Southfield board votes 4–2 to place Oakland County enhancement millage question on August ballot
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Summary
The Southfield Board of Education voted 4–2 to approve Report 6448, referring a proposed countywide enhancement millage to voters in August; the vote asks residents to decide whether Oakland County should collect and redistribute millage proceeds among its districts.
The Southfield Board of Education voted 4–2 on Feb. 10 to place a proposed Oakland County enhancement millage on the August ballot, a move that will ask county voters whether to authorize a millage collected by the county and redistributed to school districts.
Superintendent Jennifer Green told the board that the district’s vote would not endorse or oppose the millage’s substance, but would only place the question before voters. "Your vote in favor of the resolution would simply be to place it in the hands of the voters for the voters to make a decision," Green said during the meeting.
The proposal — discussed in Oakland County over the last two years — would create a county-collected millage if a majority of the county’s districts agree to put it before voters. If a majority of districts representing 51% of students support placement, it can still appear on the ballot even if an individual district votes against it.
Trustees raised routine questions about how the millage would be calculated and distributed. A trustee asked for a plain-language explanation of "millage," and Green described the tax as based on a home's state equalized value with one mill equal to $1 per $1,000 of property value.
After discussion, the board moved to open and approve Report 6448. The roll-call vote recorded four trustees in favor and two opposed; the motion carried.
What happens next: Because the board’s action refers the question to voters, any final decision on whether Oakland County will implement the enhancement millage rests with voters in the August election. If the countywide proposal passes, the mills would be collected by Oakland County and redistributed among its 28 school districts.
Report and vote provenance: The millage resolution was introduced as Report 6448 and discussed in the meeting’s information items. The board’s approval places the question on the August ballot; no millage rate or local allocation formula was adopted by the board at this meeting.