There are only a few days until Election Day. About 65% of Michigan’s registered voters haven’t voted yet as of November 1.
If you’re one of those voters, you can find your sample ballot on the state’s website.
You might see that ballot is asking you to do a lot more than just vote for the next president.
On top of state and local races, many areas have ballot questions that ask voters to decide what their communities should do with marijuana sales, school or library funding, public safety, elections, energy, and more.
Michigan Public has been gathering information on some of these ballot questions. Some questions appear in many communities — with some important differences — while others only appear in one community but could be interesting to others.
Questions that appear across the state
Marijuana
Marijuana keeps popping up on ballots across Michigan six years after voters chose to legalize the drug for adult recreational use.
Pot can be legally consumed in Michigan. But individual communities get to choose whether they want to allow cannabis to be sold, grown, or processed within their borders.
These ballot measures show that controversy around marijuana that still exists in some communities, despite state legalization and growing support for legalizing the drug nationwide.
Click here to learn more about marijuana ballot questions.
Libraries
Library funding questions, called millages, are also being posed to voters in over two dozen Michigan communities.
Most of the library millages on ballots across Michigan this year would not necessarily add any new taxes. These “renewal” ballot questions ask voters whether they want to keep existing millages in place — and often the funds from those millages can make or break a library’s budget.
Click here to learn more about library funding ballot questions.
Schools
There are dozens of school funding questions on ballots across Michigan. Some districts have multiple measures on the same ballot.
There are three different types of proposals Michiganders might see from their local district. They all rely on millages, but in different ways for different reasons:
Operating Millages: The most common type of school funding request voters will see on ballots this election cycle. Money from this millage goes to a district’s general budget to pay for things like teacher salaries, utilities, and other operational expenses.
In most communities, this tax can only apply to second homes and businesses — so most homeowners pay nothing.
Bonds & Sinking Funds: These two funding methods have more use restrictions than operating millages. For the most part, they can only be used for capital projects, like building renovations and new bus purchases. So they can’t be used to give schools funds to hire more teachers, for example.
The difference between a bond and a sinking fund is primarily the speed at which schools get the money and where it comes from.
Click here to learn more about school funding ballot questions.
Questions that appear in specific communities
Below are summaries of proposals that appear on a few specific communities’ ballots. While these might not be as common as school operating millages or marijuana proposals, they do give a good sense of the variety of things that a community might vote on.
And just because it is not on your ballot now, doesn’t mean it won’t ever be.
Click a question to jump to a specific example:
Should Ingham County slightly increase property taxes to address its housing shortage?
Should the Eaton Rapids Area District Library use a new tax to upgrade its building and services?
Should Ingham County slightly increase property taxes to address its housing shortage?
The question:
Ingham County is currently short about 7,500 housing units according to Alan Fox, the county treasurer. And, he said, the demand will only grow. New jobs are coming to the region – a new battery plant and a new Amazon facility. Fox estimates the entire region will need more than 12,000 new housing units over the next decade.
The millage would cost taxpayers $0.50 for every $1,000 in taxable property value and raise more than $5 million per year. A home with a taxable value of $100,000 would pay $50.
The money will be used to build new housing, but also toward down payment assistance, meeting critical needs for unhoused people and other programs.
Background:
The Ingham County Housing Trust Fund was created in 2021 using $9 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to invest in affordable housing development. The millage aims to keep the pandemic-era housing initiative alive.
Potential impact:
Last year the Housing Trust Fund awarded $2.5 million in grants to create 128 new affordable housing units and rehabilitate 20 existing rental units. One of those projects, at the former Walter French Junior High School in Lansing, will open later this year.
The new millage alone is not enough to address Ingham County’s housing shortage.
“The critical piece is making that money bring in additional money,” Fox said. One way the county is already doing that is by training developers how to access state and federal funding.
Summary by Doug Tribou and Caoilinn Goss.
Should the Eaton Rapids Area District Library use a new tax to upgrade its building and services?
The question:
Library leaders are asking voters to approve a bond, or loan, of just over $6.5 million to fund renovations of a library building that has “near end of life or non-existent” heating, cooling, plumbing, lighting and other issues. They also hope to add more space and update technology for patrons’ use.
The bond request comes with a 18-year millage to pay off the loan at .90 mills — 90 cents a year for every $1,000 in taxable value.
According to estimates released by the library, the millage rate is expected to drop after the first 10 years, reaching .73 in 2042.
