Commissioners move to zero Leelanau Early Childhood tax rate

Sep. 16—SUTTONS BAY — In a move that stunned three members of the Leelanau County Board, Chairman Will Bunek recommended that the tax rate for the county's voter-approved Early Childhood Services millage be set at 0.0000.

It's a recommendation that spotlighted the elected board's partisan divide as Republicans — Bunek, Melinda Lautner, Debra Rushton and Rick Robbins — agreed to support halting the tax collection and the board's three Democrats found themselves blindsided. The recommendation now moves to the full board Sept. 21, where it likely will be adopted.

"I am flabbergasted," Commissioner Ty Wessell said at Tuesday's executive session. "The voters approved an early childhood program. You didn't just make a motion to reduce the millage, you made a motion to eliminate the entire program."

The board must approve tax rates for the December tax collection by Sept. 30. The Early Childhood tax was one of three that included a road millage and a senior services millage, both of which are voted. Neither of those taxes was decreased.

If You Go

What: Leelanau County special meeting on Early Childhood Services program.

When: 1 p.m. Monday

Where: Leelanau County government center, Suttons Bay.

According to the county's attorney the board has the right to zero out a voted millage, though it is not often done.

The Early Childhood Services proposal passed by 99 votes in a special election in November 2019, with a turn-out of about 33 percent of registered voters. The five-year 0.253-mill property tax was to bring in about $3.6 million over its five years.

Services meant to ready children from birth to 6 years old for school are delivered by the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department. Money raised by the tax is being used to hire coordinators to expand a Parenting Communities program and social workers to conduct assessments on children.

Services are free for all children.

Lautner said the proposal was defeated in each of the four Republicans' districts. She said she also had several calls about a survey put out by the health department this spring that asked people what services they need.

Bunek said he is not proposing to eliminate the program, that there has already been enough money collected by the tax to sustain it.

During Tuesday's meeting Bunek said the United States is a constitutional republic and when voters make a wrong decision the county board is there to make sure that it doesn't go on, that it's the board's responsibility to do the what's right for the county.

"So you just said that if a public vote, a vote is taken and we think it's wrong it's our job as a constitutional republic to nullify it," Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier asked Bunek.

"Yes, that's exactly right," Bunek responded.

That's dangerous and a scary road to go down, Allgaier said.

The Early Childhood program was scheduled to start in January 2020, but the first tax collection was not done until December of that year. Money was advanced from the county and has since been paid back.

The program limped along that first year, with positions unfilled because of the pandemic and groups being unable to meet, said Commissioner Patricia Soutas-Little, who sat on a 40-plus member committee that worked to get the millage on the ballot.

It is ramping up as of June, with extra parenting groups being added because of the demand, Soutas-Little said.

According to a report from the health department, there were 123 children in 57 families served by the program from mid-June to the end of July.

"There is about $400,000 in the coffers because of the late start-up that will not be used," Soutas-Little said. "But it will not carry for 1 and 1/2 years until the next millage comes in."

Rushton said the board has the right to reduce a millage and no one has said anything about eliminating the program.

"Our chairman, in a responsible manner, made the suggestion to reduce the Early Childhood millage at this time because of the amount of dollars sitting unused," Rushton said.

Going forward the board can increase that millage amount to serve the program, she said.

"It's not elimination and it is responsible not to take any more tax dollars from the citizens out there than we need to serve our citizens," Rushton said.

Wessell, Bunek, BLDHD personal health Director Michelle Klein and county Administrator Chet Janik met with attorney David Stoker on Wednesday.

Stoker is with the Lansing-based Cohl, Stoker and Toskey, which represents the majority of counties in the state. Janik said Stoker will provide a written opinion on the matter.

Soutas-Little said it may be legal to eliminate the tax, but it's not ethical.

Bunek, Lautner and Rushton and were opposed to the millage from its inception, saying it was not needed. They also opposed contracting for services with the BLDHD, saying requests for proposals from other providers should have been sent out.

Lautner said the program has not been successful because of the low numbers of children being served.

Rushton said services provided are redundant because other programs do the same thing. She said people have complained to her about having to pay the tax.

The millage costs the owner of a home with a taxable value of $150,000 about $38 per year.

Bunek agreed the program duplicates services already available for children and that the election took place on a date no one knew about. He also mentioned what he called the "Quebec study," which he says found that early childhood education creates more problems.

"For all of those reasons I don't see a need for this program at all," Bunek said.

Wessell said he was tired of Bunek coming to meetings having not done any research and spouting misinformation like that cited by some recently that masks do not stop the spread of COVID-19, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.

Wessell asked Bunek to remove himself from his post on the BLDHD Health Board, as he does not represent the citizens of the county.

Wessell said he is not proud of the board's action, that it's not appropriate to nullify a vote of the residents.

"It's sad that we are making this decision to abandon young families," Allgaier said.