By Bill O'Brien
bobrien@record-eagle.com
SUTTONS BAY — Leelanau County officials want voters to approve a 13 percent boost in the county's 911 property tax millage, creating a quandary for some county residents who support the service but are weary of escalating taxes.
Voters will decide on a 4-year, 0.425-mill property tax levy for 911 operations at the Aug. 3 primary election. The levy would replace a two-year, 0.375-mill tax that expired in December.
Some Leelanau residents are struggling with the notion. They want good 911 service, but question the need for a tax increase amid a deep recession.
"I support 911; I know we need it," said Bruce Price, a Lake Leelanau fruit farmer who's used 911 for a family medical emergency. But he wonders why the county doesn't use other means to generate 911 revenue, including general fund dollars or surcharges on local telephone lines.
"In these economic times, they're asking people for more taxes," Price said.
The county's 911/dispatch center has a budget this year of $959,986, a little more than 8 percent of the county's total general fund budget of almost $11.7 million. A full levy would generate just under $1 million per year.
The owner of a $200,000 home with a taxable value of $100,000 would pay $42.50 a year in 911 taxes.
County Emergency Management/911 Director Tom Skowronski said Leelanau shifted to a property tax levy to pay for 911 services four years ago, and scrapped a local telephone surcharge. Voters since approved a pair of 2-year tax levies, and now county officials are seeking a 4-year tax that officials said will sustain the service if state funding dries up.
County commissioners said they won't assess the full .425-mill levy if state funding stays consistent. The county receives about $125,000 a year from charges collected by the state on land lines and cell phones.
"Nobody knows what the future is of that," Skowronski said. "The state's going to have to re-look at that funding structure."
Area counties pay for 911 services in a variety of ways. Grand Traverse County's $1.6 million annual budget is funded through local land-line surcharges that raise almost $750,000 a year, as well as about $212,000 in state surcharges, and the rest — nearly $640,000 — from the county's general fund, county officials said.
Manistee County's 911 system is funded by an 0.8-mill property tax levy, plus roughly $75,000 in state surcharges.
Leelanau officials said they eliminated the land-line surcharge in favor of a property tax levy because businesses and some homeowners with multiple telephone lines paid extra fees. It also represented an uncertain revenue base with more residents foregoing land lines in favor of cellular phones.
"We had a lot of people that thought the (land line) was an unfair tax," Commissioner Melinda Lautner said. "So many people have abandoned their land lines and have gone to cell phones."
But Lautner, whose family farms in southern Leelanau County, also questions the concept of levying more property taxes to pay for 911.
"It's not a fair way of doing it," she said.
Skowronski contends the county runs a lean 911 operation with a dozen employees and his administrative post. The levy isn't planned to pay for new equipment or personnel, but costs are rising for employee salaries, benefits and other costs, he said.
"What drives the cost up is your fixed costs," he said.
Wayne Wunderlich, a former county commissioner who owns a small resort on Lake Leelanau, said he's still on the fence about the millage.
"There's some grumbling out there about it," Wunderlich said, and he too questioned whether a property tax levy is the best way to pay for 911. "I think most people would prefer the way it was before."
Wunderlich said taxpayers are getting "nicked" by a series of add-on government services for items such as road maintenance, senior services and public busing.
"It eats into me," he said. "It all adds up."
Skowronski countered that residents he's spoken with support the county's 911 funding method.
"I have not had anyone complain about it being too high," he said. "They like the service we provide in Leelanau County."
Lautner isn't sure how voters will react to the millage increase. County official face some tough choices if the proposal is rejected, she said.
"We certainly will have to get down and get creative if the 911 millage goes down," she said.
