School district to give it one more shot for a millage renewal

The Hamtramck School District is seeking voter approval once again for a property tax millage renewal that will fund ongoing repairs to the district’s school buildings. Hamtramck voters overwhelmingly rejected the millage last week in the primary election.

By Charles Sercombe
As the American proverb goes: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
And that’s just what the Hamtramck Public School District is doing in order to win voter approval for a “sinking fund” millage renewal request.
At a special Board of Education meeting Monday, the board agreed to seek ballot language approval by the state Attorney General’s Office to allow another millage proposal to appear on the Nov. 7 General Election.
Last week, the school district received a brutal rejection of the millage,by a 2-to1 margin, in the primary election.
The board’s action on Monday was cutting it close to the wire in meeting the deadline for state approval of the ballot language. The deadline for submitting ballot proposals was the next day, Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 4 p.m.
The board’s regular monthly meeting was last Wednesday, the day after the primary election, and it is unclear why the ballot renewal language was not taken up by the board at that time, instead of waiting for a special meeting the day before the November ballot deadline.
As it turned out, the board barely met the minimum number of boardmembers to hold a meeting. Out of the seven board members, only four attended the meeting, the minimum number of members needed for a quorum, or in other words, to conduct official business.
The board took care of the ballot issue in minutes without comment. The millage renewal in question is for 3 mills, which is one mill less than the previous millage rate.
There is, obviously, no guarantee the second attempt at winning voter approval will succeed. There has been a growing anti-tax sentiment among a number of local voters.
The leading anti-tax advocate is city council candidate — and former school boardmember — Nasr Hussain.
Hussain has argued that since the school district has recently received about $6 million extra in state funding, there is no need for the tax. However, that additional state funding is earmarked for specific needs, not what the sinking fund is spent on.
This sinking fund millage is strictly limited to being used for repairing and updating buildings, making security improvements, and updating technology, among other items.
If approved, the life of the millage renewal would be once again for up to 10 years, and it would generate $760,000 a year.
Posted Aug. 18, 2023