Week in Review
Property Taxes in Hillsdale County and City
We are re-posting this, with some changes, from our January 20th issue, in honor of your property tax bills coming in the mail this week, and in the hope that it will inform your votes regarding the upcoming millage proposals.
Listed below are the ways in which your local property taxes are spent, as determined largely by millage votes, but also by your representatives. Most millages exist to double- or even triple-fund organizations that already collect state and/or federal money. You pay 59.2 mills per year between the city and the county if you live in Hillsdale proper. (If you live in a township or village, see the fourth column of this chart for your total.) This means you pay up to $5,920 per $100,000 of taxable value, or, $8,880 per year on a property with a taxable value of $150,000.1
Your County Commissioners, establishment journalists, administrators, and philanthropists would like to increase this number further with three millage votes on August 6th, totaling $390 extra per year in taxes for said $150,000 of taxable value. Here’s where your current taxes are spent:
County-wide: 12.9 mills ($1,935/year for a $150,000 property)
County Operating Expenses: 4.9 mills (8.3% of total property tax)
Independent School District: 4.6 mills (7.7%)
Various Social/Healthcare Programs: 3.4 mills (5.7%)2
Hillsdale Proper: 46.4 mills ($6,960/year for a $150,000 property)
Hillsdale Community Schools: 25.8 mills (44%)
City Operating Expenses: 12.2 mills (21%)
Leaf Collection: 4 mills (6.8%)
City Streets: 2.4 mills (4%)
Public Safety: 1 mill (1.7%—much of the operating expenses also go to Public Safety)
Library: 1 mill (1.7%)
A question you should be asking your public officials—School taxes aside, why are there any millages at all beyond operating expenses at the County and City levels? Why are the City and County trying to do things beyond “operation”? These extraneous payments, after all, make up a full 20 percent of your tax bill.
Upcoming Events
County Commissioners, Tuesday, July 9
County Commissioner Primary, August 6
We are covering only the Republican primary races, because those who win these races will almost certainly be the victors of the general election. An additional note—up until now, County Commissioners have served two-year terms. Henceforth, according to our Lansing superiors, County Commissioners shall serve four-year terms. See our dismal grades for the incumbents here.
District 1
Doug Ingles, incumbent: Ingles has long “experience” in not implementing his alleged “republican values.” “Experience” to the Commissioners means nothing less than arriving at the opinion that self-government is not possible and should not be pursued. In practice, this means using your money to prop up bloated social programs, failing crime programs, and new government positions.
Red Ritter: Based on signage, Ritter may have had some early momentum, but likely did himself in with his untimely online commentary about the allegedly corrupt nature of Hillsdale County Police.
Kevin Slack: Slack is running to promote the county’s independence and to keep Hillsdale affordable by rejecting tax raises while punishing crime—laughable things to our current crop of Commissioners, but things that we believe ought to be taken seriously. For these reasons, and for the policies they imply, we back Slack.
District 2
Kevin Collins: Collins is a member of Litchfield’s City Council, alongside the venerable Abraham Dane. He sits on the city’s Fire Board, and works with County law enforcement. Much of this would suggest that Collins is of the establishment persuasion, but it’s difficult to say for sure from the available information.
Doug Corona: Corona appears to be backed by America First, which would indicate a general opposition to property tax increases and compliance with state mandates, if he’s up to the task.
District 3
Mark Wiley, incumbent: How is Wiley running as a Republican, you might be asking, given his apparent commitments to diversity, drugs, abortion,3 and state therapy? And we would have no answer for you.
Gina Fosdick: Unfortunately it appears that Ms. Fosdick is associated with the Hillsdale ISD and its highly suspect “Great Start Collaborative.” We could find very little about her political opinions beyond these disturbing signs. Something is amiss in District 3. Still, Wiley must go.
District 4
Brad Benzing, incumbent: See our remarks about Ingles above.
Lance Lashaway: Lashaway, an occasional contributor to the ridiculous HCR Facebook comment section, is running under the America First banner. In a campaign video, Lashaway is represented by the Ultra MAGA Godzilla, rescuing an embattled Lanius from the other Commissioners, played by various monsters. In other remarks, Lashaway correctly diagnosed a predominant trend in Hillsdale politics: the mixture of the rhetoric of self-government with managerial action. Consider us Lashaway supporters.
District 5
Brent Leininger, incumbent: Little Brent might make a not unservicable Commissioner in the context of a better board, but this is not exactly inspiring. And yet, it might be inspiring enough given the candidates.
Mary Lou Rolak: Mary Lou Rolak of Hudson is a Never-Trumper psychologist, trained in the art of such things at Wayne State University.
Daniel Stevick: Stevick appears to be a construction equipment manager in Cement City. We could learn nothing about his political opinions in our brief attempt.
City Council Primary, August 6
Ward 3 is the only ward with a primary this year with Councilman Bruce Sharp term-limited and three new candidates for office. The office is nonpartisan, so a Democrat could run relatively unnoticed if he was careful to never say anything of substance. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November election.
