ANN ARBOR, MI — Ann Arbor voters will see a city tax proposal for streets and sidewalks on the ballot in August.
The city is essentially asking for reauthorization of the 2.125 mills worth of property taxes for streets and sidewalks that city voters last approved in 2011, though there’s still an ongoing discussion about the scope of the millage.
City Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he hopes the ballot language makes it clear the millage funds could be used for pedestrian safety and accessibility projects such as filling sidewalk gaps and improving crosswalks.
“Right now, the ability to fund those is ambiguous, so we’ve been funding them from a variety of sources,” he said.
“I would like to see that clarity as we move forward.”
Though there has been some talk of asking voters to increase the levy to fund more pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements, something the city’s Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force asked the City Council to consider, the council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night that sticks with 2.125 mills.
The approved resolution asks the city’s administration to prepare the language to be placed on the August ballot and then come back to council with it.
The council intends to ask voters to approve another five-year millage at 2.125 mills for street and bridge maintenance, resurfacing and reconstruction, and for sidewalk maintenance and expansion, according to Monday night’s resolution.
The council directed the city’s administration to prepare a memo clearly identifying the millage’s different intended uses.
The city has had a street maintenance millage since 1984. When it was last up for renewal in 2011, city voters not only agreed to renew the 2-mill tax, but they also approved a 0.125-mill increase to pay for sidewalk repairs.
During the 2012-2016 construction seasons, an average of 8.5 miles of streets have and will have been resurfaced or reconstructed annually.
And during the 2012-2015 construction seasons, the equivalent of about 17 miles of sidewalk have been replaced and an additional 22,000 slabs repaired. Additional work is still pending for the 2016 construction season.
Without reauthorization from voters, city officials note the street and sidewalk millage expires after this year.
“I think this is a really elemental tool to making our streets and our sidewalks better, keeping them up to the standard that we expect, but also looking at the holistic transportation system,” said Council Member Chip Smith, D-5th Ward.
“Rather than just roads, this allows us to look at motorized and non-motorized transportation funding together.”
Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, said she and Smith, along with Mayor Christopher Taylor, talked about when to put the millage to voters.
She said they decided on the August ballot, as opposed to the November ballot when many more people will be voting in the presidential election, because they don’t want the city’s proposal to get lost on a crowded ballot.
Briere suggested people might have ballot fatigue in November, with straight-ticket voting in Michigan now eliminated.
“It will be a long ballot, and it will require a lot of attention from members of the public,” Briere said.
“In August, however, it’s a primary. It’s focused on local issues … and it seems that we can manage to make certain people pay attention and decide whether to continue the millage most effectively if it’s on the August ballot.”
Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, stressed the importance of continuing to have a local streets millage in addition to state funding.
Other council members noted the county for the last two years has been levying a 0.5-mill countywide road tax that also helps Ann Arbor maintain city streets.
They noted the county board, which has approved the tax the last two years without going to voters, is looking at putting a proposal on the ballot this year.
“I know our staff has been working pretty closely with the county to discuss timing and coordination,” Smith said.
“We want to be seen as partners with the county’s effort. We think that these work best together.”
Taylor also addressed the potential coordination with the county. He said it’s his understanding the countywide road millage that could go before voters this year would include the ability to address the Border-to-Border Trail.
Council Member Jane Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward, said it’s critical that Ann Arbor’s street and sidewalk millage be renewed.
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“The roughly $10 million the millage generates is essential funding for the one thing virtually everyone agrees is a priority: fixing the roads,” she said, calling it a simple, straightforward renewal with no changes.
“At one point, there was mention of perhaps expanding the scope of what the funds could be used for, but that would have been a mistake, in my view.”
That’s when Warpehoski, pushing back on Lumm’s comment, said he hopes the new ballot language makes it clear the millage funds could be used for projects such as filling sidewalk gaps and improving crosswalks.
Lumm said those are not things the city has historically funded with the millage, so the city needs to be upfront with voters if the scope is changing. And if it is, she said, then it can’t truly be called a renewal.
Taylor suggested Monday night it won’t be called a renewal.
Briere reiterated that the council’s resolution asks city staff to come back with a memo explaining how the millage funds could be spent. And it does specifically reference the ability to use it to expand the city’s sidewalk network.
The council will review the language before formally voting to place a proposal on the ballot.
Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at
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