OKEMOS — Meridian Township voters on Aug. 5 will weigh in on two separate millage proposals intended to fund a 40,000-square-foot community and senior center proposed for Central Park Drive between the Central Fire Station and the U.S. Post Office.
If both measures pass, the millage rate would go up by slightly more than 0.9 mills, beginning with the December 2025 tax bill, officials said. The proposals are written so that if one passes and the other fails, neither will take effect.
The existing senior center in Chippewa Middle School is scheduled to be demolished in 2027 as part of the Okemos Public Schools reconstruction project. A task force evaluated options, and the township board voted in May to go for a combined community and senior center proposal.
One of the measures is a 0.557-mill construction bond proposal. The other would authorize a 0.347-mill levy to pay for operations.
The owner of a home with the average taxable value of about $152,200 would see a tax increase of $138 per year, township officials said. A typical condominium owner would pay an additional $83 a year, they said.
Details about the proposed new facility are available here.
The Meridian senior center proposal is among four ballot questions on the Aug. 5 special election ballots in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties, including a bond proposal by Bath Community Schools and a special primary election for an open Eaton County Board of Commissioners seat.
Voters in the city of Lansing will decide if they want to renew a 1-mill levy for operating the city’s parks and recreation system. If it passes, the millage would be renewed for five years beginning on July 1, 2026. The city posted these details about the proposal.
In Lansing Township, voters are being asked if they are willing to continue a franchise agreement with the Lansing Board of Water & Light in place since 2012. If passed, the proposal would authorize the collection of a surcharge not to exceed 5% of net revenues from BWL customers for a franchise fee for a term of 30 years.
Similar franchise fees in East Lansing and Delta Township have been controversial.
In 2017, BWL started collecting a 5% franchise fee from East Lansing customers and then passed that on to the city to put in its general fund. James Heos, an East Lansing BWL customer, filed a lawsuit years later to challenge the fee, arguing that it was a tax that wasn’t properly imposed. While the city maintained the tax was legal, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the fee was an illegal tax. East Lansing settled with BWL customers for $7.8 million, about 15% of the city’s roughly $51 million annual budget.
Delta Township also implemented a franchise fee for customers shortly after East Lansing did so in 2017, and in 2020, an Eaton County judge ruled Delta Township’s fee was illegal. A class-action lawsuit was settled, and the township owed BWL customers more than $2 million.
Township officials gave this description in an online posting:
“Lansing Township’s franchise agreement with the LBWL, which was entered into in 2012, governs how the LBWL operates its electric utility within Lansing Township, including how the LBWL can use the public areas within the Township for its infrastructure. Part of the franchise agreement involves the LBWL paying Lansing Township a franchise fee for the use of the Township’s streets, rights-of-way, and other public areas. The intent of the franchise fee is to help compensate the Township for the costs that the Township incurs related to the LBWL’s use of those streets, rights-of-way, and other public areas.”
In Eaton County, voters will see one Democrat and one Republican candidate in a special primary election for an open seat on the Board of Commissioners. The District 1 seat was vacated by former Commissioner Tim Barnes, who resigned for personal reasons early this year, and the rest of the board failed to appoint a successor.
Both candidates will move on to a special election in November. District 1 includes Sunfield, Roxand, Vermontville, and Chester townships.
Meanwhile, voters in the Bath School District will decide the fate of a proposed $26.8 million bond issue to improve facilities, build athletic-support and transportation buildings, buy schools buses and improving playgrounds and athletic fields.
The estimated millage to be levied for the bonds in 2025 would be 3 mills. But if the proposal passes, schools officials said, the debt tax rate is expected to remain at 7 mills, meaning residents would see no increase in their taxes from this year.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Meridian Township senior center, Lansing parks among tax proposals on August ballot
Reporting by Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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