Ward 3
Bob Flynn: Flynn’s platform appears from our vantage to be a blend of empty jokes and the pursuit of “civility,” powered by his radio reputation. Pleas for civility, however, are usually code for conformity with the State by “working across the aisle” (with experts, against citizens) and initiating Development programs in the name of false consensus and falser unity.4 You know, just get along, don’t make things uncomfortable, or you might be un-civil. Until he begins to advertise his political opinions in concrete ways, we must recommend dismissing this candidate.
Cindy Merritt: Merritt at least says things that she would like to do in office. For instance, she wants to prohibit the acquisition of Pit Bulls in Hillsdale. But she also lost in 2022, thereby delivering us over to the rule of The Jogger (Wolfram).
Matthew Kniffin: Kniffin—our preferred candidate in this race by no small margin—has a clear platform that hits the biggest concerns: fighting against state and federal overreach; opposing new taxes and corporate subsidies; and scrutinizing the budget to cut waste. He appears therefore to have an interest in doing the activities of a councilman rather than using the office as a semi-retirement hobby—an all-too-common occurrence in the Hillsdale County gerontocracy.5
External Links
“I am raising funds on behalf the family of Bill Butler.” GoFundMe.
“Letting repeat offenders slip through the cracks can become deadly.” Logan Washburn.
“ALDI is coming to Hillsdale.” Corey Murray.
“Michigan [is] no longer winnable for Biden.” Gretchen Whitmer.
“I believe Joe can win Michigan.” Gretchen Whitmer.
“Immune, immune, immune.” Sonia Sotomayor.
“It’s hard to debate a liar.” President Biden.6
“The president did have a sore throat.” Michael Tyler.
“From 10am to 4pm, Biden is dependably engaged.” Axios.
“People around Biden … have seen him like that many times.” Ezra Klein.7
“Biden’s aides … took steps early in his term to essentially rope off the president.” Axios.8
“Who was actually in charge? Nobody knew.” Olivia Nuzzi.9
“One of the strongest voices imploring Mr. Biden to resist pressure to drop out was his son Hunter Biden, whom the president has long leaned on for advice.” New York Times.10
“The only person who has ultimate influence with him is the first lady.” NBC.
“Mass shootings, MAGA, the war in Gaza, it all feels so very far away.” Vogue.11
“Yeah, girl, I’m out here in these streets, and let me tell you…” Kamala Harris.
“I don’t think it’s fair when an editorial board with ten people sitting in a room are trying to influence an election.” Keisha Lance Bottoms.12
“Biden is cooked.” Josiah Lippincott.
“We’re going to have a mini-primary.” Rep. Jim Clyburn.
“It’s time for the Biden campaign to consider leveraging artificial intelligence.” Kaivan Shroff.
“All is proceeding as I have foreseen.” Curtis Yarvin.
“Studying coding: bad idea.” Larry Summers.
“Can liberal education and Christian education coexist?” Scott Yenor.14
“None of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale shall be released.” Tennessee Star.
Or, if you prefer, you are charged a 5.92% annual fee (based on a floating property assessment, which elected officials increase 5% annually) to own the property you allegedly own.
Lifeways, Senior Center, Medical Care Facility, free ambulance rides, etc. These institutions would all continue to exist, however, even if their various millages were rejected because you already pay for them with your state and/or federal taxes.
Wiley’s alleged pro-abortion comments appear to have been edited out of the meeting video at which he made them.
His “unity” and “civility” rhetoric also causes one to wonder if Flynn’s decision to run was triggered by the library troubles. After all, these were and are the buzzwords of certain members of the upper crust pro-LGBT book faction and their influencer allies.
Make no mistake, this County is ruled by the aged. Our County Commissioners’ average age is 64, with four out of the five being 65 or older. The City Council’s average is 60 (64 with Paladino, 28, removed), with six out of nine being 67 or older.
We are not of the view that relative youth in office, if it’s even possible to arrange, will simply resolve our greatest problems; but a certain degree of boldness may be required to help right the ship, and 64 is, in general, not an age for bold decisions.
“Biden’s condition is worse than Democrats had been willing to publicly admit,” confirms Adam Serwer.
As Charles Cooke says, this is “political conspiracy.” But there are still those who think the Russians are involved.
Of course, they knew who was in charge.
Except for that “absolute wall” between Hunter and Joe when he was VP, right? Ken Dilanian confirms that Hunter Biden “has joined meetings with President Biden and his top aides this week at the White House.”
Wait until she hears from the powerful editorial voices at HCR!
“I have a cognitive test every single day . . . I am running the world,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos.
American Reformers: First you attack as insufficiently attentive to the revolutionary potential of Puritanism—hardly the most pressing matter!—a 20-year-old article by Tom West, and now you’re out to undermine the entire Hillsdale K-12 charter operation with this nonsense about “Protestant,” “classical” schooling. Methinks the lady doth protest too much! You believe you’re in a bark on the Delaware, but you’re really a Bradford v. Jaffa away from crossing the Tiber! [Besides, if you want to go after an old West article, recall that in “Sins of the Fathers”—a vicious assault on Dostoevsky’s alleged repudiation of a patricidal, Lockean Occident—West says, “Dostoevsky’s example shows us why [P]ur[itan] traditionalism is both intellectually untenable and politically dangerous.”]