MARQUETTE — At Tuesday’s meeting of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners, the panel voted unanimously to approve the ballot language for two upcoming August millage votes — one for the Marquette County Transit Authority and one for Marquette County Veterans Affairs.

The Marq-Tran millage is currently set to 6/10 of a mill, which translates to approximately $0.60 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The vote in August will be to renew this millage for an additional six years, from 2027 through 2032. This millage has been in place since 2004, and a millage of varying amounts has been in place for Marq-Tran since 1994.

The Marquette County Veterans Affairs millage is currently set to 0.1 mills, and the vote in August will be to increase this millage to 0.15 mills for the years 2027 through 2035; an increase of 0.05 mills.

“Over the past several years, the workload in our department has increased significantly,” said Diana Dost, county veteran service officer and director at the Marquette County Veteran Services Office in Ishpeming, in a comment at the meeting. “PACT Act toxic exposure claims, complex appeals and expanded federal evidence requirements have all contributed to a higher volume and greater complexity of work. Even as the total veteran population declines, the number of veterans who need assistance and the intensity of that assistance continues to rise.”

Dost specifically mentioned veterans who served on the K.I. Sawyer Air Force base, and how environmental contamination at that site has contributed to many serious health conditions not covered under the VA’s presumptive standards. Those claims thus require extensive amounts of work from Marquette County Veterans Affairs in the form of evidence development and research.

“At the same time, our existing .1 mill has been reduced and threatened under the Headlee Amendment,” said Dost.

The Headlee Amendment, a Michigan constitutional amendment passed in 1978, limits property tax millage revenue to the rate of inflation, along with other functions such as requiring votes for new local taxes. One aspect of the Headlee Amendment is called a Headlee Rollback, in which millage rates are automatically lowered when property value rises faster than the rate of inflation.

“That reduction, combined with increased service demand, has increased a structural gap between what veterans need and what our current funding can support,” said Dost. “Even if the original .1 mill had never been reduced, it would not generate enough revenue over the next eight years to substantiate staffing, outreach, technology, modernization and the level of service required to meet the federal expectation and local needs.”

If passed, this updated millage rate of .15 mills would translate to approximately $15 a year for homes with a taxable value of $100,000.

These millages will be voted on in the Aug. 4 election.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.