The Effort to Change School Millage Elections
Two topics that are sure to get people talking these days are taxes and school funding. Now one bill making its way through Lansing combines them both. Supporters say it would fix an unfair system, but opponents say it could devastate some northern Michigan school districts.
The details are tonight's Fact Finder Report.
It's the time of year when summer people start heading north to their vacation homes, including State Representative Richard Leblanc. He says, "The home we own on Houghton Lake, by example, I pay twice the property taxes that I do downstate, but nobody lives there and nobody gets to vote on the tax issues."
But Rep LeBlanc is working to change that. House Bill 4546 would allow non-resident property owners to vote on school millage issues.
Right now on your main home you pay 6 mills in property tax for schools, but on other property you own you could pay up to three times that, 18 mills in property tax, and if it's not your home district you can't vote in school millage elections.
Rep. LeBlanc says, "We have a lot of people saying enough is enough."
He says it's taxation without representation; a problem he says could be solved by letting property owners vote in all of the districts where they own property.
But school leaders in northern Michigan say that would create even more problems.
Suttons Bay School Superintendent Mike Murray says, "if it's not one man one vote, if a proposal like this were to go through at least one of the districts in Leelanau County would be totally devastated."
Superintendent Murray says schools in northern Michigan would be disproportionately impacted by this bill, because the region has so many vacation homes, and relies on those property taxes.
Rep. LeBlanc thinks some communities may take the situation for granted, but also sees the potential downside.
He says, "This bill admittedly has caused some people to remind us that things are bad enough as they are, if you give people an opportunity to say no, we might be placed in a worse position."
That's exactly what Supt. Murray fear, regardless of the future of this bill. "This is my 41st year in education and this is the worst financial situation I've seen in the whole 41 years."
There is a real fear among schools up north that if non-homestead property owners get to vote on school millages, they'll just vote no because they have no vested interest in how well the schools do.
Couple that with the argument of one person one vote, where do you draw the line in letting people vote on issues that might impact them?
But on the flip side, our country was founded on the idea of no taxation without representation.
So how do you see this issue? What do you should be done?
I will share all of your comments along to Rep. LeBlanc, just leave your thoughts below.
