Financial Impact and Tax Calculator
If approved, the 2026 bond proposal would provide $40,000,000 for safe and functioning facilities with a projected zero mill increase over the current rate of 7.0 mills.
What does “zero mill increase” mean?
Many in our community have been wondering how to calculate the tax impact of the proposed bond and what exactly is meant by “zero mill increase.”
Bonds work a bit like a mortgage. The funds gathered up front through the purchase and sale of bonds allow us to make major improvements, and local property tax dollars pay off that sum over time with some interest.
However, unlike a typical mortgage, we have many buildings and many large facility needs, meaning that one bond will not cover all our facility needs indefinitely, so the majority of school districts in Michigan pursue additional bonds to continue covering needs.
As we pay off the 2010 bond, the tax rate for property owners starts to drop while facility needs remain. In order to minimize the tax impact on our community while generating the funds necessary to cover these top-priority facility improvements, the 2026 bond proposal proposes a bond debt millage that is projected to maintain the current total rate that community members have been paying at 7.00 mills.
Below are some charts provided by the district’s financial advisor for how this would work:
What is the impact to my property taxes?
The tax rate is expected to remain at 7.00 mills, meaning there is no proposed increase to the current debt millage rate for property owners.
What does this mean in dollars and cents? That depends on the specific property in question.
Here’s how to calculate your property taxes:
- Find your property's Taxable Value (TV) on your property tax statement or assessment notice. (Typically, this is about half of your property’s market value.)
- Divide the Taxable Value by 1,000.
- Multiply the result by 7.00.
Formula:
Use Taxable Value, not market value or assessed value.
As our community continues to be a desirable place to purchase property, and as property values increase each year, residents may see a slight increase in the total number of tax dollars. Any increase is not a result of the district increasing the net rate levied; rather, it is a result of property valuations increasing.
