HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – Ottawa County residents will cast their votes Tuesday, August 2 on the Herrick District Library Millage Levy Replacement.
The current millage expires in 2016. A new millage is being sought to replace that funding after the current levy expires. The expiring levy has two components, one for operations and one for debt retirement. According to Sara DeVries, Community Relations Manager for the library, the debt retirement will be paid off soon so the new millage levy will be used entirely for operations.
“It can be confusing when you get to the ballot and read the language we’re required to use by State law.” says DeVries.
“It is a renewal in the sense that it’s the same amount of money that people approved 20 years ago and it’s also what we and the Ottawa County Parks Department are calling a restore. We are not currently getting 1.5 mills even though Ottawa County voters agreed in the last election to that. It’s because of a law in the state of Michigan that limits the rise in property taxes to the rate of inflation. So when we had the recession in 2008/2009 and most property values have returned to their previous level, but taxes are still only incrementally higher than they were during that recession. So we are just asking people to restore up to the 1.5 mills that they agreed to. At the moment people are paying about 1.2 mills to Herrick District Library.” Devries told WHTC Morning News.
DeVries says it’s a tax increase over what people are paying now ,but not an increase over what they voted to paid.
Devries says last year 1.4 million items were checked out or downloaded and there were over 780,000 visits to the library.
A home owner with a home valued at $150,000 currently pays approximately $93 per year. With the funding level restored to 1.5 mills, that home owner would seen an increase of $19.58.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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