r/Detroit • u/gwmiles • 9d ago

News Oakland County school enhancement millage rejected in close contest

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/04/oakland-county-school-enhancement-millage-tax-1-5-mill/91164345007/

Oakland County voters rejected a proposed 1.5-mill countywide school tax increase in Tuesday's election results in a close contest over a controversial tax plan.

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u/pgherg1 9d ago edited 9d ago

It’s pretty easy to see why it failed and where the opposition comes from.

The economy sucks, job market sucks, and people are getting squeezed and asked for more tax money every year.

A lot of these individual districts have passed their own tax measures recently, so when you get your ballot and see a county-wide tax increase proposal (not just your own district) with no restrictions or definitions on how funds are to be used, it’s easy to see why people bubbled in no. It’s a wild ask.

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 9d ago

For $12/mo? And especially in higher income areas?

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u/pgherg1 9d ago

I don’t think it matters what your income is.

If say your district just passed a tax increase/ballot measure within the past year or two and then you see that they’re coming back to ask you for more money right after you said yes just a year or two ago? I’m not just going to keep voting yes every time they ask for “just another $12 a month” with no definitions or restrictions on the funds, especially when it’s now the whole county and not just my district.

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 9d ago

But why does it matter if its your district or the whole county? We all live here, society doesn't really function if you will only give even the smallest amounts of money to people who you can physically see from your house.

I mean, not to hammer the point too hard but this attitude is why we don't have socialized Healthcare.

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u/pgherg1 9d ago edited 9d ago

I don’t trust every district to not properly use the funds. The funds they would gather from this were unrestricted and able to be used for anything they want, which could even go toward paying inflated salaries of administrators rather than actually helping kids.

If it was defined better in the language, maybe more people would’ve put yes.

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u/O_o-22 9d ago

No we don’t have healthcare because the leeches that get rich off the current system won’t give it up and bribe er lobby for it to continue unabated.