Aside from the beautiful lakeshores and fertile farmland, Benzie County residents can boast about having lots of stuff on their ballots during an election year.
“We have an a la carte menu, as I call it, of millages. And we’ve heard mixed reviews from the community,” said County Administrator Kaitlyn Zeits.
In the upcoming Aug. 6 primary, all county voters will decide whether or not to increase taxes on three different services — the jail, the commission on aging and the transportation authority. There may be more on other ballots depending on the township.
Zeits said that’s not unusual. Benzie County often has way more requests for special millage increases on their ballots compared to other counties. The reason goes back to a tax law that’s more than 40 years old.
But a slight tweak in language on Benzie County ballots this August could overhaul how money flows to important services, like animal control, EMS or road patrol.
Some officials say the measure is needed to keep up with the growing community while others say it places too much trust in local government.
The Headlee Amendment
Since 1978, there’s been something in the Michigan Constitution called the Headlee Amendment, named after insurance executive Richard Headlee, who came up with the idea.
His goal was to “put the brakes on runaway spending.”
In simple terms, his amendment essentially means tax rates have to be lowered every year, even when property values are up in some cases. That’s unless residents vote to approve what some call a “Headlee reset” or “Headlee override” — and a lot of counties have.
But Benzie County can’t right now.
That’s because back in 1982, the county operating millage was fixed at 5.29 mills by voters. Due to the Headlee Amendment, that amount cannot go up, but it can go down. And it has.
It’s now around 3.3 mills, meaning property owners are charged about $3.30 for every $1,000 of property value.
Eric Walcott, a public policy specialist with the Michigan State University Extension, said Benzie’s situation is rare.
“I would guess most counties in the last 30-plus years have had a Headlee override at some point to restore their millage back to its original levels,” he said.
Meanwhile, Benzie County’s property values have increased. The median home price was $365,000 in June, up nearly 12 percent from last year, according to data from Rocket Homes.
And the region is growing. Since 1980, the county has grown by almost 50 percent.
Zeits, the county administrator, said the restrictions from 1982 could put Benzie in a pinch as it grows. With so many “a la carte options,” she said there’s little flexibility to bring on new services.
“For instance, if the jail is running short, but another fund is running ahead of the game, we have no flexibility to supplement the jail,” she said.
What’s on the ballot?
In other counties if one department needs more money, and a different department has extra, the funds can be transferred. But in Benzie County, individual services like animal control, or parks and recreation, or EMS typically turn to voters for more money.
“A lot of the community likes that,” Zeits said. “They like having this a la carte menu of millages so they can really have an impact on the things that they care about. But then we have another sector of the community who's like, ‘Does it make any sense to have all these millages?’”
Benzie County could unlock its operating millage, at least for an amount of time decided on by voters, if it got rid of the word “indefinitely” from the language approved in 1982.
A measure to do that is on the upcoming Aug. 6 ballot.
“It's about future boards and taking the handcuffs off of them to run the county,” said Art Jeanott, a county commissioner in support of the measure.
He said unlocking the operating millage would not immediately raise taxes. What it could do is redirect how money flows to services and put more decisions in the hands of the county commission.
Jeannot and MSU’s Eric Walcott said that’s how most counties in Michigan operate now. Only a small handful still have that “indefinite clause” on their operating mileage.
“The demographics have changed, and the people moving to our area are coming from areas where they're accustomed to a certain level of service or services, and we need to be able to meet that expectation,” Jeannot said.
The disagreement
Some officials and residents have shared concerns with the measure. When townships were asked to pass resolutions of support, seven of Benzie County’s 12 townships did while the others either disapproved or did not take action.
Many of those who did not approve were in County Commissioner Gary Sauer’s district. He said he’s concerned this measure could take power away from voters.
“I've been of the mindset that if you need something, you ask for it, not necessarily have an opportunity to increase the taxes, and then the board makes a decision where the money goes,” Sauer said. “I'm not saying we've got a bad board. In fact, we have an excellent board right now. But things change.”
Trust in government is at an all time low according to the Pew Research Center and Benzie County has operated with the same tax law for nearly 50 years.
Jeannot said residents shouldn’t be concerned. Certain services have to be funded through special millage increases, so the “a la carte options” won’t necessarily go away.
He said this measure would give the county the option to put the operating millage before the voters when needed.
“When you elect somebody, if you don't have faith in what they're going to do, you shouldn't have elected them,” Jeanott said.
Voters will decide on the fixed operational millage among other measures on August 6.
