HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Jul. 17, 2025) – Voters will be asked to go to the polls in less than three weeks, but the city of Holland is already looking ahead to the November 4th general municipal election.
During Wednesday night’s bimonthly City Council meeting, members unanimously approved language for a proposal on that ballot that would ask for a permanent override of the Headlee tax limitation to the city charter’s maximum threshold of 17.5 mills. The city has not levied such a rate in the past, and since 2011, the rate has remained constant at just under 14 mills, according to Mayor Nathan Bocks.
However, if such an override isn’t approved, the state amendment put together by the late conservative activist Richard Headlee would knock that threshold to below 14 mills in the future. something that Fifth Ward Councilman/Mayor Pro Temp Scott Corbin believes would be disastrous.
Also during the meeting in Chambers at Holland City Hall: council members unanimously approved a fee and charge schedule for the still under construction Ice Park at Window on the Waterfront Park, a facility that is slated to open this fall; unanimously awarded a $189,500 bid by UNEX to purchase 736,000 tulip bulbs for next year’s Tulip Time Festival, which is more than $54,000 that the city had initially budgeted for this, although Tulip Time and Holland in Bloom plan to pay some of that cost; and former mayor Nancy DeBoer, a current state House Representative, presented a tribute from the legislature to the city’s firefighter of the year Angela Lound, and police officer of the year Spencer Slenk.
An online link to the agenda and supporting documents is here.
be careful what you vote for!