By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
For fiscal year 2015 Lake Orion village residents will be keeping a little extra dough in their pockets.
On July 1, the annual village millage is decreasing from?10.0176 to 9.9025, or about enough to buy the new and popular series Game of Thrones: Season 5.
For a homeowner with $200,000 taxable value on their property, this equates to about a $30 decrease in taxes.
On the flipside, the decrease will cost the village and the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) a combined total of about $20,000.
‘It’s definitely a big impact for us on a $1.5 million budget,? Village Manager Darwin McClary said.
Why?
This annual savings is brought to you by requirements of the Michigan Headlee Rollback, passed by congress in 1978. The Headlee Rollback requires local units of government to reduce their operating millage rates if annual property value growth exceeds the rate of inflation. ?
The Headlee Rollback also affects a provision under Orion Township’s police millage, of which the village receives a yearly $267,000. In accordance with their agreement with the township, the village is also required to rollback the current police millage of 2 mills.
‘W had to subtract the police millage rate from the maximum that we could levy,? McClary explained
If it weren’t for improvements made to the Village of Lake Orion, and bettering property values in Oakland County, the Headlee Rollback wouldn’t have as much an affect.
In the past year, taxable values on village properties increased from about $109 million to $112 million, McClary said, mainly because of new building. ?
New construction within the village, including multiple homes on Lake Orion and the coming BBQ restaurant at the old village hall, were major contributors. The new restaurant, in the first phase of renovations at 37 E. Flint St., added about $124,000 to the current year’s tax base.
Overall, property values have increased by about two percent, according to the Oakland County Equalization Department.
As for the village
The $20,000 cost in tax loss will have an effect on future improvements. ?
‘It’s a tight budget, and we will basically have no money for capital improvements,? McClary said. ‘The water and sewer fund is an immediate concern of ours, but we also have to decide how to handle funding for street improvements, extensive repairs for the gazebo at Children’s Park, parking lots that need resurfacing, new equipment that needs purchasing’some of our equipment is 20 plus years old. There are a lot of projects that need to be addressed.?
No decisions have been made yet to address the water and sewer fund, which contains a revenue/expenditure gap of about $400,000 walking into fiscal year 2015-16.
‘We cannot kick these cans down the road and expect somebody else to resolve them. We need to make some tough decisions.?
One possible remedy is to smooth out the gap over a three-year period instead of all at once, McClary noted to the council.
‘We need to make sure we are in a good position for the long term.??