Troy

Troy millage hike defeated

By Terry Oparka
C & G Staff Writer

TROY — Troy voters said no new taxes by nearly a 2-to-1 margin Feb. 23.

Of the city’s 56,220 registered voters, 12,631 cast ballots opposing a 1.9 mill hike on property taxes, and 7,316 supported the measure, according to unofficial results. About 36 percent of registered voters turned out to participate in the decision, which is a showing historically closer to gubernatorial races. Turnout for City Council and special elections in Troy is historically in the low 20th percentile.

The majority of voters in all 19 precincts and those who cast absentee ballots opposed the tax hike.

The city of Troy issued 7,217 absentee ballots, and 96 percent of those ballots were cast.

Troy City Clerk Tonni Bartholomew said the turnout for this type of election is the highest since 1972, and the highest ever for absentee ballots.

City Manager John Szerlag said that without a revenue boost to city coffers to plug a projected $22 million budget hole over the next five years, the city would lay off 47 people in the Police Department and close the library, the community center, the nature center, the recreation center and the museum.

“It should not and does not need to happen,” said Frank Howrylak — a member of Troy Citizens United, which opposed the millage, and father of Councilman Martin Howrylak — said  of the closure of city facilities and police layoffs.

“I never had any doubt in the people of Troy,” he said. “The turnout was so humbling. People took the facts and responded.”

Mayor Louise Schilling said that while the City Council has to respect the voters’ decision, she believed the outcome was fueled by “false information and lies.”

Resident William Evans wouldn’t say how he voted, but he said that it was difficult to decide how to cast his vote because of the “various things they told us about spending.”

Troy Citizens United said the millage hike was a 29 percent tax increase from the current operating millage of 6.5 mills, a percentage derived by dividing 1.9 by 6.5.

City leaders said that a 1.9 mill increase is 20 percent above the 2009 tax rate, or 3.4 percent with the estimated 12 percent drop in taxable value that most residents would see. A resident with a home with taxable value of $103,000, the average in Troy, would have seen an increase in taxes of $38 with the 1.9 mill increase, according to city officials.

Schilling said the city faces a $6.5 million deficit next year and that she would call for the closure of city facilities at the March 1 City Council meeting.

Troy Police officer John Julian, who joined the Troy Police Department last year, grew up in Troy. He said he left positions with the Detroit and Warren police departments where he had more seniority to take a job with the Troy police.

“I wanted to patrol the streets I grew up on,” he said. His frustration was evident as he monitored election returns. “We’re the safest city in Michigan with the lowest tax rate. Where can you move? There’s a lot of value in Troy.”

The city used a laptop computer system for the election for the first time and reduced election workers at each poll by two people.

The new system will save city staff two to three weeks of work loading voting history into databases, Bartholomew said. It also shifted the waiting time from check in to the vote tabulator. “We didn’t have to pull books or print names.”

Bartholomew estimated the election cost between $60,000 and $70,000, about $40,000 less as a result of consolidating precincts and the new system.

While the results were tabulated a bit later than expected with the new system, “everything is clean and is 100 percent recountable,” Bartholomew said.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Terry Oparka at toparka@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1054.