Library Board meeting: Tonight, April 13 at 5:00
The Library Director Jessica Spangler will give an update on the “Reconsideration Request” regarding one of Library Board Vice President Karen Hill’s favorite books, Answer in the Pages. The event is sure to be a good time; the library board loves to hear from enthusiastic citizens.
City Council Meeting: May 1. The meeting will contain (1) the Council’s vote on the Library Board ordinance amendment, and (2) public comment regarding the proposed public camping ban.
For excellent political theater, attend the May Day City Council meeting, wherein the Council is expected to deliberate on whether the Operation and Governance Committee’s recent recommendation that Councilman Paladino’s “Proposal to Amend City Ordinance § 2.48.020” be enacted. The pressure to perform during the public comment period is higher than ever for aspiring Oscar nominee Karen Hill, who simply must deliver after several stale performances. For what it’s worth, the Hillsdale School Board has decided that it has little interest in retaining its place on the library board, presumably due to its upcoming millage, to be discussed below.
The Council will also hear public comments regarding the proposed camping ban, which would stop private individuals from living on public lands and using those lands to pursue questionable activities.
The Homeless Task Force
Mayor Stockford recently reinstated the Homeless Task Force, which exists to enact two hour meetings (what some call giving people a “platform” from which they can relay their “lived experience”). The Task Force, however, is in a state of consternation, having realized that, after hours of story time, the City Council appears to be moving toward the legislation and execution of laws, regardless of the Task Force’s personal feelings. Despite dramatic resignations, Mayor Stockford has advised the Force’s members to stay the course.
Special Election: May 2
Below is the text of the upcoming ballot proposal for Hillsdale County residents living in: Adams Township; Allen Township; Cambria Township; Fayette Township; Hillsdale City; Hillsdale Township; Jefferson Township; and Woodbridge Township.
This proposal will allow the school district to continue to levy the building and site sinking fund millage that expires with the 2023 tax levy.
Shall the currently authorized millage rate of 2.1972 mills ($2.1972 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) which may be assessed against all property in Hillsdale Community Schools, Hillsdale County, Michigan, be renewed for a period of 5 years, 2024 to 2028, inclusive, to continue to provide for a sinking fund for the construction or repair of and the purchase of real estate for sites for school buildings, for school security improvements, for the acquisition or upgrading of technology, and all other purposes authorized by law; the estimate of the revenue the school district will collect if the millage is approved and levied in 2024 is approximately $782,000 (this is a renewal of millage that will expire with the 2023 tax levy)?
Items of note regarding your property taxes (see page 208 of the hyperlinked document) and the upcoming proposal:
Property taxes and public schools:
This particular Hillsdale Community Schools millage does not fund local charter schools, or anything other than the city’s public schools. Charter schools may indirectly receive millage funding from Hillsdale County ISD, however, which receives less support from city and county mills.
You currently pay 43.58 mills of property tax every summer. Approximately 18.2 of those mills, or 41.7% of your summer tax bill, goes to funding the area’s public schools. Only 6.0 of the 18.2 mills are required by the state.
You pay another 15.65 mills every winter. Approximately 12.2 mills, or 78% of your winter tax bill, goes to funding the area’s public schools.
This means that over half (51%) of your property taxes go directly (mostly) or indirectly (via the ISD) into the public school system.
The Public School system’s annual operating budget alone is funded to the tune of 17.6 mills, a number which far exceeds that of the City of Hillsdale (12.14 mills).
We must note also that the city, while paying into the public school sinking fund, remains unable to repair its public property. This is made most evident by the ongoing “special assessment” form of skirting around charter procedures to force people into taking loans to pay for services that are supposed to be provided by the city. So far, this has been used to force several neighborhoods—with several more on the docket—into paying for their own road repairs out of pocket, or be forced to take high-interest loans.
Special Election for North Adams:
Also included in the special election will be the attempted recall of North Adams’ Township Supervisor, Mark Nichols, and Township Clerk, Stephanie Scott, both of whom have been attacked by the State of Michigan and put under the thumb of Hillsdale County because they refused to use the state’s mandatory election equipment. More on this in the coming weeks.
—Clovis
Week in Review
Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford called into Buzz 102.5 (audio via the ubiquitous Penny Swan) to explain the controversy surrounding Councilman Joshua Paladino’s library board amendment. The most interesting moment, in our view, is Stockford’s account of the appointment of the “moderately liberal” Stephanie Myers—according to HDN’s Corey Murray, a member of the Hillsdale County Democratic Party—to the library board. Stockford says he appointed Myers because neither board faction wanted her, but her subsequent support for Dan LaRue’s appointment, in addition to the mayor’s recognition that the next appointment will be the swing vote, makes that view hard to credit.
On Monday (4/10), the Hillsdale Daily News ran what amounted to an “above the fold” ad for the data-mining company, Zencity, which “partners” with local governments to monitor citizens’ social media and provide “actionable insights and tailored reports [to] easily measure and improve resident satisfaction.” Bureaucrats love this sort of thing, as it allows them to pick and choose which sort of communication “data”—town meetings, emails, social media—to use to justify their decisions.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited Hillsdale College on Thursday, April 6th. Video of the event is here. In typical hard-hitting fashion, HDN’s Corey Murray takes DeSantis to task on any number of important issues. The best part of DeSantis’ speech can be viewed in the following clip:
At American Reformer, Clifford Humphrey creates a useful category—“mere classical”—to clarify an ongoing debate about classical education.
What Fr. Neuhaus called “narrow escape syndrome” is alive and well on the Left, and it is coming for your children.
—Fauxglin