By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
MENDON — Three local school districts will have renewals of their operating millage on the ballot for their communities next week.
On Tuesday, Aug. 5, voters in the Mendon, Nottawa and Marcellus school districts will decide whether or not to renew the 18-mill non-homestead operating millage for their school districts for the next decade or two.
Polls for voters residing in those school districts will be open in Mendon Township, Nottawa Township, and Marcellus Township from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day, with early mail-in balloting also available. Mendon Township voting will take place at the Mendon Township Hall at 136 W. Main St. in Mendon, Nottawa Township voting will occur at the Nottawa Township Hall at 112 S. Clark St. in Centreville, and Marcellus Township voting will occur at the Marcellus Township Hall at 13163 Marcellus Hwy. in Marcellus.
In Mendon, Mendon Community Schools is seeking a 10-year renewal of its millage, which will levy 18 mills on non-homestead properties, while administratively keeping the listed millage rate high enough to combat rollbacks due to the Headlee Amendment and keep consistent millage funding.
Meanwhile, Nottawa Community School is seeking a 20-year renewal of its millage, which would also renew an 18-mill millage on non-homestead properties, with the administratively-listed millage being 19.4666 mills in order to combat Headlee rollbacks.
In Marcellus, Marcellus Community Schools will be seeking a five-year renewal of its operating millage, which administratively would be 19.2880 mills, would only levy 18 mills on non-homestead properties.
The current operating millages for all three districts expire in 2025.
Mendon Community Schools Superintendent Leasa Griffith-Mathews said her district’s proposal, like many other similar renewals, is not a new tax, but rather the renewal of a current one that makes up 25 percent of the district’s budget. Approximately $1.7 million will be generated in the first year of the millage if approved.
“It won’t be anything new, there’s no new mills being added to it,” Griffith-Mathews said. “This is for our general fund, and how we operate and how we pay our wages to everyone. … Pretty much, it’s the only way our doors stay open.”
Nottawa Community School Superintendent Jerome Wolff also said his district’s millage covers a quarter of their operating budget. Approximately $607,777 would be generated in the first year of the millage if passed.
“Any school in St. Joseph County that doesn’t have an operational millage would be seriously hurting, so we’re very thankful, just like all the other districts in St. Joseph County, that we have operational millages,” Wolff said.
School operating millages, like the ones in all three locations up for renewal, are not levied on people’s primary residences, but rather on businesses, second homes and rental properties. While the districts are asking for millage rates above the 18-mill threshold, state laws say only 18 mills can and will be levied against those properties, and therefore not increasing the tax rate.
The extra mills are there as an administrative way to work around what’s called the Headlee Amendment, which rolls back a portion of an administratively-listed millage amount if property values increase higher than the rate of inflation in a single year, something that has happened in St. Joseph County for the last few years.
“We know that property values have been increasing quite rapidly here lately, so the information we got was to ask for the 19.5 [mills], but you can only levy up to 18 mills,” Griffith-Mathews said.
Funds from the operating millage, if passed, would be used for many administrative functions of the district, including teacher salaries, school programs, supplies, and benefits. If the millages are not passed, Griffith-Mathews said, it could lead to budget cuts and potentially layoffs of staff.
“It’s all the things you don’t like to talk about right around the corner from school starting, for sure,” Griffith-Mathews said. “Everyone here is extremely important, and every program is extremely important.”
In all, Wolff said, the public will ultimately have the final say on whether or not the requests get approved.
“We’ve been around for many years because local people support their local schools, and we’re really appreciative of that, but we’re not going to tell people how to vote, we can only tell them there’s a vote coming,” Wolff said.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
