County property owners will be taxed at the maximum allowed by law after action this week by the county Board of Commissioners.
Board members voted Tuesday night to levy 3.2002 mills on July 1 tax bills, down from 3.2520 last year.
In the late 1960s, the State of Michigan made the move from the county Board of Supervisors (11 township supervisors to the Board of Commissioners.)
When this was done, the state authorized a 6.2 millage rate for the county. However, in 1978 state voters approved the Headlee amendment to the Constitution, which limits the growth of local property tax revenues by capping the growth of existing property assessments to the rate of inflation or 5% (whichever is less).
As a result, the county allocation has been reduced by nearly half last year — 6.2 to 3.25 mills. Headlee has reduced the county allocation to 3.2002 for 2026.
Some commissioners would like to see the millage cut further.
“We can afford to have people keep their own money,” said District 3 commissioner Will Bunek, a fiscal conservative.
Leelanau’s 3.2-mill levy is already among the lowest tax rates in the state.
However, commissioners questioned the wisdom of reducing the millage further based on a number of unknowns.
“We are just going into the budget process and we talked about how tight the budget was,” District 4 commissioner Ty Wessell said.“Our treasurer has told us that our cash flow is an issue … We have high property values, but we are not excessively taxing our population. We are providing the services we need.”
The “structural deficit” is most evident in cash flow before taxes are collected July 1.
District 1 commissioner Rick Robbins also questioned a further rollback.
“I think we should keep it where it is (3.2002),” he said. “We don’t know what we’re doing with insurance for our employees… We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire.”
District 5 commissioner Alan Campbell supported the proposed levy. However, he suggested setting aside $200,000 for a “nest egg.”
“I’m fine with allocating the rate, but unofficially we are close to a structural budget deficit,” Campbell said. “I’d rather reduce the tax rate, but I don’t like the idea of increasing revenue.”
The 3.2002 millage is expected to bring in an additional $540,000 into county coffers.
After much discussion, commissioners agreed on the 3.2002 levy. But they also agreed to include a $400,000 “nest egg” in the 2027 budget.
