Officials add ‘administration fee’ to tax bills
“Curmi: (it’s)…really a tax increase….a tax that the township could levy without a vote of the residents.”
Nov. 26, 2017 PLYMOUTH EAGLE.
Plymouth Michigan
Plymouth Township officials have approved a 1-percent administration fee to be added to tax bills beginning next month.
The new fee approved by a 4-3 vote of the board was proposed by Treasurer Mark Clinton. Supervisor Kurt Heise, Clerk Jerry Vorva and Trustee Gary Heitman voted in favor of the measure while trustees Chuck Curmi, Bob Doroshewitz and Jack Dempsey opposed adding the fee to tax bills.
The new fee is expected to cost average homeowners about $43 annually while businesses will pay more. The fee is expected to generate $630,000 annually,
Clinton said. The fee is a means to offset the costs of preparing tax bills, assessing property taxes, collecting tax levies and combating property tax appeals, he added, and is “encouraged by the state.”
Clinton said that the fee would allow money in the general fund to be used for other township expenses, such as public safety.
Curmi, who opposed the measure, said the new fee was “really a tax increase.” He added that it was a tax that the township could levy without a vote of the residents. Dempsey, who also opposed the fee, suggested that the township attempt to cut some more expenses before imposing the new charge. Heise, however, said that surrounding communities impose the fee to offset costs in the assessor and treasurer’s offices and that “almost every township in Michigan does it.
Plymouth Voice.
