Novi Voters Pass Road Millage Increase

In Tuesday's primary election, Novi voters decided to increase the city's road millage to fund more repairs on neighborhood roads.

Out of approximately 7,700 votes, 54 percent voted to approve the millage, while 46 percent voted no in the unofficial results with all precincts reporting.

The road millage can now be levied from 0.7719 mills to 1.5 mills. The change will begin in the 2013 tax year.

Although this would increase the millage for roads, residents could still expect to keep a consistent tax rate. The City Council voted at a meeting in May 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.

Several of the city's debt funds will also be paid off by 2013, allowing the millage rate to remain at 10.2 even though the road millage will increase.

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.

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.