By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
Voters in two Southwest Michigan communities will be going to the polls this August and November to decide what their government will look like moving forward.
In the Baroda area, Baroda village residents will vote in November on whether the village should be disincorporated into Baroda Township. In Howard Township near Niles, voters will decide in August whether the township will remain a charter township or go back to being a general law township.
The Baroda Township Board recently voted to put the disincorporation issue on the Nov. 3 ballot. That action came after township and village officials failed to agree on the make up of a disincorporation commission that would have studied the issue and make a recommendation to residents.
The commission never actually met after the first scheduled meeting was cancelled in March. Disagreements then arose after the township failed to appoint its third member to the commission and asked the village to remove one of their representatives on the commission. The Baroda Village Council ended up voting to rescind their resolution to form the commission.
The disincorporation issue first came up last year when petitions were circulated asking for the village to be dissolved or disincorporated. When time ran out on those petitions, organizers collected more signatures and submitted them Jan. 27.
Petition organizers Jim and Joanna Whitehead said earlier that they started their effort to shrink the size of local government and reduce taxes. They questioned why they were paying so much more in taxes as village residents than what they’d pay if they were in the township.
Others have questioned whether such an action would actually lower taxes for village residents and asked what the unforeseen consequences could be including taking the focus off of other critical local issues.
The failure to have a disincorporation commission meet and make a recommendation changes who can vote on the November ballot proposal and how many votes it will take to pass.
If the proposal had been placed on the ballot as a result of the disincorporation commission recommendation, it would have required a majority vote in both the village and township to pass. As it stands now, only village residents will be voting and it will require a two-thirds vote in favor to be approved.
A secondary point of contention between the village and the township is the village’s failure to take up a township proposal to hire Wightman & Associates for $16,000. Wightman proposed to study how the disincorporation could affect the village infrastructure systems, who would be responsible for those systems after disincorporation and possible associated costs of disincorporation.
Baroda Township Clerk Christina Price said last week that she was disappointed in the village’s inaction. She said the Wightman study would have given a significant amount of information to voters to help them make an informed decision.
In Howard Township, the issue is whether the township should be a charter township or go back to being a general law township. People have questioned the process the Township Board followed in becoming a charter township in 2022 including whether it was done properly.
Residents presented petitions to the township board in April and board members then voted to put the proposal on the Aug. 4 ballot after the petition signatures were certified.
Petition organizer Chuck Bower outlined the reasons for the petition. He noted that the township board decided to start the process of becoming a charter township in early 2022 but never properly notified residents of the option to require a vote of the people to become a charter township.
The township board ended up voting to become a charter township without a public vote in April, 2022. Bower pointed out that most residents weren’t aware of the change until two years later when new signs going up stating Howard is a charter township and when board members levied a higher millage for township services.
Bower called it “taxation without representation” as residents weren’t aware that millage rates could go up without them having a say in the matter. A charter township can levy up to five mills without a public vote, while a general law township which Howard had been can only levy one mill or less without a public vote.
He said that this year is the first chance residents have had to reverse the charter township resignation as state law says that it can only be done after four years and every four years thereafter.
Some of the arguments for and against being a charter township were made at an April township board meeting as Bower and board members exchanged in a brief back and forth on the issue.
Board members cited the protections provided by being a charter township such as a protection from annexation by the city of Niles. Board members asked why the township should go backwards and called the information presented by Bower and others a “bunch of lies.”
Board members said the township would lose over $1 million a year in tax revenue if they went back to being a general law township. Bower responded by saying that taxpayers have lost over $1 million because of what he called the township board’s illegal actions in becoming a charter township without a vote by the people.
Howard Township Supervisor Bill Kasprzak said being a charter township has protected Howard from having land annexed by the city of Niles. He also said that it has allowed the township to levy extra mills to pay for fire protection as the township does not have a separate fire millage.