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ROSEVILLE — When Roseville residents vote in the Nov. 4 election, they will be asked whether they support a Roseville Public Library millage renewal proposal.
The current 10-year millage will expire Dec. 31, 2025. Residents have paid on the millage for the last 10 years. What is on the ballot is not a new tax, but a renewal, which will begin Jan. 1, 2026, if voters approve it.
According to the ballot language provided by the Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds, if the renewal passes, the city will be authorized to levy annually an amount not to exceed .4622 mill ($0.4622 per each $1,000 of taxable value) against all taxable property in the City for 10 years, from 2026 through 2035. Residents will be taxed 46 cents for every $1,000 of their home’s taxable value.
According to Roseville City Assessor Brook Openshaw, if the library millage renewal passes, the average taxpayer will pay $22.18 per year, which is the same tax they are paying now. According to Openshaw, the taxable value of the average home in Roseville is $48,000. The taxable value is the value on which property taxes are calculated. It is not the market value of the home.
If the renewal passes Nov. 4, it will provide funds for operating, maintaining and equipping the Roseville Public Library. The estimated revenue the city will collect if the millage is approved and levied in the first year in 2026 is approximately $615,000, according to the ballot language.
If the millage renewal passes, the library hours and services will remain the same. If it does not pass, the library will lose 33% of its funding. Therefore, the hours of operation will be reduced, and all services will be reduced or eliminated as the budget requires and as reduced staffing allows. That would include purchases of new books and materials; database, magazine and newspaper subscriptions; and library programs, including story time, the summer reading club, craft nights, community outreach and more.
Library Director Jacalynn Harvey and Community Relations and Marketing Librarian Jason Novetsky provided the Eastsider with additional information via email.
Homeowners pay a few different millages as part of their property taxes. In the email, Harvey and Novetsky said that if the taxable value of a home increases or decreases, then property taxes will increase or decrease, including the property taxes accessed by the library’s millage.
During the library’s last fiscal year, there were more than 42,000 visits from patrons, and public computers were used 6,900 times to access the internet or Microsoft Office. Of the approximately 47,710 residents who live in Roseville, 41% of them have active library cards.
During the last fiscal year, library staff loaned 114,291 items that included books, audiobooks, kits, the library of things, board games, DVDs, videogames, Wi-Fi hot spots and music CDs. The library offered 386 individual programs for all ages. The library also offers scanning and faxing at no charge, along with printing and copying for a small fee per page.
The Roseville Public Library building is currently undergoing renovations as part of the city’s $20 million bond, which passed in November 2023 to renovate and update several city facilities. The cost of the library renovation is $3.5 million. The library is contributing $1 million from its reserve fund for the renovation, and the remaining $2.5 million is coming from the 2023 bond.
The bond is separate from the library’s millage renewal proposal. The renewal is for day-to-day operations and will not fund the renovations.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Election Day, Nov. 4.
