November 2014 Local Road Tax Election Results
80 Percent Of Local Road Taxes Approved; Bonding, Sinking Props Do Ok
Michigan Information and Research Service
November 4, 2014
Voters approved 80 percent of the 75 road millage asks across the state tonight, according to a MIRSreview of local proposal data. A spreadsheet of the proposals is here.
That’s the same percentage of local roads-related proposals that passed back in the August primary (See “80% Of New Local Tax Proposals Approved, 99% Of Renewals Pass,” 8/5/14).
Also, bonding proposals succeeded 66 percent of the time and sinking funds proposals passed at a 67 percent clip.
MIRS analyzed data for the 400-plus local elections across the state, but not all results were available Wednesday morning or the count was too close to tell based on the available data.
As usual, millage increases were a bit harder to stomach than a simple renewal. Of the 164 increasesMIRS analyzed, 76 percent succeeded. However, 163 of the 166 millage renewals MIRS had results for succeeded, which is a 98 percent success rate.
But bonding issues were a bit more of a challenge. Some of the big bonding asks, in terms of dollars, did pass. Those were Southfield in Oakland County ($99 million ask) and a pair from Mattawan Consolidated Schools in Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties ($62.3 million and $16.2 million).
But a bonding proposal amounting to $19.9 million for Wayne County’s Riverview Community School District fell through, while another Wayne County school’s request — Melvindale-Northern Allen Park for $14.2 million — had results that were too close to tell but were trending toward a no from voters.
Sinking funds got by at a 67 percent rate, as 12 of the 18 proposals made the grade.
Roads and police scored worse, percentage-wise, than the other major types of tax requests, including schools, fire, emergency services, veterans, libraries and parks.
Only 77 percent of police proposals passed, but that was 10 out of 13 total police-related proposals. Emergency services did well; 23 of the 24 proposals MIRS had data for passed and fire-related proposals scored 85 percent.
Otherwise, 86 percent of the available results for school proposals made the grade. For libraries, 20 of the 24 proposals MIRS had on hand succeeded while seven of the eight park proposals MIRS analyzed claimed victory.
As in past elections, the six veterans services-related proposals went 100 percent approved. Ballot proposals benefiting senior citizens also batted 1.000, going eight for eight.
