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JACKSON TWP. —
A township parks and roads levy to help offset state funding cuts was heading defeated Tuesday night.
A 2.2-mill, five-year operations levy (Issue 29) was losing by a 55 percent to 45 percent margain.
As of 1 a.m. Wednesday, the levy was trailing by more than 2,220 votes — 9,888 in favor of the measure and 12,142 against. That doesn’t include paper ballots cast on Tuesday, some absentee ballots and provisional ballots.
The defeat will mean cuts, likely in township services, said Randy Gonzalez, fiscal officer.
“It’ll obviously be tough times. Trustees will have some tough decisions,” he said.
Gonzalez said he thought the measure might have been hurt by the ballot language. It mentioned current expenses rather than parks and roads.
The levy would have raised about $2.9 million per year, primarily fund the township's road and park departments. Historically, upkeep and maintenance of Jackson's system of eight parks costs $1 million a year.
That is about the amount of the state estate tax that has been eliminated. Trustees say parks can’t be maintained without the new money because they don’t want to or can’t divert money away from other services deemed more critical, such as police, fire, plowing and paving.
The levy would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home $67.38 per year. But trustees said they would have allowed an existing $1.2 million a year local road levy to expire after 2013.
A township parks and roads levy to help offset state funding cuts was heading defeated Tuesday night.
A 2.2-mill, five-year operations levy (Issue 29) was losing by a 55 percent to 45 percent margain.
As of 1 a.m. Wednesday, the levy was trailing by more than 2,220 votes — 9,888 in favor of the measure and 12,142 against. That doesn’t include paper ballots cast on Tuesday, some absentee ballots and provisional ballots.
The defeat will mean cuts, likely in township services, said Randy Gonzalez, fiscal officer.
“It’ll obviously be tough times. Trustees will have some tough decisions,” he said.
Gonzalez said he thought the measure might have been hurt by the ballot language. It mentioned current expenses rather than parks and roads.
The levy would have raised about $2.9 million per year, primarily fund the township's road and park departments. Historically, upkeep and maintenance of Jackson's system of eight parks costs $1 million a year.
That is about the amount of the state estate tax that has been eliminated. Trustees say parks can’t be maintained without the new money because they don’t want to or can’t divert money away from other services deemed more critical, such as police, fire, plowing and paving.
The levy would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home $67.38 per year. But trustees said they would have allowed an existing $1.2 million a year local road levy to expire after 2013.
