TRAVERSE CITY -- Voters in two local townships soundly defeated road millage requests this week, but that won't deter Grand Traverse County's Road Commission from pursuing a county-wide millage in 2010.
Voters in East Bay and Acme townships on Tuesday defeated requests for 1 mill of property tax for local road repairs by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. County board Chairman Dick Thomas said he still expects county commissioners to put the road commission's request for 1 mill on the August 2010 ballot.
"If they want to give it a whack I'm not opposed to it. But do I think it's going to pass? No," Thomas said.
The county needs a road millage, Thomas said, but said the timing is wrong as Michigan continues to struggle through a deep recession.
County Commissioner Christine Maxbauer agreed, but said she'll oppose placing a millage on the ballot that would ask residents to ante-up an additional $4 million a year in property taxes to fix roads.
"People are struggling to stay in their homes, to pay their bills, to put food on the table. Now is not the time for a road millage," Maxbauer said.
Acme Township resident Gordie LaPointe said the margin of defeat in Tuesday's township elections came as a "huge surprise."
A member of a road commission millage advisory group, he now thinks the county might be better served to wait until 2012 for a millage request.
"People are just fed up with taxes and are more aware of the trend to waste money by our government," LaPointe said.
Road commission Manager Mary Gillis said her agency will learn from the township elections and will work to make residents more comfortable with the millage. She also hopes to garner support from those who believe a county-wide millage would be more fairly distributed than some feared in Acme and East Bay.
Debbie Luhrs, an East Bay resident who led opposition to the township millages, said she won't oppose a county millage.
"That's for all the roads in the county, not just someone's subdivision road," Luhrs said.
Gillis said 25 percent of the millage money would fix the county's most heavily traveled roads, known as primary roads and 75 percent for local roads based on road priority lists adopted by the townships.
"We can't promise to spend in each township what that township generates (in millage)," Gillis said, "but we'll try to spread the funding equitably."
Renee Kaufman, whose Fix Our Roads Committee led the two township millage campaigns, said she personally won't advocate for county millage if it siphons tax money out of East Bay Township.
The need for road fixes isn't going away in the county, and it's worth approaching voters for more money, Gillis said.
"Eventually, we'll be at a point where people will want the service and will be willing to pay for it," she said. "Are we at that point yet? I don't know, but apparently we're not there yet in Acme and East Bay."
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