Alpena Township considering tax hike to fund fire department, improve roads
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ALPENA -- Residents in Alpena Township could be paying more in property taxes in 2023 if a trio of millage requests are passed.
The township is considering seeking tax money to help fund the fire department, improve roads, and for general operations.
The millage proposals could be included on the August ballot.
The board of trustees is still exploring what the millages would look like in terms of how much they would be for, and how long they would be for, supervisor Nathan Skibbe said.
Skibbe said the millage discussion and planning are still in the early stages, but the township is aiming to have all three tax proposals in front of voters in the summer.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Township residents approved 10-year renewal of its fire millage, for 1.5 mills for fire department operations, equipment, and training in August 2018. That millage generates about $506,243. A few months later they approved a 0.65-mill, five-year tax proposal to be used for new rescue vehicles and other needed equipment.
Despite that, the township allocates money from its general fund budget to keep the department - which has two stations - operating.
Earlier this year, the trustees voted against hiring the Alpena Fire Department to manage and handle emergency response, which would have cost $400,000 a year and, after three years, a 2% increase of that payment would have kicked in until it hit a $475,000 cap.
It likely will cost the township more now to fully staff its depleted department - which struggles with a staffing shortage - and pay for its expenses as inflation continues to climb.
"It was known at that point in time when the current millage was expanded, that it was grossly less than what it would take to operate a department, and that was five years ago," Skibbe said. "We need to know if the voters will allow for the future of the department, and if not, otherwise conversations will have a different twist altogether."
Skibbe said costs continue to climb for fire and rescue services and both stations, especially the south side station need significant improvements. He said what the department will look like, how it will be staffed, and what its licensure will be, lies in the hands of the voters.
Skibbe did suggest the millage request could be a lengthy one, which would ensure the department is funded for many years.
ROADS
The township and the Alpena County Road Commissioner worked together to grade the roads in the township and what it would cost to improve their condition. Skibbe said it would cost about $6 million to return them to average condition. He said the trustees pay for the road work they can now with general fund money, but there is no way the needed work can be paid for that way indefinitely.
"Right now we are $6 million below average, which is obviously far from shooting birdie," he said. "There has been no final determination yet, but if we looked and explored a millage of two mills, it would take about eight years to just get to average, for roads solely."
Skibbe said money earmarked for road projects the last few years, has been redirected to help fund the fire department, which has set needed roadwork back further.
OPERATING MILLAGE
Township residents currently pay 1.0136 mills, which has been the tax rate since the 1970s. Skibbe said the operating millage brings in about $600,000 a year, which doesn't go very far when there are buildings, employees, and other infrastructure and services that need to be paid for.
"Sometimes it is easy to get focused on a single department, when we have several departments that are as deficient as the fire department," Skibbe said. "We haven't explored an increase since the Headlee Rollback began decades ago.
Headlee was passed in 1978 and requires a local unit of government to reduce its millage when annual growth on existing property is greater than the rate of inflation. As a consequence, the local unit's millage rate gets "rolled back" so that the resulting growth in property tax revenue, community-wide, is no more than the rate of inflation.
Often municipalities lose tax funding due to the method.
Skibbe said if the trustees decide to move forward with the tax requests, it will be up to voters to choose what direction they want for the township moving forward. He said if the millages were to fail, the gap between revenues and expenses will widen in the coming years.
"Without the voters' support, it is going to change what this township will look like," he said. "Services have an associated cost and if people want said services, inevitably there is going to be a cost to them. Nobody wants to look at it that way, but we're not in 1977 any more, but our operational millage is."