archinal then describes the projects.

2014

• Crooked Lake Road would be paved from Chilson Road to the end of the pavement near Spring Hill Road. The paved roadway west of Lakewood Shores Drive will be crushed and shaped to provide a uniform, consistent cross-section.
• Latson Road from Aster Boulevard north past Conover Court will have a consistent three-lane cross-section with a center left-turn lane. Acceleration and deceleration lanes will be provided for all of the residential developments within the project limits. This project will also include a traffic signal at the intersection of Latson and Hampton Ridge Boulevard.

 Latson I understand, but widening and paving this? 

2015

• The intersection of Challis and Bauer roads will be improved with the installation of a roundabout. Other road-alignment changes will include the abandonment of Bauer Road between the staggered legs of Challis and the connection to existing Challis to the west. Challis Road will be paved east toward the railroad tracks.
• Beck Road would be paved from Chilson to Nixon Road. (Nixon Road will become Latson Road after the interchange is opened).
• Conrad and Challis roads will be repaved from Dorr Road to Clifford. This project involves significant grade and right-of-way issues.

Beck Rd. Interestingly, Laurex Real Estate just had a development sale for duplexes off Beck Rd. What's Laurex? It's a company run by two of Genoa Township's board members including the supervisor.  Gary McCririe and Todd Smith.

Why Conrad? Is that so Gary McCririe can have a shortcut to Dorr Rd and not have his car dirty? That's not a repave, but widening and paving. Challis is dirt from Dorr to Conrad. That's not the part of Challis traveled heavily. As far as the roundabout goes, people love them or hate them. I think they are a waste of money.

 

2016

• Herbst Road will be improved along its entire length. On the western end, from Dorr Road to Acre Hill Street, the existing roadway will be crushed, shaped and repaved. On the eastern end, Acre Hill to Grand River Avenue, the gravel portion of the Herbst will be paved.
• Cunningham Lake and Bauer roads will be paved. Cunningham Lake will be improved from Sundance Trail to Bauer Road then north on Bauer Road from Cunningham Lake to the end of the pavement south of River Ridge. The existing paved portion of Bauer, from River Ridge to Brighton Road, will be crushed, shaped and repaved. Finally, the gravel portion of Bauer will be paved to the Township limit.
• Hughes Road will be repaved. The southern section from Grand River to Cherokee Bend will be milled and overlaid. The area north of Cherokee Bend to Golf Club Drive will be crushed shaped and paved.

For reference.

Hughes I support.  Herbst doesn't need to be widened and paved. Cunningham Lake residents made the opinions well known. Bauer doesn't need to be paved to the township line. There's only two homes on the Hamburg side. Do you think Hamburg's going to pave in the Brighton Recreational area along Ore Creek? I doubt it. 

 He closes to say:

If you have questions regarding the road projects, please attend our third Road Information Open House from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday at Township Hall, 2911 Dorr Road, Brighton.
I have given you the facts surrounding the Nov. 5 Genoa Township Road Proposal. It is now up to you — the residents — to decide. If you agree, vote yes. If you do not agree, vote no.
Whatever is decided, we will continue working to make Genoa Township the best place it can be for our residents.

I encourage all residents to attend the meeting. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods didn't need to spin anything. If our residents know the facts, the results will be in our favor.  That said, this is an all or nothing proposal. That was made clear by the manager.  I'd support Hughes and Latson (near Grand River), but the other projects make this unworthy of support from a fiscal responsibility standpoint, as well as one from a protecting our rural character standpoint.

That's why we all encourage a no vote, so the township can come back with something reasonable.

No Free Pass for the Genoa Township so called road millage

When you want to raise property taxes $3000+ for something that doesn't fix the roads(Based on their own master plan) , but widens, paves, and cuts down property owners' trees on rural country roads like these, you ought to expect some big time resistance. 

