Center Line bond proposal, millage renewal on May 2 ballot

WARREN/CENTER LINE — Two Center Line Public Schools proposals will be on the May 2 special school election ballot.

Center Line district voters are asked to vote on a $17 million capital improvement bond proposal and also on a restoration operating millage renewal proposal.

According to school officials, both proposals will maintain tax rates at the current level, thus neither proposal will increase current taxes.

“It’s not an increase. It’s a maintenance,” district Superintendent Joseph Haynes said. “All the rates are staying the same.”

 

Operating millage renewal
The operating millage renewal comes before the taxpayers every 10 years. It is a different funding source than a bond. The operating millage makes up 31% of the district’s funding.

“I’m hoping it’s going to pass,” Haynes said.

Funds from the operating millage renewal, if passed, will be used to pay for the everyday expenses of operating the school buildings, including salaries for teachers and support staff, heat, buses, diesel fuel, electricity, after-school activities, athletics and more.

“Center Line Public Schools is asking our community to continue funding our schools at the same tax rate that we are currently funded,” the district’s website states. “This is not an increase in the tax rate but a renewal of the current level of funding.”

If the operating millage renewal does not pass, school officials will have to cut 31% of the district’s operating budget, which could result in program cuts, increased class sizes, staff layoffs, and/or service cuts for transportation, athletics and extracurricular activities.

According to school officials, the 31% totals $3,198 in per pupil funding of the $10,455 the district receives in state aid per student. State aid funds are distributed to public school districts across the state and placed into the general fund budgets of the districts. The general fund is the chief operating fund of the school district, which pays for staffing, curriculum, utilities, school supplies, buses, supplies and more.

 

School Improvement Bond
A bond proposal is developed by the school district and presented to the voters for approval. When a bond proposal passes, the bonds are sold in the capital markets at a date determined by the district, a financial adviser and an underwriter. Upon closing, funds generated from the bond sale are deposited in the district’s construction fund and are available to spend for completion of the projects contemplated in the bond proposal.

Center Line officials are placing a zero-mill increase improvement bond on the May 2 ballot. According to school officials, the zero-mill bond will not increase the tax rate being levied for the district’s current bonded debt but will keep the tax rate at the current level.

If the zero-mill increase improvement bond passes next week, it will generate $17 million for needed repairs throughout the district. It will establish a new bond at the same tax rate of the 2002 bond, which was for $8.35 million. The tax rate would remain at 1.93 mills.

“We’re asking taxpayers to maintain the (tax) rate the same as the old bond,” Haynes said. “People are already paying on it.”

Should it pass, the zero-mill increase improvement bond proposal would be a 25-year bond.

According to the district, it would fund many projects, including the addition of two classrooms at Crothers Elementary; the creation of a secure entrance to the Eve Kaltz/Academy 21 building and the remodeling of classrooms to meet early childhood licensing requirements; the addition of student collaboration centers at Wolfe and Center Line High School; and repairs to the district’s tennis courts.

Partners in Architecture PLC, based in Mount Clemens, are the architects for the bond projects. McCarthy and Smith, of Farmington Hills, is the construction manager.

To view a complete list of projects, visit the district’s website at clps.org.