By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
Electors will be nominating several county wide and state wide candidates on Tuesday,?’August 5.
With four separate proposals, Township Clerk Penny Shults says voters should make sure to flip over the ballot form when voting at all regular precincts for the primary election.
Sample ballots are available at the township website:’http://oriontownship.org/.
The primary election is a partisan election’voters may only vote one party section, unlike the general election in November.
Elephants
On the Republican side, Lake Orion voters will be nominating five candidates for the following offices:
Governor: Rick Snyder
United States senator: Terri Lynn Land
Representative in congress 8th’District: Tom McMillin or Mike Bishop
State senator Twelfth District: Bob Gray or Jim Marleau
Representative in state legislature 46th’District: John Reilly or Bradford Jacobsen
County commissioner First District: Michael Gingell or James Goebel
Voters will be electing four delegates to the county convention.
Delegates: John Garlicki, Kathy Garlicki, Ron Porter
Donkeys
On the flip side, Democrats will have a choice of five candidates.
Governor: Mark Schauer
U.S. Senator: Gary Peters
Eighth District Representative: Either Susan Grettenberger, Jeffrey Hank, Eric Schertzing or Ken Darga
Twelfth District State Senator: Paul Secrest or Kenneth VanNorwick
46th’District State Representative: David Jay Lillis
County commissioner: Torri Mathis
Orion Township, Village and Dragons
No township, village or school board positions are up for grabs in the primary election. The general election’will be held on November 4.
Other voter information
All voters may vote in their precincts Tuesday, August 5 from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
If you are not able to vote on the date of the election, an absentee ballot may be picked up from the clerk’s office at 2525 Joslyn Rd. until?4 p.m. on Monday, August 4.
The last day for Clerk Shults to mail residents absentee ballots is’Saturday, August 2, so if an absentee ballot is picked up’Monday, August 4’the voter must fill it out in person.
The clerk’s office will be open’Saturday, August 2 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.’for absent voter processing.
Absentee ballots must be presented to the clerk’s office. They cannot be taken to precincts.
Proposals
Orion Township and village residents will also consider four separate proposals. Three of the questions are located on the front and one on the back of the ballot.
Proposal 14-1
More commonly known as proposal 1, this act would either approve or disapprove the reduction of the state Use Tax and replace it with a local community stabilization share.
Exact wording:
‘Approval or disapproval of amendatory act to reduce state use tax and replace with a local community stabilization share to modernize the tax system? and? to help small businesses grow and create jobs.?
If adopted by the legislature, ballot language indicates the act would:
1. Reduce the state use tax and replace with a local community stabilization share of the tax for the purpose of modernizing the tax system to help small businesses grow and create jobs in Michigan.
2. Require Local Community Stabilization Authority to provide revenue to local governments dedicated for local purposes, including police safety, fire protection, and ambulance emergency services.
3. Increase portion of state use tax dedicated for aid to local school districts.
4. Prohibit Authority from increasing taxes.
5. Prohibit total use tax rate from exceeding existing constitutional 6% limitation.
‘As of December 31, 2013 businesses with less than $80,000 in true cash value of personal property filed an affidavit and received an exemption for that year. If that proposal does not pass, that will go away in 2015,? Shults said. ‘That’s where people are pulling in the personal property of it, but there’s more to this proposal than just that. They are making communities whole that are losing the revenue that they would have received for the personal property taxes lost from those businesses less than $80,000.?
Shults?’suggests voters should review the state ballot issues at the Citizens Research Council website:’www.crcmich.org/.
Proposed Additional Fire Operation Millage
One of two fire millage proposals, the first would provide 24/7/365 coverage to Orion Township by hiring an additional 10 full-time first responders in addition to the six full-time firefighters to cover the township’s 36 square miles. One mill would be levied starting in December 2014 for two years.
Exact wording:
Shall the Charter Township of Orion be authorized to levy an additional one (1) mill for a period of 2 years beginning December 2014 and expiring December 2015, inclusive, to provide fire protection services to serve the Charter Township of Orion and the Village of Lake Orion, but limited to the operation and maintenance of the Orion Township Fire Department; including, the hiring of personnel and payment of wages and benefits. Approval of this proposal would authorize the levy of approximately $1.00 per $1,000 of taxable value on all taxable property in the Township and the Village of Lake Orion, a portion of which will be disbursed to the Village of Lake Orion Downtown Development Authority. It is estimated that this proposal would result in authorization to collect approximately $1,312,025.39 in the first year if approved and levied. A property with a taxable value of $50,000 would be taxed $50.00 for this millage per year.
The Orion Township Fire Department has determined there were 11,088 hours in 2013 in which full-time response members were not stationed at any of the four Orion Township fire stations but when part-time firefighters remained on call. This proposal would ensure the full coverage.
Proposed Additional Fire Capital and Equipment Millage
The second millage proposal of the fire department would fund the construction of a new fire hall off Giddings Rd. as well as the updating of fire equipment. Replacement of the current aerial truck from 1974 is close to $1 million.
Exact wording:
Shall the Charter Township of Orion be authorized to levy an additional one (1) mill for a period of 5 years beginning December 2014 and expiring December 2018, inclusive, to provide fire protection services to serve the Charter Township of Orion and the Village of Lake Orion, but limited to the capital and equipment expenditures of the Orion Township Fire Department; including the construction of new fire stations and purchase of vehicles. Approval of this proposal would authorize the levy of approximately $1.00 per $1,000 of taxable value on all taxable property in the Township and the Village of Lake Orion, a portion of which will be disbursed to the Village of Lake Orion Downtown Development Authority. It is estimated that this proposal would result in authorization to collect approximately $1,312,025.39 in the first year if approved and levied. A property with a taxable value of $50,000 would be taxed $50.00 for this millage per year.
If both millages are passed by voters, a household with a taxable value of $100,000 would pay an additional $200 a year. The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) would capture approximately $30,000 each, or $60,000 a year if both millages are passed according to state statue.
The existing 0.98 fire millage was established in 1960 and has not been increased or decreased since that time.
North Oakland Transportation Authority Millage Proposal
The North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) is making a first-ever request for Orion, Oxford and Addison townships to approve a .25 millage to continue operations of the important bus service for area seniors, low income and disabled residents.
NOTA has provided door-to-door handicapped transportation service for a nominal fee of $1 or $2 each way within northern Oakland County’for seniors, disabled and low income residents of Orion, Oxford and Addison Townships since 2001.
Federal transportation grants that covered more than 50 percent of the NOTA budget will be ineligible for NOTA next year, resulting in the severe cutting of drivers, buses and operational services. Currently about 13 buses are in operation, which would be diminished to six or seven.
The millage would only cover existing operational expenses and services and replacement of vehicles.
Exact wording:
Shall the Charter Township of Orion, consistent with Article IX, Sec. 6 of the Michigan Constitution, be authorized to levy a new millage up to .25 mills ($.25 per $1,000.00) on the taxable value of property located in the Charter Township of Orion for a period of 5 years from 2014 – 2018 both inclusive, which will raise in the first year of such levy an estimated revenue of $336,000 which shall be disbursed to the North Oakland Transportation Authority (and, of which, a portion will be disbursed to the Village of Lake Orion Downtown Development Authority) for the purpose of the North Oakland Transportation Authority supplementing the existing capital and operating expenses of the North Oakland Transportation Authority due to the loss of state, federal and other grants.