Senior millage proposed

By CHRISTOPHER DIEM, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — Marquette city voters will see a proposal for a senior services millage on the ballot in the November elections.


Recently, the Marquette City Commission voted unanimously to prepare language to include the special millage proposal on the ballot.


Currently the city gets money from the county to run the Marquette Senior Center as part of the countywide millage for senior services.


However, the city’s cost for senior services is about $164,000 more than the revenues it gets from the county and other sources, according to Assistant City Manager Karl Zueger.


The $164,000 deficit is supplemented by the city’s general fund, which itself comes from city taxes. Commissioner John Kivela, who proposed the millage, said if the millage is successful, the general millage will be rolled back by the same amount, making it revenue neutral.


“Your tax bill would be no higher,” Kivela said. “It really doesn’t raise any more money. However, it gives us a barometer of which to measure the support for the senior center.”


He said if the millage failed, residents will have given the city a clear mandate that senior services should be cut back.


“Conversely, if it is overwhelmingly (approved) then it tells us it’s a pretty high priority,” Kivela said. “It also establishes a solid funding mechanism for the senior center so it’s not dependent on the general fund.”


Although the exact ballot language has not been written yet, the millage would be about .35 mills, Kivela said. That amount would cover the $164,000 deficit.


Zueger did not know if the promise to roll back the general millage would be contained in the ballot language or if it would be made by a separate resolution of the commission.


According to the city’s proposed 2008-09 fiscal year budget, the city spends about $328,000 a year to provide services through the Marquette Senior Center and homemaking services through Upper Peninsula Commission on Area Progress to seniors in the city of Marquette and Chocolay, Marquette and Powell townships.


Zueger said the city also spends about $56,000 a year for utilities, rent, janitorial services and administrative expenses to run the center itself.


The county pays the city about $190,000 a year and about $30,000 comes from UPCAP, Zueger said.


Kivela said if the millage is approved, city officials will ask the townships to pass their own millages to go toward the Marquette Senior Center.


“If the townships say no, OK, then we’ll just concentrate on our seniors once the county millage is up and they can focus on theirs. If they say yes, now we’re getting additional revenue and we can roll back the senior millage to our residents,” Kivela said.


The county senior services millage expires in 2012. Kivela said if the special city millage is successful, the city may not participate in the county millage when it ends and instead fund the Marquette Senior Center through its own millage.


Zueger said senior services are critical and shouldn’t depend on the city’s general fund.


“This is a really good thing for the community,” Zueger said. “This is a positive step in the right direction, having this be sustainable. It’s a solution. It’s a solution that will enable these services to continue on and not be subject to future budget cuts.”


The deadline for filing millage language for the November ballot is Aug. 12.