Background:
Voters already rejected a version of this bond measure during this year’s August primary, with 55% against.
A separate, existing millage funds the library’s general operations. Library leaders said that is not enough to cover renovations and maintain current operations.
Potential impact:
The proposed millage would cost $90 a year for an Eaton Rapids home with a $100,000 taxable value. The state property tax estimator tool suggests that homeowner might still pay nearly $4,120 in other 2023 taxes without the library millage.
Summary by Adam Yahya Rayes.
Should Ann Arbor create an optional renewable energy service, called a Sustainable Energy Utility, to supplement electricity provided by DTE Energy?
The question:
Proposal A would authorize Ann Arbor to seek loans to offer optional city-owned rooftop solar panels, or rooftop solar panels and home battery storage, to groups of residents, landowners, and businesses. The city would repay the loans with the income from monthly bills sent to these opt-in city customers, for the electricity produced.
DTE Energy would continue to provide electricity to these customers when the renewable energy produced by the city–owned technology is not available. Other services in the future could include geothermal projects, as well as weatherization and appliance replacement for low-income residents.
Background:
City officials say this would be the first SEU (supplemental renewable energy service) in the state of Michigan, as well as being the third in the country. The state of Delaware has an SEU, as well as Washington, D.C.
This proposal would support Ann Arbor’s goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Potential impact:
The city’s research documents are listed here, showing the SEU could have a dramatic impact on the city’s carbon emissions if it is implemented on a wide scale.
Ann Arbor officials say modeling by a third party hired by the city shows that customers who opt in to the rooftop solar panel program will pay a lower kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity produced from the panels than what they currently pay DTE Energy.
City officials note that residents and businesses will have to give the program time to get off the ground if Proposal A passes. Work to install solar panels and battery storage for opt-in customers would not begin until at least 2026.
Viewpoints:
There is no group that is actively opposing Proposal A, although a grassroots group called Ann Arbor for Public Power believes it does not go far enough. That group says it plans to mount a petition drive for a ballot proposal to buy out the city’s DTE assets in order to create a full municipal electric utility in 2026.
DTE Energy says it supports Ann Arbor’s clean energy goals with its own MIGreenPower Program. The utility says Proposal A would provide city residents with another option to reduce their own carbon emissions.
Summary by Tracy Samilton.
Should the city of Ann Arbor change its local elections to be nonpartisan and fund candidates with city money?
The questions:
Ann Arbor’s Proposal C would establish non-partisan elections in the city and eliminate the August primary.
Proposal D would establish a public financing system using the city budget to provide up to $40,000 to candidates for city council and up to $90,000 to candidates for city mayor. The candidates have to agree to only accept $50 contributions from individuals.
Background:
Proposal C and D were put forward by former city council members who lost their seats during primaries, as well as a grassroots group of Ann Arbor voters who feel the current partisan system of electing city leaders is undemocratic and favors candidates with greater political access to campaign funding sources.
Summary by Tracy Samilton.
Should Saginaw amend its city charter to include language that “Back the Blue” group says supports first responders?
The question:
It’s not clear what the “Back the Blue Public Safety Priority” proposed amendment would actually do. Its stated purpose is to “make public safety a top priority” in the city of Saginaw and “recognize the sacrifices” of first responders.
It includes wording recommending city leaders make sure there's training for body camera usage for police. It also directs city leaders to prioritize life insurance purchases for police and other first responders.
But the amendment does not address funding, and it would not raise taxes or fees, or appropriate money toward the recommendations it outlines. It also does not address how the city would implement some of the recommendations with EMTs who work for private entities and not directly for the city.
Background:
A group called “Back the Blue” organized a petition drive to get the amendment on the ballot. The statewide chapter conducted similar petition initiatives in other cities including Grand Rapids, but Saginaw is the only place where the group succeeded in getting it on the ballot this year.
Since the proposal was added to the ballot, there have been questions about what it would actually do and whether it’s even legal to put it up for a vote.
MLive reporter Justin Engel dug into the proposed amendment’s path to the ballot. He spoke with Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.
Engel reports the governor’s office said in a letter to city officials that the office did not receive the language of the amendment in enough time to approve the ballot item, citing the “Home Rule City Act” but according to Saginaw’s elections director, the letter arrived too late to safely remove the amendment from November’s ballots without disrupting the election process.
Summary by Doug Tribou and Caoilinn Goss.
