BrentHello, Friends of Grand Haven. It’s important we all start learning about the city’s 2 mil/yr x 10 yrs ($20 million) request on November’s ballot. The following captures some useful information the city is trying to get out to the community to help with that learning process. Below also summarizes some of what we hear you and others talking about on the street so city leaders can address your questions and concerns between now and election day.
Millage Website
City hall recently posted the new DPS website for the Nov 2025 millage request. $20 million ($2 mil/yr for 10 yrs). http://www.grandhavenpublicsafetymillage.org/
We encourage everyone to visit the website. Attend the town halls and tours to learn more about the millage request. See with your own eyes what shape our police and fire dept is in. Uunderstand what the millage money will be used for. It’s a big #. About $5,000 ($500/yr) for a home with a $500,000 market value. The city is giving (encouraging) us a chance to get well informed before November. We should. Mark these dates on your calendar and go to as many of them as you can.
What Makes a Successful Millage
Millages win or lose on three factors:
- Trust
- Transparency
- Stewardship
Trust. Do we trust our city leaders to want money for the right reasons? And use it for the right purposes? The city wants the new millage for three reasons: Remodel the building. Buy new equipment. Improve staff skill sets. What’s wrong with the building? What’s wrong with the equipment? What do the staff need? The city needs to explain each of these in detail, so city voters are ready to say “yes” to Trust in November.
Transparency. Have city leaders spelled out clearly and fully why they need new money? Be specific. Detailed. How much money will each of these three needy areas get out of the $20 million millage? Why doesn’t the city’s growing tax base year after year cover these needs? If the new millage is intended to take pressure off the General Fund, then how much net money ends up in the DPS’s budget? Details are needed. Explained so voters can understand? The city needs to explain each of these in detail, so city voters are ready to say “yes” to Transparency in November.
Stewardship. Are city leaders spending our tax dollars wisely? Our city’s annual budget process is long and arduous. Starting with departments declaring their needs. And ending with city council signing off on it. The annual budget is a roadmap (accountability tool) for how to spend our tax dollars during the year. Voters don’t understand our budget or this process well. It’s important but boring. The city needs to explain (in a way voters can understand) what’s in the budget and why listed expenses are top priority, so city voters are ready to say “yes” to Stewardship in November.
The FAQ’s are not Responsive to the Word on the Street
The millage website’s FAQ Section is fluffy. Wrong questions. Need more detail. Here’s what voters on the street are asking. To get the voters to “yes” on the millage in November, they want answers now.
- Property Values in the City have Skyrocketed over 30% in the last Five Years. Why can’t the City Live on the Tax Money it Already Has? City tax revenues are over $11 million today compared to $9 million in 2020, a 26% jump in just 5 years. Total revenue during those same 5 years climbed from $58 million in 2020 to $70 million in 2024. Why the need for more? (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
- Why does the DPS need a New $2M/yr on top of its Current $6.6M/yr? A 13% increase. City hall says our demand for public safety (fire, police, EMS) has outpaced our spending on it. We’ve stitched the dept together for years. It’s caught up with us. The DPS has reached its tipping point. It has fallen behind in buildings, equipment, and staffing. It’s come time to catch up. Our city budget is $15M/yr. DPS gets 44% of that. Roughly $6.6M. A percent on par with peer communities. Another 2 mils = approx. $2M a yr ($20M for 10 yrs) of new money to the city, earmarked for DPS. It’s a “dedicated” millage. Only the DPS can spend it. (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
However, the city says some of the DPS’s current $6.6 M is going back to the General Fund if the millage passes. Once back into the General Fund, that old money will be reallocated to other departments that need it worse. (Transparency)
That’s good to know. Please spell it out in detail. How much is going back into the General Fund? What departments will get it? How will they use it? What will the departments do with the extra money they couldn’t do without it? What if the millage doesn’t pass – what won’t get done? What’s at risk? If we must “limp along” without the millage money, what does “limping along” mean? If the DPS building doesn’t get repaired, what’s the risk? If the DPS equipment doesn’t get upgraded, what’s the risk? If DPS staff don’t get training, what’s the risk? Some actual examples please? Easy questions. Lacking answers. The city needs to detail it out so voters know and can understand. If not explained or illustrated in detail, the voters will see it as hiding something from them and vote “no” on the millage for the wrong reasons. (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
- Why won’t the City’s Skyrocketing Real Estate Market Values and New Housing Construction bring in enough New Money to Meet our DPS’s Growing Service Needs? City hall says expanded services and new housing in the city are causing much of the stress on our police and fire department. That argument cuts both ways. Over 500 new homes and double-digit property value hikes in recent years have brought in a lot of new tax dollars to the city. 500 new homes, each worth $500,000, adds an extra $250 million to the city’s tax base. Fifteen mils on 50% of that tax base earns the city an extra $1.8 million in revenue to work with each year. That’s 90% of the $2 million being asked for on the millage. And, that’s not even counting the 5-7% inflation increase in home property values every year. All total, new taxes on growing property values will far exceed the DPS millage request. How can all that new tax money flowing into the city not more than cover any DPS “service stretching” it faces? The city needs to explain in detail why.
