Novi Residents to Vote On Increasing Taxes to Repair Roads

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Better roads or smaller taxes? Novi residents are asked to make this decision when voting on whether to increase the city's road millage in August.

The Novi City Council voted Monday night to put the issue on the ballot in the upcoming election.

Currently the city’s limit for “specific street and highway improvement purposes” is 1 mill, which was then reduced to 0.7719 mills by the Headlee Amendment. The proposed increase is to 1.5 mills.

"It is a critical, imperative matter that the city maintain its road structure and maintain it in the fashion that the Novi residents have come to respect and deserve," said Novi Mayor Bob Gatt.

Although this would increase the millage for roads, residents could still expect to keep a consistent tax rate. The City Council voted at its meeting for the 2012-13 year, which is a decrease from the current overall millage of 10.5416. The city is able to do this by reducing the drain fund millage. 

The change in the road millage, if passed, would begin with the 2013 tax year. Several of the city's debt funds will also be paid off by 2013, allowing the millage rate to remain at 10.2 even if the road millage is increased. 

"This number didn't come out of the air. There was work done ahead of time in terms of trying to determine how much money do we need to put in our roads. We had a very comprehensive report on that in order to keep them and improve them to a level where we need to maintain them, so that's where this millage rate comes from," said council member Terry Margolis.

The higher road millage is estimated to bring in an additional $2.1 million for road funding in the 2013-14 and an additional $2.2 million the following year.

According to a study done for the city on road conditions, the current annual road funding level of approximately $3.2 million is not sufficient to maintain and rehabilitate Novi’s roadway pavement conditions at an acceptable level.

Annual expenditures on local and neighborhood streets are planned to comprise nearly 70 percent of the additional funding, with the other 30 percent going toward major road projects.

Possible major projects could include the repaving of 11 Mile Road from Taft Road to Beck Road, the rehabilitation of 13 Mile Road from Novi Road to Meadowbrook Road, the signal modernization of Novi Road at 13 Mile Road, and preventative maintenance to sidewalk and pathways.

"This is something that for a decade will make a difference in how this city serves residents," said Novi City Manager Clay Pearson.

"The only way our road network is going to get better and reflect, I think, the expectations of the council and the community is if we increase the maximum municipal street millage...I'm excited about this potential," Pearson said.

According to the study, work needs to be done not only to repair some roads, but keep them from deteriorating to a point where they are beyond repair.

"This is something that absolutely needs to be done...Unless we fund additional improvements on an annual basis, it will really take us down a slide that is probably unrecoverable," said Mayor Pro-tem Dave Staudt.

Council member Andrew Mutch said the road millage rate has been the same since 1972, and the city has grown a lot since then. Mutch also pointed out that the road fund has lost half a million dollars since the 2008-09 budget year from property tax revenues.

"The dollars that you will be paying for this increase if it's approved by the voters are going right back into your neighborhood and city streets," Mutch said.