The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners approved the millage rates for the county’s senior services, road and highways maintenance, and early childhood programs at their Tuesday regular meeting.
Leelanau County residents voted to renew these millages in the Aug. 6 primary elections, allowing the county to levy property taxes for the county road and highways and senior services for two years, from 2024 to 2025. The early childhood program was also renewed for a five-year period, from 2025 to 2029, in this election.
But the county commissioners did not set the final 2024 tax rates until their September sessions. The road and senior millages will be levied at the maximum allowed amounts by votes – 0.5000 and 0.3200 mills respectively – but the early childhood millage will be levied at 0.2000 mills out of a total authorized rate of 0.2530.
Interim County Administrator Richard Lewis said that a 0.2000 tax rate will provide enough cash flow to support the budgeted early childhood programs through 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, so there was no need to levy the full amount.
According to executive documents, the taxable value of all properties in Leelanau County is about $3.9 billion as of May 28. This means that early childhood millage could collect slightly under $790,000 when it’s levied Dec. 1.
The county board did something similar last year when they only levied enough tax dollars to cover the early childhood program’s $671,488 budget, which was a 0.1861 levy out of a maximum allowable 0.2458 mills. The maximum allowable tax rate went up 0.0072 mills because the Headlee rollback was restored, per the August ballot language.
The county’s early childhood program, also known as Parenting Communities, is administered by the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department. Director of Personal Health Michelle Klein said in March that the program’s budget may increase by 5% each year “to offset increased costs for personnel and continued growth in the number of families we serve.”
Klein also told the county board in March that the early childhood program impacted 377 children under the age of six years old from 212 families in Leelanau County last year. She said they had met their goal of getting 350 children to participate in at least one Parenting Communities opportunity by the end of the year.
The senior services tax rate also went up, from 0.3134 to 0.3200 mills, with the restoration of the previously authorized reduced millage of 0.066 mills. According to the ballot language, this will raise an estimated $1,154,945 in the first calendar year of the levy, based on the taxable value of all properties in the unit as of May.
The roads and highways maintenance and repair millage, on the other hand, stayed at the same millage level that’s been approved every two years since 1986: 0.5000 mills. According to executive documents, it was unaffected by the Headlee rollbacks. It will raise an estimated $1,804,601 in the first calendar year, according to the millage proposal.
At their May 2024 regular session, the county board approved the operating millage at the rate of 3.3083 mills. This was levied through the county’s summer tax bills July 1.
