School Districts Spend Tens of Thousands On Losing Millage Requests

This past May, dozens of school districts across Michigan spent taxpayer dollars to go before voters to request more money. A significant majority of those elections proved fruitful for the districts as voters passed millage, bond and sinking fund requests.

But nine districts were unsuccessful, spending thousands of dollars on the losing effort.

Here are the districts that lost their funding requests on May 7, followed by the approximate amount spent and what they were requesting from voters:

Bessemer Area School District: $3,448.12 (not including attorney fees) for a $6.76 million bond. Lakeshore Public Schools (Berrien): $15,758.90 for $16.87 million to build a new elementary school. Marcellus Community Schools: $5,249.05 for a $15.62 million bond to renovate schools, add instructional technology and improve playgrounds. Midland Public Schools: $43,173.31 (not including one township) for a $20.88 million bond and $5.12 million sinking fund which would have bought and upgraded new technology and repaired buildings, respectively. Onekama Consolidated Schools: $8,625.82 for a 0.8-mill increase for technology and infrastructure upgrades. Pennfield Schools: $548.83 for a 10-year, 2-mill sinking fund. Richmond Community Schools: $3,092.60 for a $12.9 million bond for a science classroom, new buses, a new running track and other updates. Williamston Community Schools: $14,625.90 (not including one township) for a 10-year, 1-mill sinking fund increase. Wyoming Public Schools: $12,827.55 for a $53.16 million bond to remodel buildings, upgrade security, improve energy efficiency, develop and improve athletic facilities and build a performing arts center. School districts have the option of holding funding elections in February, May, August and November. According to state law, the districts must pay the cost of the election. If there is a political election held on the same day, the schools only pay the additional costs.

In the case of Midland Public Schools, the district’s request for a $20.88 million bond and a $5.12 million sinking fund were the only two issues on the ballot, meaning the district paid the entire cost of the election.

Requiring school funding requests to also be held during regular elections rather than spending more money to hold them on low turnout voting days has also been discussed. Critics of school districts that hold elections in months where there is low turnout say they are doing so to try and pass tax increases with few "yes" votes.

Capitol Confidential asked the superintendent of each school district why they decided to hold the vote on May 7 rather than waiting until a general election. Most defended the date based on timing.

“The technology bond required us to go through a lengthy process to get our application approved and we were not ready for last November’s election,” said Gary Verlinde, director of human services for Midland Public Schools. “The sinking fund proposal required a May election if we were to get funds for projects during the summer of 2013. Ninety-five percent of sinking fund work projects are done during the summer months.”

Timing also was the reason explained by Mark Johnson, superintendent in Bessemer. “We could not get everything completed in time to get our materials to Treasury to get on the November ballot. So we elected to go with the May date.”

Kevin Hughes, superintendent for Onekama, said he had a few people in the community ask the same question. One of the reasons was that they had a non-homestead vote the previous November.

“We had a tight timeline to get it into the summer tax collections,” Hughes said. “We wanted the money for the technology for the kids hands when they walk in the door in the fall … I’m in the business of educating kids and we had an aggressive timeline so I didn’t want to wait until an August election or November.”

Lakeshore superintendent Julie Powell concurred. “The timing was right for May,” she said.

“The sinking fund proposal was on the November 2012 ballot. It did not pass,” said Narda Murphy, superintendent of Williamston. “Based on an analysis of the election results from each of the precincts and the compelling reasons for the funding, the board decided to place it on the ballot in May as the outcome of that election would impact the 2013-14 budget.”

Thomas Reeder, superintendent in Wyoming said May was chosen because most voters are used to that already.

"First, many in the public are used to our May school elections, but second and more important, the city of Wyoming collects 90 percent of its tax in July and by running the election six months earlier it allowed WPS to start addressing the needs sooner, given they exist currently and with the intent work could start and be up and ready to put everything in sooner, by possibly a whole calendar year,” Reeder said. "Since we were unsuccessful, we are now coming back in November, a general election, because August does not help us at all related to the timelines."

