By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
WHITE PIGEON — Voters in the White Pigeon Community Schools district will once again have a say in whether the non-homestead operating millage for their district can continue.
On Tuesday, May 6, the district will have an operating millage renewal on the ballot, the only ballot measure in St. Joseph County in the May election.
The proposal requests a six-year continuation of the 18 mills on non-homestead properties in the district, which is required for the district to receive its full per-pupil foundation allowance. The operating millage, which has been in place since 1994, accounts for 56 percent of the White Pigeon Community Schools budget.
“If this doesn’t pass, in which the community has always supported this since 1994, 56 percent of our budget is gone,” WPCS Superintendent Shelly McBride said. In 2018, the last time the millage was on the ballot, it was passed with 61 percent of the vote.
The millage is placed not on primary residences, but on anything that is not the first home of an individual, thus the term “non-homestead.” That includes second homes, farms, and businesses. McBride said the millage being 56 percent is “unique,” since the school district, which goes “from Klinger Lake all the way to Union and the lakes” in Cass County, has “lots” of those kinds of properties.
While 18 mills will be levied on those taxes, as is the maximum allowed to be levied by the district and would not change anyone’s tax bill in terms of the millage rate, administratively the proposal would increase the millage rate to 19.4672 mills as a way to offset reductions in the levy required by the Headlee Amendment, which requires districts to lower the non-homestead operating millage rate when property values grow faster than the rate of inflation.
“The ballot language asks for 19.4 [mills] for a period of six years, and that’s in case the property values increase, and we are able to stay at that 18. It means we’re levying less than 18 mills if we were to ask for 18. It allows us to levy up to 19, but it’s really only 18 mills,” McBride said.
According to the text of the proposal, the 18 mills that would be levied under the renewal would be approximately $4,268,865. The money, McBride said, would be used primarily to pay their teachers and staff and pay for both academic and athletic programs.
“The biggest one, when you talk about operations, is our teachers and staff. That’s where this goes, and that’s what this is. People think about, obviously electric and stuff like that, but the biggest pot of an operating budget is your people,” McBride said.
The millage up for renewal actually expired with the 2024 tax levy, due to the district prioritizing their bond proposal in the November election, which passed with 55.8 percent of the votes. McBride said this move was based on recommendations from residents in the district.
“[The bond] was supposed to be May, and this in November, but there was a lot of support for that and getting the information out, and it worked out,” McBride said. “We kind of rode the wave of everyone wanting to know more about it, and we did. We were successful with support in both St. Joe County and in Cass County for that bond, and we’re so thankful for that. That’s what led to this being on the ballot in May.”
In all, McBride said the big thing voters should consider when they’re in the ballot box May 6 is that supporting the school district is the same as supporting the White Pigeon community at large.
“This community employs people here, your children go here, your grandkids go to school here. Our buildings and grounds are used for all sorts of community events and organizations and youth sports leagues outside of just the school,” McBride said. “This vote is to support all of those things, not a new gym. Of course, we think those things are important, but this vote is different. This is basically to ensure for the next six years our doors would be open.”
Three municipalities, one in St. Joseph County and two in Cass County, will decide the fate of the millage renewal. Voters in White Pigeon Township will cast their vote at the White Pigeon Township Hall at 16975 U.S. 12 in White Pigeon. In Cass County, voters in Porter Township and Mason Township will cast their votes at the Porter Township Hall at 69373 Baldwin Prairie Rd. in Union.
Pollis will be open on May 6 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
