Max Bryan
The Detroit News
(TNS)
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how much Troy taxpayers would pay for every $1,000 of assessed property value if the bond passes.
Troy — For the first time in more than two and a half decades, Oakland County’s largest city is seeking a property tax increase to make what city officials said are needed public infrastructure improvements, including a new library nearly double the current one.
Voters in Troy will decide Nov. 4 whether to approve a 1.1327 mill property tax increase, which would allow the city to borrow up to $137 million in bonds that would be paid back over 20 years. The bond money would be used to build a new library, improve parks and recreation facilities, rehabilitate roads, and replace fire engines and police body cameras.
Troy currently has a combined millage of 9.8640 for operational costs, capital projects, and refuse and library services, according to city records. The increase would constitute just under $1.10 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
That means a Troy homeowner with a taxable value of $175,000 would on pay an average of $198 more per year in taxes.
If the proposed millage were to pass, it would be the city’s first increase since 1999, said Troy Mayor Ethan Baker. The city would have tried to pass the bond proposal a few years earlier if the Troy School District hadn’t had its own bond proposal at the time, the mayor said.
“There’s no question that those communities in Oakland County and Metro Detroit that were built up heavily over the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are facing a time when their buildings are in disrepair to some level and more funds are needed to bring everything up to the standard that our residents are expecting,” Baker said.
Troy, Oakland County’s largest city with about 88,000 residents, is the latest Metro Detroit to ask voters to approve bond proposals to pay for infrastructure and other updates — with mixed results.
Novi voters approved a $120 million bond in the August primary to build a new public safety headquarters, rebuild two fire stations and renovate a third over 25 years. But in Livonia, voters soundly rejected a $150 million bond proposal to pay for a new police station, fire station renovations, fire station upgrades and public green space.
Livonia’s measure failed by a two-to-one margin, with some critics saying the city was asking for too much at once.
Baker said the regional push for public projects funded by tax bonds is coincidental, but not surprising.
An estimated three-quarters of bond proposals in southeast Michigan pass at the ballot box, said Michael Spence, the government affairs manager for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. Communities are more likely to successfully pass a millage increase if they’re specific about what the tax dollars will do, Spence said. Bond renewals are more successful at the ballot box compared with new bond packages like the one in Troy, he added.
Baker said he and other city officials expect a number of “no” votes on the millage increase. But he also believes there’s a “comfortable majority” of Troy residents who are willing to pay more for enhanced services and infrastructure. There is no organized opposit