By WKTV Staff
The Kent County Board of Commissioners’ Veterans Millage Renewal Subcommittee, led by City of Wyoming’s (District 8) commissioner Dan Burrill, has approved and sent on to other county standing committees the details of a planned August 2022 countywide vote to continue an existing Veterans Millage first passed in 2014.
Since the millage expired in 2021, the millage request would not be a renewal but a “continuation” if approve by voters.
The decision to take the millage request to the voters would eventually need to be approved by the full Board of Commissioners, but there are two county governance standing committees, including the finance committee, which would need to discuss and give approval to first.
For a calendar and more information on all Kent County meetings, visit here.
The Tuesday, Jan. 18, meeting at the Kent County Administrative Building was the second of the subcommittee. The meetings were open to the public, veterans and non-veterans alike.
The subcommittee’s two meetings included several local veterans groups as well as the Kent County Veterans Services (KCVS) office and its associated Veterans Services Advisory Committee. The KVCS provides dedicated services to veterans of active United States military service and their dependents, under the direction of manager Martha Burkett, and is substantially funded by the millage, along with an annual Kent County budget contribution.
In November 2014, Kent County voters approved a Dedicated Veterans Millage, an eight year, 0.05 mills tax that, at that time, would raise about $1 million a year and was estimated to cost the owner of a $200,000 home approximately $5 annually, according to the county website.
Due to several factors — including the 1978, voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution which included a number of provisions related to state and local taxes and now commonly known as the Headlee Amendment — the actual tax collection decreased from 0.05 mills to 0.0482 in 2021.
Statewide, 51 of Michigan’s 83 counties posted a millage dedicated to veterans in 2020.
For more information on the Kent County Veterans Services, visit here.