In 20 days time, a grass roots campaign has sprouted from my old neighborhood to support property rights, rural character, and fiscal responsibility. Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods. Most of the people involved in the fight are regular people and not very political. They follow issues and vote, but when the election's over that's it until the next one. This one is a different story for several reasons.

• A $200,000 valued home will pay $3000 in taxes with this 15 year millage.
• $16 Million of the 22-23 Million goes to widening and paving rural country roads instead of fixing new roads. 
• Most of the main roads aren't going to be fixed from this millage. Brighton Rd, Grand River, Chilson, Door, most of Challis (outside of roundabout and the dirt area), the main portion of Bauer towards the ski area, Coon Lake. Those roads aren't covered by this millage

People who move to dirt roads do so for a reason. They like rural living. Many of the residents have lived here for 30 years. Now the township board with the exception of Jean Leford and Jim Mortensen want to raise taxes $3000+ to destroy the properties. That's not right.
 
Those who wish to fight this can send donations payable to
Protect Genoa Township Neighborhoods
PO Box 1182
Brighton, MI 48116.

There's been enough money raised to send one mailing already. Some of you may have received it. The group has another one planned if there is enough funding.

Please vote NO on November 5th, 2013.

Vote NO on Genoa Township Millage Nov 5th

Things like this make me wish I still had my voter registration in Genoa Township instead of Green Oak. I don't like what they plan to do to my old neighborhood.  My parents still live there and I still know most of the people there, many for 30+ years. This cuts across partisan lines here.

If you want to fix the roads with a millage, actually fix the roads. Don't add a bunch of new projects, especially those not wanted by the residents of the street who live there.

Genoa Township has a new projects road millage on the ballot November 5th. It raises taxes 1.5 mills for 15 years. There's some legitimate arguments both ways on a road millage IF (and that's a big if) it fixes existing main roads.You can argue jurisdictional issues, taxes, double taxation if Lansing interests get their gas tax or sales tax through, and cost/benefits there, but roads aren't in good shape. However, don't waste my parent's money and worse - don't wreck their neighborhood.

Information about the project can be found at Genoa Township's website. Proposed Road Master Plan

Not ALL of the projects are bad ideas (Hughes Road repave), but many are. However, this is an all or nothing thing as of now. If you don't want all of these projects or to pay for all of these projects, vote now, and tell them to come back with something reasonable.

I also don't see what's necessarily bad about gravel roads, especially in certain areas. The township manager was complaining about replacing "ball joints". I've done that twice in 19 years of driving on dirt roads, both on older vehicles. Every time I go to my parents house, go hunting, commuted to law school (shortcut),  or go up north, I take dirt roads. You can also get that in potholes too, which happen on paved roads as often as dirt roads, especially if they aren't maintained, and if there's a lot of construction traffic. 


The projects are as follows. Costs are estimated by the township (probably on low side).

Crooked Lake - New Paving. $2.8 Million probable cost. From Chilson Road to Lakewood Shores Dr. This is largely farmland here. Part of this is plans with the new I-96/Latson interchange and likely expectations for big developments.

Latson Rd - $1.85 Million. Widening and repave. Legitimate project. It's also one of the less expensive ones proposed.

Beck Rd - $2.95 Million. New Paving, Chilson to Nixon Rd (South end Latson). This is planning due to the Latson Rd interchange.

Conrad Rd (and far end of Challis) - $1.39 Million. New Paving. Clifford to Dorr Rd This one's a waste of money. This is so Oak Pointe (where the Twp Supervisor lives) can have another shortcut to Challis avoiding dirt roads instead of taking the main roads of Brighton or Chilson Rds. You have about two residents on Conrad which don't want the paving. There's no need to pave, widen, and carve up the farmland for the Supervisor's convenience. There's even less need to raise taxes to do so.

Challis/Bauer Rd Roundabout - $1.8-2.3 Million.  Much more expensive than a traffic light.

