GLADSTONE, Mich. (WZMQ) – A Gladstone ballot proposal could change the way the City funds improvement projects.
“The City’s used special assessments from as far back as the 60s – 70s to partially supplement road improvements, infrastructure improvements,” explained Mayor Joe Thompson.
A proposed amendment to the city’s charter would take away the City’s power to collect millages through special assessments. The proposal is the work of the Gladstone Citizens Council, a group of residents who came together after a special assessment was implemented in their neighborhood in 2020.
“We couldn’t understand how it could be so much that was going to be added to our taxes,” said Mike O’Connor, Citizens Council Director and candidate for a partial term on the City Commission. “When we looked at the paperwork, it said the value of your property would go up by this amount. The way special assessments are supposed to work is that they do look at the value of a property before and after, and the increase in value is what you’ll be charged. It would be fair if the value of our property went up by what the City said. We found out they did not do a market study at all. They just made up a number of what they needed to fill the budget.”
However, City Manager Eric Buckman disputes O’Connor’s claims. He says the City Commission has always been “extremely fair” when levying special assessments.
“Usually, the City uses our Act 51 moneys and pays about 80% of the bill, and then the remaining 20%, we split up amongst the property owners according to their frontage,” Buckman said. “We have public meetings and we lay it out. We give them, depending on the size of the project, anywhere from six to eight years to pay back the assessment.”
If the proposal passes, Thompson says it would become “very difficult” to move forward with roadwork at the current pace.
“The majority of our funding that we take in in taxes goes toward funding police and fire protection,” he said. “A lot of our other funds are all restricted, the money has to be used within those funds. Not to mention that it would leave us with debt that would have to be repaid from the former special assessments.”
According to Buckman, the Commission would have to introduce a roadwork referendum, which would affect all city residents rather than those living in a special assessment zone.
“Once you get your street paved, you’re usually good for 25 years,” he said. “If I just got my street paved last year, and now I find out I have to pay three mills to help pave everybody’s road, I don’t know if I’d be happy.”
At Monday’s Gladstone City Commission meeting, former commissioner Doug Bovin shared his thoughts on the proposal, saying it would be “an absolute disaster.” He detailed his own experience with special assessments decades ago.
“We were on a septic system, and the water line stopped right at our house,” Bovin said. “The water that we got was stagnant. The road was in need of repair… They put in a new sewer system… They put in a new water line… That helped everybody with good water, not stagnant at the end. They put in a new curb and gutter… and they also repaved the road.”
To fund those projects, Bovin says he had to pay four special assessments. Although it was a financial challenge at the time, he told the Commission he is glad the City put the special assessments in place.
“If you have to get rid of special assessments… if you have to go to the whole voters, why would they go for it?” Bovin asked. “Why would the people of the City of Gladstone vote to put a new water line in front of my house down there? Why would they want to raise their taxes to pay for that? No, you’re doing it the right way and most cities do it the same way.”
O’Connor maintains that such decisions should be up to the voters.
“They’re bypassing the people—no vote of the people—and they’re saying, ‘This is what you’re going to pay,'” he said. “It’s important for people to vote whenever taxes go up, and this is a tax.”
The ballot proposal reads, “It is proposed by an initiative petition that Chapter XI, Special Assessments, be amended to remove the city’s authority to levy and collect special assessments by abrogating Sections 2 through 28 and replacing the text of Section 1 with: “The commission shall not have the power to levy and collect special assessments. The City of Gladstone shall immediately cease all actions to collect any special assessment.”
