Your commissioners lied about raising taxes
This article was also published as a guest column on The Livingston Post
If there’s one thing that defines Livingston County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri, it’s his promise never, ever to raise taxes; it’s his so-called “taxpayer protection pledge.” It’s probably the one thing that keeps even Republicans who hate the circus that he has turned the Board into voting for him. His tax pledge was one of the first things he ever told me about when I first met him, and it was his excuse for why we can’t make public transportation better in the county.
Fast forward 3 months to the board of commissioners meeting on August 28, 2023. A resolution is on the table to increase the veteran’s millage by 36%. People were distracted at the time by issues they felt were more important to them, such as being afraid of COVID vaccines, but with Wes upholding his promise to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes” the resolution only passed 8-1, his being the lone “no” vote.
Wait, no, sorry. I was looking at the wrong resolution. It actually passed 9-0, with all commissioners, including Wes, voting yes, putting his grand promise in the “broken” category. Don’t get me wrong: increasing this millage was quite necessary, but it really concerned me when he just threw away his promise like that when it suited him. Wanting to have it both ways, he never bothered to update his website to reflect the increased rate.
So how exactly does the board get to increase the property tax like that?
Well, it turns out that, even from the very beginning, the Veterans Services millage has never been levied in full. Despite the voters of Livingston County approving a .139 mill levy, only .1127 mills ended up being levied. So when it came time to renew the millage in 2022, naturally, the board of commissioners only asked the voters for that .1127. However, notwithstanding their claim to really care about veterans, the commissioners decided to cut the millage in half that year to .0564, so that’s what property owners ended up paying that year.
Fast-forward to 2023, and the county finds the millage a little bit too much. So the commissioners decided to increase it. As Wes so helpfully added to the text of the final resolution, “in November 2022 voters approved a millage of up to .1127 mils by a vote of 63.79% yes to 36.21% no.” So if increasing taxes when voters voted “yes” on that rate is okay, then his promise is nothing more than a promise to do what the Headlee Amendment of the Michigan constitution already requires of all boards of commissioners, regardless of political party.
However, it gets worse
The halved veterans millage was approved by the board of commissioners on November 14, 2022. However, the 2023 budget that the Board adopted 2 weeks later simply pretends that this halving never happened, the only mention being a little asterisk next to the .1127 saying that, “The Board of Commissioners, on November 14, 2022, approved and authorized the veterans operating millage to levied [sic] on the winter tax bill at a rate of .0564 mills.” The budgeted tax revenue for the veterans service fund was $1,307,963. However, the 2023 Financial Statement shows the reality: The true tax revenue for the veterans services fund was $608,125 because the Board had halved the millage.
The Board amended the 2023 budget 5 times in 2023. One of those amendments even increased the total revenue of the veterans services fund a bit. The 2024 budget still pretends that the halving of the veterans millage never happened, the only mention still being that one asterisk. However, it also includes the following sentence in the budget memorandum:
“The total proposed millage rate for 2024 is 3.5695, down from the 2023 total millage rate of 3.6052.”
This sentence is wrong. What it should say is:
“The total proposed millage rate for 2024 is 3.5695, up from the 2023 total millage rate of 3.5489.”
An election year change of heart
This past Monday, August 26, the board of commissioners voted to raise the veterans millage again. The commissioners waited until the last minute so that this tax hike wouldn’t be an issue in this year’s primary election.
Despite having voted to raise the millage last year, Commissioners Drick, Nakagiri, and Fiani attempted to amend this week’s resolution to keep the veterans millage at its existing rate, but they were outvoted. All three then voted against approving the millage. After allowing a larger increase last year when there were even more funds in reserve, this time Nakagiri and Drick argued that it has more than enough funds in reserve.
The only thing that has changed between last year and this year is that there is an election coming up in November. So now we know: Nakagiri’s grand campaign promise only matters when an election is about to happen.
At the end of the day, I believe our property taxes are a reflection of the values of the community. We have an EMS millage and a veteran services millage because we, the people of Livingston County, value those things. The Headlee Amendment applies to every county board, regardless of what party runs it. That means that any tax increase must be approved by voters. But when the current board realized they could go around this requirement because they had been underfunding the millage below what voters approved, they did, and then they proceeded to oppose a smaller increase a year later with everyone watching more closely.