Capitol Confidential asked the superintendent of each school district why they decided to hold the vote on May 7 rather than waiting until a general election. Most defended the date based on timing.

Its harder to pass when people are going to the polls. Here in Napoleon we had a failed attempt on primary day and passage 3 weeks before the General election.

Our local school district (Northern Cal) spends tons of money on CONSULTANTS to strategize elections...what to put on the ballot, how to word it, how to structure it, how much to ask for, how many times to go out with requests, whether to align with general elections or hold special elections, etc. It is infuriating.

A new law went into effect at the beginning of 2012 that required school board elections to be held “at the general election in November of even-numbered years.” According to the state, nearly 95 percent of districts were holding their elections on other days before the change.

They knew exactly what they were doing.After the local bond proposal failed in the spring the teachers unions were squealing like pigs about non parents voting to screw the students over.

Basically a property tax increase and in the case of local property tax increases they’re called millages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax

In the United States, property tax on real estate is usually levied by local government, at the municipal or county level. Rates vary across the states, between about 0.2% and 4% of the home value.[9] The assessment is made up of two components—the improvement or building value, and the land or site value. The property tax is the main tax supporting local education, police/fire protection, local governments, some free medical services, and most of other local infrastructure. Also, many U.S. state and local jurisdictions impose personal property taxes.

Well, these NON PARENTS are paying the TAXES that fund these idiots who are brainwashing the next generation of adults and destroying our country.

My niece was whining about some bond issue that didn’t pass. Wah. Tell your coworkers to ‘up their game’ and teach instead of pushing your crap dem bs.

I’m an irritant anyway because I’m a very vocal non parent who never misses a vote and goes to school board meetings.

The unions don’t care for me much but many parents appreciate my involvement since they understand that I want better education for their kids and throwing money at it doesn’t educate anyone.

The district I live in gives seminars on how to railroad of school levy down the throats of homeowners. They have it down to a science. First put levy on ballot. Levy gets voted down. Put levy back on ballot in the next special election a few months later. Levy gets voted down. Put levy back on ballot again. School board (consisting of mostly retired teachers or relative of school employee) says they will cancel all extra curricular activities (that means sports and band) if levy doesn't pass. Levy gets voted down again. School board cancels all extra curriculars. Parents offer 100% pay to play. School board refuses. Tells parents that there will be no private funding allowed. It either comes from a tax levy or no playtime. Levy goes back on ballot and passes by less than 50 votes.

Oh , and every time one of these levies come up you get these wonderful, caring soccer moms bellowing at the senior citizens on fixed incomes to sell their houses and move if they can't afford higher property taxes. Soccer moms are the vile creatures on this planet.

One mill = $.001 (one thousandth of a dollar)

The number of mills in a tax levy is multiplied against your appraised property value to establish your local taxes. The largest proportion is usually for schools.

All of the above courtesy of Mrs. Johnson, my 4th grade teacher, who provided the answer to a similar question from me during a run-up to the school millage election that meant I attended a brand-new junior high school in 7th grade.

I think our district’s school board must have attended one of their seminars!!

The school board was following this course to a tee right up until the time they tried to shut the parents down and not permit them to pay for their children’s extracurricular activities.

In CO, there is open choice for public schools, so the mass exodus out of the district into neighboring districts that permitted private funds had the school board singing a different tune in a short amount of time.

Now the school board begs local businesses for donations and have even taken to advertising on school buses for revenue. There is a rumor they are going to try for another mill levy, but I don’t think they’ve found enough brain dead soccer moms.

The brood sows and the school board here really poisoned the well with that last levy. They even had tee shirts made for their little darlings to wear that said “Tell me ‘no’ to my face” after the second defeat at the polls. Nearly had an incident at tje grocery store with a brood sow and sperm donor when I took them up on that invitation. Using their own kids as political pawns and cannon fodder is just one of the more shameless tactics.

Those are some healthy sows:)! And lo and behold our local paper today announced that our local school board will be seeking a 10.5 mill levy override (4.5 million increase annually) on Nov. 5th. Out of El Paso county district schools, our district has the second highest mill rate...guess they ware trying to be top scorer in something.

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