Union Township returning $513,000 in tax capture to local entities

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Union Township officials will return $513,000 to entities previously subject to tax capture, after a 5-2 Wednesday vote.

The consolidation of the East and West Downtown Development Authorities into the Economic Development Authority allowed the Union Township Board of Trustees to return money to groups that had portions of their millages captured over the 35 years the DDAs existed.

The Isabella County Commission on Aging, Isabella County Transportation Commission, Mount Pleasant Public Schools and the Chippewa River District Library will all have some money returned in the next year.

County Commissioner Jim Moreno thanked the board for their actions during public comment.

“It’s a hard thing to make changes, but it’s what the people wanted. What you did tonight is really going to be appreciated,” Moreno said. “We hope there will be lots more creativity, lots more thinking out of the box and lots more collaboration.”

Half of the money will come from money earmarked for each DDA, though Treasurer Pam Stovak said the WDDA area may have trouble paying their bonds if they were cut so close.

She recommended the board take more captured money from the EDDA portion of the funding, since the EDDA captured more and had fewer expenses.

“I think that the principal of returning some of the tax capture is the right thing … I just think that we’re cutting the West DDA really close,” she said. “We don’t want to have bond payment and have them not be able to pay their bills.”

The EDA is returning half of the money captured in 2009, a number decided by Union Township Supervisor John Barker. The EDA will make the return this year and experiment with what is sustainable over the next two years.

One of the changes may be to return different percentages from each DDA’s jurisdiction. This would only change the amount returned to the Mount Pleasant Public Schools, Stovak said. Only the WDDA was capturing taxes intended for the schools.

“We’re still a township in transition in an economy in transition,” Barker said. “This is doable today. What will be doable five, six months down the road is (unknown).”

Other business

Union Township approved the addition of Isabella County to the library agreement, expanding outreach and changing the Chippewa River District Library board.

Isabella County will place three directors on the board, a decision based on population, said Lise Mitchell, executive director of library services for Chippewa River District Library. The township will lose one of its two board members. Mount Pleasant and the school board will still each appoint two board members.

The question will be placed on the ballot for county residents this fall, Mitchell said. They will have to approve a 1.75 millage for the county to join the library agreement.
“By increasing it to a larger geographical area we would be able to leverage it into a lower millage,” she said. “Our goal is to stabilize library services and also decrease taxes for everybody.”

If the county approves the amendment the library plans to decrease the millage to 1.23 or 1.25, Mitchell said.