And, by the way. How did the city reach the magic number of 2 mils vs 1 mil, or even 1.5 mils? Why does 2 mils solve our DPS woes that 1 or 1.5 mils don’t? The voters need to know if the city wants them to vote “yes” on the millage in November. (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
- Is the DPS Millage Request just a Straw Man (a Bait & Switch) to get More Money into the City’s Coffers? If the DPS will lose some of its current 44% of the city’s budget, how much and why? Where will the lost funds be reallocated and why? The new earmarked 2 mils will replace some of the DPS’s old General Fund money. Some voters will think the worst. A bunch of smoke and mirrors. A bait & switch. Just another way for the city to dig deeper into our pockets. A shell game. Using the DPS as a straw man for new money to the city with no transparency or accountability to the public. That view left unanswered will torpedo the millage request. Details of who gets how much and to use it for what is something the voters need to know if the city wants them to vote “yes” on the millage in November. (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
- New Money vs Current Budget Allocations to DPS. The cost of some DPS upgrades is already in the city’s new 2025-26 budget. Which ones? How much for each? What is it earmarked for? What will a new $2 million a year do extra that the current budget can’t do?
- City MERS DP Pension Underfunding. Is any of the money being returned to the General Fund going to then be used to pay down the city pension underfunding balance? As of June 30, 2024, the underfunded balance was $34,711,768. Each year the city pays into the plan a mandatory amount towards the balance. Plus, an extra discretionary amount. What are those mandatory and discretionary amounts? Will the paydown pattern change with more money in the General Fund now?
- Why should Voters Fork out New Money when the City is letting Central Park Place and others City Properties Lose Money Year after Year with no end in Sight? Through nobody’s fault, and despite the best efforts, our Central Park Place (the old community center) has chronic (significant) losses year after year. It’s not viable as a venue. The city subsidizes it. It’s on life support. We pour taxpayer money into it to keep the doors open and the lights on. Good minds and kind hearts have tried desperately to make the CPP profitable, or to at least breakeven. To no avail. As an event center it just doesn’t draw a crowd. Now, to make it even harder, in the next few years 3-4 more event centers will open. The Diesel Plant. Probably the Grand Landing hotel. Chinook Pier. Probably Harbor Island once redeveloped. If the CPP can’t make a go of it now, how will it fare any better competing against a crowded field? Over the last five years (2020-25), how much has the city subsidized Central Park Place each year with our tax dollars? The CPP is not the only loser. The city has a list of properties losing money. Show the public the list? Why should the voters dump in new money until the city plugs the holes of the old money being wasted? These are details the voters need to know if the city wants them to vote “yes” on the millage in November. (Trust / Transparency / Stewardship)
- Facility Needs. Facilities are one of three reasons for the millage request. If it passes what % of the new money will be used on facilities each of the 10 yrs? If it doesn’t pass, how will facilities be impacted each of the 10 yrs? Spell it out to voters.
- Equipment Needs. Equipment is one of three reasons for the millage request. If it passes what % of the new money will be used on equipment each of the 10 yrs? If it doesn’t pass, how will equipment be impacted each of the 10 yrs? Spell it out to voters.
- Staffing Needs. Staffing is one of three reasons for the millage request. If it passes what % of the new money will be used on staffing each of the 10 yrs? If it doesn’t pass, how will staffing be impacted each of the 10 yrs? Spell it out to voters.
- Is 500 Washington Ave Really the Best Location for our DPS? Our current DPS building dates back more than 80 yrs. It’s a money pit. The foundation is crumbling. The HVAC system is antiquated and inefficient. The building is a bunch of add-ons and refits. The whole building is nearly 100% functionally obsolete. It has a history of patches and band aides. Are we throwing good money after bad with a new millage? A silk purse out of a sow’s ear? Perfume the pig? Besides the building itself, the location is difficult for big, long firetrucks and EMS vehicles to maneuver in and out, along narrow, crowded city streets. Is a firehouse on the 500 block of Washington Ave really the highest and best use of that property? Should we sell high and build cheap elsewhere? Are we trapped in a “we’ve always done it this way” mind set? Our city has grown to the East and South over the last 80 years. Have we considered where our DPS facilities might be better located, strategically? Jackson Ave? Beacon Blvd? Are we looking at the big picture and planning for the next 80 years instead of stuck in the last. Have we stepped back and rethought this? The public wants to know given the high price tag of a DPS millage. We must take the long view and be wise with our money.
The 20 / 60 / 20 Rule
20% of the voters won’t support a millage request no matter what. It’s not in their DNA. Another 20% of the voters will vote without question, trusting souls. It’s the 60% in the middle that must be won over, or at least ½ of them, to get the millage passed in November. They think, they study, they ask, they listen. They go to the ballot box informed.
It’s good our DPS has said what it needs. Nobody wants our safety compromised. Nobody likes to hear new taxes. This is big money. It’s for a long time. It’s an important city service. City leaders must help the public learn and understand this millage issue. Detailed answers to these questions will help the public turn out and vote with knowledge and conviction. Trust, Transparency, and Stewardship are keys to their decisions. Thank you. Brent Clark