Herbst Rd - $3.9 Million. New Paving from Grand River to Sylvan Glen. I'm not that familiar with Herbst Road, but it goes in rural areas. It's paved currently from Dorr to Sylvan Glen. I don't see a reason to pave it from a tax standpoint.


Hughes Road - $2.55 Million - Repave. An actual legitimate project.


Bauer Road South - $1.25 Million - Bascially an extension of Cunningham Lake project. Paved from Cunningham Lake/Pine Creek to Hamburg Twp line. Besides taking away from the rural character - Why? There's two houses. Why pave to Hamburg Twp line? Waste of money.


Cunningham Lake and Bauer (North) - $3.65 Million - That's my old neighborhood. Residents have lived here a long time. I've known some of them my entire life. This is what Cunningham Lake Road looks like - same as it did in the 70's and 80's. That road looks in real bad shape, doesn't it. /sarcasm

Combining Bauer and Cunningham Lake's projects, the township wants almost $5 Million in tax money to pave areas that mostly look like this picture (outside of the wetland/swamp between Walnut Hills and Bauer). They want Bauer paved to the township line and Cunningham Lake Rd paved to Stonegate. Cunningham Lake Rd does not need to be widened and paved. Bauer does not need to be paved further.

 From the Bauer standpoint, Pine Creek already has paved access to two main roads and a side road (Bauer). You have few houses there covered with new paving.


Cunningham Lake is the township line past the one big curve. Stonegate is in Hamburg Township. They don't have to pay one red cent for this project if it passes. Walnut Hills, Mystic Hills, and Prairie View also already have paid access to Brighton Rd.

I measured the width of the road. Including the shoulder, it is about 19 1/2 ft. They are proposing two 11 ft lanes, and as far of a shoulder as their right of way allows (6ft each side for Bauer).  Picture that being widened another 10-15ft. Add a lot of concrete gutters and sewer pipes due to drainage issues (will that be followed by sewers and city water?) They also specifically recommended getting rid of the trees. This area recently lost a lot of trees in a tornado. I'm sure they want even more trees cut off their property for a paving project they don't even support. You don't even have to be a treehugger to have a problem with that.

There's also safety concerns. On this road, you have pedestrians (many from the subdivisions), dog walkers, cranes, deer, and hills. People drive fast enough on the dirt road. Many a time have I heard people slam on the brakes during a day to avoid hitting a crane or a deer. If this is paved, you'll see people doing 65 here on the straightaway and someone's going to get hurt, be it a pedestrian or a driver hitting a deer.

1.5 Mills for 15 years for all of this (About $22 Million in projects), most of which is not needed. About 20-25% of this is the Cunningham Lake and Bauer projects.  The only way this will get revised is for this to fail at the ballot box. These road projects are almost always an all or nothing deal. Take nothing for now, and have them come back later with something reasonable. Take out the new pavings and deal with the main roads that are needed to be fixed. Grand River, Chilson, Door, Brighton Rd, Challis, Coon Lake, Hughes, Latson. Not rural country roads. 

Vote NO on November 5th.


-------------------------------------------
Updated:

There's some movement growing to the opposition. Official Blog Site

 

Genoa Township tax measure going to the ballot November 2013

This is now official. We'll be having a millage election this November in Genoa Township. 

From the Argus

Genoa Township voters will be asked to approve a 1.5-mill, 15-year tax levy to improve local Livingston County roads on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The township Board of Trustees on Monday approved the proposal’s ballot language, leaving it to voters whether to tax themselves more for roads intended to be fixed with revenue from gas taxes and vehicle-registration fees.
If approved on the November ballot, the owner of a home in Genoa with a market value of $200,000 would pay $150 annually to repair roads that would otherwise be funded with Livingston county Road Commission dollars. One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value, which is roughly half of a home’s market value.
The proposal, projected to cover $23 million in local county road improvements, was met with resistance at the board table and from the audience Monday.
Board Trustees Jim Mortensen and Jean Ledford voted against putting the millage question to voters.

