Millage renewals on ballot for Clawson, Berkley schools

Voters head to the polls Tuesday

Voters in Clawson and the Berkley Schools district will decide two separate millage renewal proposals in Tuesday’s election.

Clawson voters will decide whether to approve a 3.7-mill renewal as part of the city’s operating millage.

Approval of the millage would restore a 10-year 4.2-mill tax that voters approved for operations in 2012 that expired in December.

Because the millage already expired, City Manager Joseph Rheker said the ballot proposal technically could not be listed as a renewal, but that’s what it is.

The city’s charter allows a maximum city property tax rate of 15 mills. The total millage rate if the proposal passes Tuesday would be 12.85 mills, Rheker said.

Residents would “be paying the same amount of money as before if the millage passes,” Rheker said.

The eight-year millage proposal would raise nearly $1.6 million annually for the city. If the proposal fails, Clawson’s budget would be short that amount of money, officials have said.

The general operating millage funds police, fire, public works, operations and continuation of existing city services.

Clawson has a budget surplus in its general fund, some of it connected to federal American Rescue Plan Act funds disbursed to communities nationwide to offset financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Rheker said the city wants to use those funds for road maintenance.

“There have not been any road projects over the last five or six years, and it’s the number one complaint we hear about,” he said.

Voters in the Berkley Schools district, which includes Huntington Woods and part of Oak Park, are asked to approve a 19.49-mills renewal of the district’s general fund operating millage. The district, however, would only levy up to 18 mills, according to school officials.

The operating millage tax is only levied on business or second-home properties.

Income from the millage is about $3.8 million a year. It is used when the state calculates per-pupil funding amounts for students in Berkley and other Michigan school districts.

“Without this millage, the district would be facing more than a $640 per pupil loss — out of the $8,700 per pupil rate in 2022,” the school district said in a statement on its website.