Five Oakland County communities are facing a public safety emergency after taxpayers revolted against fire and police millages in the Aug. 4 election.
Voters in Brandon, Highland, Independence, Orion and Waterford townships turned down a total of eight millages aimed at funding police or fire, or in some cases, both. As a result, leaders in those communities are scrambling as they call emergency meetings to figure out what is next.
“This is not fearmongering,” said Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett, whose township board is holding an emergency town hall meeting at 4 p.m. on Aug. 7. “Effective January 1st, Orion Township has zero revenue coming into the township for police or fire revenue. Nothing.”
The township had sought 3.85 mills for four years for a fire operating millage, but voters narrowly turned it down, with a vote of 51% no to 49% yes. The proposed 3.75 mills for police service, provided by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, lost by a much larger margin, with 59% of voters saying no to only 41% yes.
While Barnett said the township never takes anything for granted, the votes left him “shocked.”
It was a sentiment shared by the other township supervisors as well, long accustomed to tax requests for police and fire departments receiving bipartisan backing in their communities.
Highland Township Supervisor Rick Hamill said the township had never had a police or fire millage fail until Tuesday, when voters defeated a 2.32 mill request for fire and emergency medical services.
“People are tired of paying property taxes,” Hamill said, expressing exasperation with low turnout and voters whom he believes have received misinformation from social media. “We asked for a half-mill increase and lost by 135 votes … They don’t realize they voted down an operating millage and we have no money to pay employees.”
The Highland Township Board will meet Monday, the day before the deadline to submit November ballot language to the county clerk. Hamill said the issue must go before voters again this fall or the township “won’t have a fire department.”
The Waterford Township Board will hold a special meeting on Friday, Aug. 7 to discuss the future of “this critical public safety funding,” Supervisor Anthony Bartolotta wrote in an email after voters denied a 1-mill fire operating request by 92 votes and rejected a request for 1.5 mills for police service, with 55% voting no to 45% yes. Another 1-mill fire operating request narrowly passed with 53% yes to 47% no.
“Waterford voters have historically been very supportive of public safety funding, so it is unusual that two of these millage proposals weren’t approved,” Bartolotta said. “It’s too early to know for sure why, but some factors could be voter fatigue with five millage proposals on the ballot, complex ballot language, or financial pressures many families are facing with the rising costs of basic necessities.”
Also on the ballot in Waterford Township was an operating millage for the local school district that was defeated, as well as the regional school enhancement millage that was defeated by voters countywide.
Brandon Township Supervisor Jayson Rumball believes the voters are “fed up and tapped out” with countywide millages and schools “constantly coming for more taxes.”
He attributes that exhaustion to why a renewal request of 4.25 mills for eight years for police services was rejected by a margin of 146 votes in a township Rumball said has historically supported police millages, with 70 percent in favor.
Although voters last passed the police millage in 2018 with about 61% support, Rumball said a 20-point swing in the other direction was not foreseen, and he doesn’t know what the township will do now.
The township’s contract with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, which has increased prices, extends through the end of 2027, but without the millage, he said the township only has funds to last about six months to pay 11 deputies and two command officers.
Independence Township, which also contracts with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office for police services, also had two public safety millages rejected by voters on Tuesday.
The first was 3.2 mills for police protection, which failed with 54% no votes to 46% yes. The second was a new .32 mills to be used for school resource officers in the Clarkston Community Schools, which failed with 57% voting no to 43% yes.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he believes the rejections of the public safety millages are a result of stressed people feeling the pinch of rising costs, but he believes they still want law enforcement.
“The communities aren’t saying they don’t want to be policed; it’s just a conversation at what level,” he said. “Costs have increased to communities all across the country. … We have seen millages fail in the past and usually they go back and look at what they ask for.”
Bouchard said perhaps a community makes the decision to not have a deputy in school protecting kids. A community might also choose to have fewer deputies on patrol, but he notes that will result in slower response times.
Before the sheriff’s office took over policing in Pontiac 15 years ago, Bouchard observed that it sometimes took up to 80 minutes for police to respond to an emergency. Now, he said, all priority calls are six minutes or less.
Bouchard observed a lot of signs before this election that said “Vote no on every tax,” but said citizens need to understand the consequences of that, which would be a reduction in response times.
Ultimately, he added, voters need to be educated on the millages and what the money is used for.
Barnett said he remains upbeat that the police and fire millages will pass in Orion Township with more education.
There are only two ways in Michigan to fund public safety, he and Hamill noted. One is through a voter-approved millage. The other is through a special assessment district, which doesn’t require voter approval. Through an SAD, every voter would pay the same amount for the cost of the service, regardless, Barnett said, if they were a senior citizen living in a condo on a fixed income or a millionaire residing in a waterfront mansion.
He doesn’t believe an SAD would be the best option.
“We don’t want the government to step in; it’s up to residents of the township to choose these services,” Barnett said.
Hamill said Highland Township will be asking residents again to take care of their fire department because “they are important.”
The Highland Township Fire Department more than proved its worth to Hamill when he broke his back falling off his roof while making repairs in October 2024. An ambulance arrived within six minutes.
“It paid for me,” Hamill said. “When you vote no, what do you have?”
Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Emergency in Oakland County after multiple police, fire millages fail
Reporting by Susan Bromley, Hometownlife.com / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Susan Bromley, Hometownlife.com | USA TODAY Network
