MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Forget about a gas-tax hike... Meridian Township is looking to raise property taxes to fix the roads.
The current millage raises a little more than $400,000 which is barely more than 10% of what the township needs.
The Township Board and the Transportation Commission are going to lay out two new options to the public. One of them could be on the ballot later this year.
"Right now our roads really on a scale of one to ten, ten being perfect, are rated at about a 3," said Franks Walsh, Township Manager.
Meridian Township officials and some homeowners are in strong agreement that neighborhood streets are bad.
"They're deteriorating really rapidly," said Jason Willis, a homeowner in the Shaker Heights neighborhood. "They're pretty terrible. They need to be repaved and it just makes it easier on everybody driving around. You're not bumping around. You're not getting your car destroyed."
The township funds a majority of repaving work, but Walsh said the current 0.2484 mills that taxpayers pay which generate $420,000 per year isn't enough.
The current millage passed approximately 6 to 8 years ago.
To put it into context, the owner of a home with a market value of $300,000 pays approximately $36 annually for street improvements through the street millage.
In 2018, out of 147 miles of local streets, only 3 miles of streets were able to be repaved.
"We need about $3.5 million per year to go from a 3 rating up closer to an 8 or 9," Walsh said.
He added that getting to a better score with $3.5 million could take up to ten years, but it's better than the latter.
"We want to be in every neighborhood fixing a street every ten years. Right now we're on pace every 42 years," he said.
The Township Board and the Transportation Commission may ask voters to look into special assessments where they would only charge people for roads in front of their homes or they would propose a bond.
"We'd have about a 1.8 or 1.9 mills levy is what we have with a bond that we're gonna hopefully propose in August," Walsh said.
Willis says an increase is worth it to fix the roads. "When you factor in car accidents and all that other stuff, repairs. I think it's more expensive to not fix the roads."
The special township board meeting is next Tuesday, April 16th at the Township Hall on Marsh Road.
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