And this is what will be covered.

Proposed projects were based in large part on traffic volume and crash statistics at each location, Township Manager Michael Archinal said. Archinal said projects on Crooked Lake, Beck and Latson roads also would help absorb expected traffic spikes from the new Interstate 96 interchange at Latson Road.
Genoa’s plan would fund roadwork in the 2014-2016 road construction seasons, and include paving and reconstruction.
The 2014 construction schedule would include work on Crooked Lake and Latson roads, including a traffic signal at Latson Road and Hampton Ridge Boulevard.
The following year’s efforts would tackle Beck Road and the intersection of Challis and Conrad roads, and include a roundabout at Challis and Bauer roads near the Mt. Brighton ski resort.
The final year of construction would include road repairs and paving on Herbst, Bauer and Hughes roads and the intersection of Cunningham Lake and Bauer roads.

I'll give credit to the trustees for mentioning up front what the plan is on the road tax, but I can tell you right now that paving southern Bauer is a waste of time and money and isn't needed. There's two houses there on that part of Bauer. It's a rural country road. Pine Creek already has paved access on their part of Bauer that is paved through a northwestern entrance (as well as paved access to Brighton Lake and Brighton Rds which are paved) and the folks on Cunningham Lake don't want their road paved. Believe it or not, some people like gravel roads.

Election is November 5th. 

Three Elections on August 6th 2013 in Livingston County

We have three elections coming up on August 6^th.  Don Parker, our County Commissioner in the 5^th District is facing a special election. Don is a solid conservative who has done a good job for us in both of his stints as county commissioner. One of the reasons our county always has a balanced budget and low taxes is due to Don Parker and the rest of our commissioners. He’s done good work and deserves to be retained. Since this is a low turnout special election, the rules have changed and we can not take this race for granted. If you are in Howell, Howell Township, or Cohoctah Township, we need your vote.

Livingston County did not become a great place to live by accident. It was due to voters making good choices in county leadership. In order for Livingston County to continue to be a great place to live and not follow some of the other changing communities in neighboring counties, we need to continue to elect good leadership, as we have in Don Parker.

In addition to the County Commissioner race, there are two millage/bond measures on the ballot. Those in the Howell Carnegie Library district will vote on a millage election. Those in the Whitmore Lake School District are voting on a bond issue. 

Language on the ballot:

Howell Carnegie Library:

Shall the limitation on the amount of taxes which may be imposed on taxable property within the Howell District Library District be increased in an amount not to exceed 4/10 of 1 mill ($0.40 on each $1,000 of taxable value) for a period of 20 years, beginning in the year 2013 and ending in the year 2032, inclusive, as new additional millage for the purpose of providing funds for Library purposes? It is estimated that 4/10 of 1 mill would raise approximately $820,000 when first levied in 2013.

Whitmore Lake School District:

Shall Whitmore Lake Public School District, Washtenaw and Livingston Counties, Michigan, borrow the sum of not to exceed $12,300,000 and issue its general obligation unlimited tax bonds therefor in one or more series, for the purpose of :

Partially remodeling, furnishing and refurnishing, equipping, and reequipping school facilities, acquiring, installing and equipping technology for school facilities; purchasing school buses; constructing, equipping and developing and improving athletic facilities and play fields; and developing and improving sites?

The following is for informational purposes only:

The estimated millage that will be levied for the proposed bonds in 2013, under current law, is 2.50 mills ($2.50 on each $1000 of taxable valuation). The maximum number of years the bonds may be outstanding, exclusive of any refunding, is 20 years. The estimated simple average annual millage anticipated to be required to retire this bond debt is 2.17 mills.

(Pursuant to State Law, expenditure of bond proposals must be audited, and the proceeds cannot be used for repair or maintenance costs, teacher, administration, or employee salaries, or other operating expenses.)