The purpose of local government
is to provide services to people who live within a municipality. In Mt.
Pleasant, these services include police and fire protection; parks and
recreation facilities and programs; public utilities, such as water and sewer;
and maintenance of streets and sidewalks, to name just a few.
Needless to say, it costs money
to provide these services. Our total budget each year exceeds $21 million. Of
this, approximately $8 million is in the general fund budget. Only 38% of the
general fund expenditures are financed by taxes paid by the city's property
owners. Another third is state-shared revenue, which is Mt. Pleasant's share
of sales taxes collected in Michigan. The remaining revenue comes from permit
fees, user fees, fines, grants, donations and interest. The other $13 million
of revenue comes mainly from state gas taxes and monthly user fees for water
and sewer services and goes back out to repair streets and operate the water
and wastewater plants.
The City of Mt. Pleasant
collects taxes from its residents and businesses twice a year. Only a portion
of one of those collections goes for City services, however. The City returns
all of the winter collection to Isabella County, ICTC, the Michigan State
Education Fund and the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools. Part of the summer
collection goes to the State Education Fund, the regional education service
district, the Chippewa River District Library and the Mt. Pleasant Public
Schools. If you are a homeowner, only 38 cents of every tax dollar you pay
stays in the City's treasury to cover the cost of services.
Yes, the tax levy is higher in
the city of Mt. Pleasant than in any of Isabella County's other townships. The
City collects 15.45 mills on each $1,000 of taxable value placed on your home.
If you lived in the Charter Township of Union, your millage rate would be 3.26
mills. In Chippewa Township, it would be 1 mill. The county and school millage
levies are the same, regardless of where you live within the Mt. Pleasant
School District. When we compare our tax levy to other comparable communities
within the state, we find that Mt. Pleasant residents and businesses pay less than most but more than a few.
You may have asked yourself,
"What do my tax dollars buy me?", especially when comparing our
millage rates to those of surrounding townships. Our tax dollars provide us
with a safe community. We have 32 sworn police officers with an average
response time of six minutes on any call, 12 full-time professional fire
officers and 20 highly trained part-time firefighters. Mt. Pleasant provides
licensing inspection for all rental housing, which increases the safety of the
occupants and the neighboring properties. Street and parking lot lighting
throughout the community is also provided. These initiatives have brought Mt.
Pleasant a fire rating of four, which lowers the cost of everyone's homeowners
insurance. (Ask your agent.)
Our tax dollars provide us with
a clean and attractive community. Mt. Pleasant employs planning and zoning
professionals, enforces a master plan, and encourages citizen input on all
development issues. Code Enforcement officers patrol every neighborhood and
resolved 3,200 code violations last year. Over 200 trees are planted in city
rights-of-way each year. Nearly all roads are fully developed with curbs and
gutters and storm sewers. We have a very active program of street maintenance,
as well as sidewalk construction and replacement. Snow plowing is a
24-hour-a-day operation, as is emergency sewer response. City residents are
also provided with fall leaf collection and Christmas tree pick-up.
Our tax dollars protect the
Chippewa River for public use and provide for the recreational needs of many
of our residents, as well as for residents in the surrounding area. The City
park system contains over 350 acres of green space, a small animal zoo and
recreational areas. Tax dollars subsidize the cost for residents to rent
pavilions in the parks and participate in summer playground camps. The City
also offers a full range of recreational programs for many groups,
including the developmentally disabled.
Our tax dollars finance
long-term economic development through a partnership with Middle Michigan Development Corporation (MMDC). Over the last eight years MMDC has
attracted ten new companies to our industrial park which have constructed
285,000 square feet of new industrial and warehouse space and employ 460
workers. Since the inception of Project 2000, we have seen the construction of
120 residential units in the southeast quadrant of the city with a true cash
value of $14 million.
Is it worth it? Everyone must
decide that individually, but we are proud of the level of services provided
and pledge to city residents our continued efforts to ensure the best possible
return on their tax dollars.
