To the Journal editor:

I don’t know about anyone else in Marquette Township but as a resident, I’d like to see my property taxes go down by .85 mills, not up an additional .65 mills for 15 years. Like most people, my wages have not kept pace with the cost of living.

One trip to the grocery store verifies that. Plus if last winter’s temperatures are a prelude of winters to come, we’ll need that .85 mills back from property taxes to help pay heating bills.

In a fact sheet letter the Township sent out, it states that “The Charter Township of Marquette does not own or maintain roads located within our boundary.”

So what is all that money really for? It also states that in 3 years, with this increase 80 percent of roads will be rated “good.” So what are they doing with the money from the next 12 years? Nowhere in the fact sheet does it say that this increase will be spent exclusively on road repair.

It does say however, an asset management plan will guide spending of the millage; an ongoing process of maintaining, upgrading and operated physical assets cost-effectively, based on a continuous physical inventory and condition assessment. Try telling that to a banker when you want money for something you don’t own or maintain.

The township has to get money from somewhere after building a new office complex (that’s a physical asset, right?) So they once again go to the residents asking for additional tax hike to repair roads.

Commerce Drive was just resurfaced and that road was in good shape. They did what appears to be a chip and tar surface. That’s about as cheap as it gets next to squirting tar in the cracks.

Once they get the increase, we as residents will have virtually no say as to how that money is spent, as they have already “prioritized projects.”

Once they have it they’ll spend it however they want, for the next 15 years.

Karen Smith

Marquette Township