Two millage renewals placed on August ballot

By Dana Casadei

Two separate Bloomfield Township millage renewals – one for the public safety millage (number1), the other for the road millage – will be on this year’s primary ballot in August.

Clerk Martin Brook presented the renewal issues to the township board of trustees at their meeting on Monday, May 12.

“We have three public safety millages, and this is the third renewal that we’ve addressed in the last several years,” Brook said. “All three will have been put to the voters for renewal.”

The public safety millage request is for a 10-year renewal, with the current millage set to expire in 2026. It is a renewal of the already rolled back amount to continue the same process, trustee Chris Kolinski said. 

If approved by voters, the public safety millage will renew up to 1.8428 mills, which would result in the authorization to collect $11,014,437 in the first year. This millage would help continue financing the township’s public safety services, such as fire and police.

Adding the road millage renewal to the August ballot was also passed unanimously by the board. Much like the public safety millage, the road millage is a renewal of the current road tax for a period of 10 years. The current road millage is set to expire in 2026.

The road millage would help Bloomfield Township continue to fund road maintenance, and would renew up to .6575 mills. This would result in the authorization to collect $3,929,885 in the first year. 

Brook, along with trustees Neal Barnett and Kolinski, emphasized that both of these are not increases but renewals of already existent millages. 

“It can not be emphasized enough that it’s a renewal because there will be people in the community who will either intentionally or unintentionally claim that it’s a new millage or an increased millage, but it is a renewal,” Barnett said.

Both millages were last renewed in August of 2016.