Voters reject almost all area tax proposals

By LINDSAY VanHULLE
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

November 11, 2008 12:00 am

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FIFE LAKE -- School administrators in a few local districts soon will decide whether to put tax proposals back on the ballot after voters almost universally rejected millage requests.

Voters defeated a tax renewal for Kingsley Area Schools, considered by many administrators to be a routine request.

And sinking fund and bond proposals in Forest Area Community Schools and Frankfort-Elberta Area Schools, respectively, failed in last week's general election.

"The community usually is very supportive," said Teresa Mensching, Frankfort-Elberta school board president. "I'm assuming that the economy had something to do with it."

The district sought approval of a 0.31-mill bond proposal, expected to last five years. It was defeated, 1,165 to 1,132.

The roughly $855,000 that would have been generated was intended for technology enhancements, school bus purchases, roof repairs and other interior upgrades.

A committee that developed the proposal will meet to discuss future options, Mensching said, and recommend a plan of action to the board.

"We still have the same needs," she said. "We really need to find a way to take care of those needs."

The Forest Area school board plans to discuss at its first post-election meeting how to proceed, since voters rejected a proposed sinking fund, 839 to 644, Superintendent John Smith said.

Without the five-year, 1-mill sinking fund, earmarked for building and grounds repairs, administrators in the Fife Lake-based district will need to prioritize a list of projects, Smith said.

Administrators in Kingsley Area Schools could hold a special election after voters rejected a renewal of the district's operating millage, 1,681 to 1,438.

Voters also rejected a five-year override to the state's Headlee Amendment, 1,705 to 1,395, which would have allowed the district to collect its full 18 mills.

The operating millage allows school districts to collect taxes on non-homestead property in order to receive their full state aid. Kingsley voters will have to approve the renewal by November 2009, or the district stands to lose roughly $950,000.

"It would impact programming, there's no doubt about it," Superintendent Lynn Gullekson said.

Voters in Leland Public School approved an operating millage request, 1,381 to 740.

It was the only school proposal in the five-county Grand Traverse region to succeed.

adding that a computer virus delayed publication of the district's November newsletter containing details of the proposal. "We may have assumed the voters already understood the issue."