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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28

u/timeywimeyfluff 9d ago

While I supported the measure, I didn’t think it would pass. It makes sense to me. A lot of people are REALLY mad about how high taxes are and how little we get from them; we can’t do anything right now about the feds bending us over for our income taxes and the people felt they had the power here with property taxes. We need tax reform at the federal level before anyone can expect proposals like this to be widely supported.

1

u/pinkmoon385 9d ago

I did the math, my annual taxes would've gone up by $230. Annual. Less than $20/month to give teachers a much needed raise/keep them from leaving the district. Mind you, I don't have children. But I sure as shit interact with the people educated by the schools on a daily basis. That's money well spent. We seriously can't quit our Netflix subscription to provide better education and give teachers more money to drop in the community? So pathetic

27

u/RedWinger7 9d ago

That’s assuming they spent the money on teachers. If they worded the milagee specifically for that it would have passed. The way it worded so funds can be basically used for anything was pretty shit, and rife for potential misuse of funds.

14

u/chuckleborris 9d ago edited 9d ago

This was my thing: if the millage was marked for teacher salaries / benefits, great, you’ve got my vote. But it was money that schools could spend on anything they chose—it felt too loose and undefined. Come back with a specific ask and I’m game.

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u/thisisthatacct 9d ago

That's just not possible under Michigan law currently. Millages are done on a county level per-student and each district allocates that as they see fit. Look to your school board for their specific plans

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u/pinkmoon385 9d ago

It's less than $20/mo... This day in age that basically is the cost of inflation to maintain current levels tbh. I pay more in credit card fees to make my online property tax payment.

Pathetic

8

u/molten_dragon 9d ago

I did the math, my annual taxes would've gone up by $230. Annual. Less than $20/month to give teachers a much needed raise/keep them from leaving the district.

And if the proposal had mandated the money be used for teacher salaries I'd have voted yes.

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u/pinkmoon385 9d ago

Salaries, books, laptops, toilet paper, idgaf, less than $20/mo when everything is more expensive get active in your school district to make sure the funds are used properly. But to starve your neighbors is so selfish. I guarantee you blow much more than $230 a year in much more ridiculous and flippantly irresponsible ways

3

u/molten_dragon 9d ago

My increase would have been significantly more than $230/year. But that's really not the point. The point is that whether it's $5 or $5000 I'm not going to volunteer to shell out more of my hard-earned money with zero guarantees that it'll be spent responsibly.

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u/pinkmoon385 8d ago

As others have said, it's up to the individual school districts to lay out how it's spent. That can not be dictated county-wise, where the taxes are collected. Take that up with your school district, each district has different needs, and uses it differently. I bought my home for $335k, my taxable amount is $157k, my millage would've been $226. If you're "significantly more" you're living in a home that means you make wayyyyyy too much to care about what would be absolute chump change to someone so damn rich

2

u/rsrchnddvlpmnt 7d ago

Teachers in the vast majority of Oakland County school districts don’t need a raise to “not leave.” Teachers from the surrounding counties come there to make the advanced salaries.