Saline City Council Endorses County Road Tax

After considerable debate, Saline City Council threw its support behind a plan to a 0.6-mill countywide tax that will generate money to repair and maintain roads.

At Monday’s meeting, council voted 6-0 in favor of a motion to support the tax—but reworded the motion to make the support contingent upon the county promising to spend the city’s share of the tax revenue within Saline.

The Washtenaw County Board Commissioners will vote on whether or not to pass the one-year millage this month.

The tax, which does not require a vote of the public, would cost the owner of a $200,000 house about $60 in one year. City Manager Todd Campbell estimated the tax would raise approximately $240,000 in Saline alone. The hope is that the county would use that money to fund the Woodland Drive project set for next year.

Despite the unanimous vote, the proposal received lukewarm warm support from council. Councillors Dean Girbach and Brian Marl both said they would prefer to see the public vote on the tax. Marl said he thought the county didn’t provide enough information to earn council’s support. And since the board of commissioners does not require the city’s support, he said asking for support was “political theater.”

“The are soliciting political cover from us,” said Marl, who stated his intention to vote against the motion to support the tax.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell appeared surprised that councillors would balk at the opportunity to generate money to repair roads.

“We’ve been talking for years about the underfunding of our roads and infrastructure. We do not have a road millage, so this could add $240,000 for our roads. If council does not want that money, that’s fine,” Driskell said.

Councillor David Rhoads said voting against the measure could cost Saline.

“The county commissioners might pass the millage anyway and then spend the $240,000 (collected from Saline taxpayers) outside the city.  That’s a big downside,” Rhoads said.

Girbach asked if it was possible to change the wording of the motion to indicate support if the county guaranteed the money would be spent in Saline. That idea seemed to appeal to council members.

 “I am willing to support the millage only if it is specified that the money is spent in Saline,” said councillor Linda TerHaar. “I am not comfortable with the more general language.”

Council spent a few minutes rewording the motion before voting.

Marl agreed to change his vote when the motion was changed.

“At the risk of appearing to flop around like a tuna fish, due to the overwhelming public need to repair our roads I am willing to support this with the new language in the motion,” said Marl.

The Washtenaw County Road Commission developed the road millage proposal for the county commissioners to consider at a meeting in October. The proposal utilizes Public Act 283 of 1909 to raise revenue (up to one mill) for funding of maintenance and repairs of existing road and infrastructure in the county, in the same way that the county uses Public Act 88 to partially fund Ann Arbor SPARK.

The county will provide the board of commissioners with a proposed project plan. The early project map showed two projects outside the city — Bemis and Austin roads. Driskell and City Manager Todd Campbell met with road commission officials to discuss the possibility of using county funds for the Woodland Drive work that will take place between Maple and Industrial roads. Using county funds for the Woodland project would allow the city to use money on another project.