Dearborn City Ballot Proposals on CDTV
Dearborn voters can learn more about the three ballot proposals to be decided in the Nov. 8 election by watching a League of Women Voters forum on the topics on CDTV, the City of Dearborn’s official television channel.
During the Nov. 8 election, Dearborn voters will be asked to make decisions about temporarily increasing the funding for City services and authorizing a dedicated source of revenue for the library system.
A third ballot proposal asks voters to decide if the Civil Service System should be eliminated from the City Charter.
The ballot proposal forum was hosted by the Dearborn-Dearborn Heights League of Women Voters in the Dearborn City Council Chambers.
CDTV is now broadcasting the ballot proposal forum on cable channel 12 on Comcast and cable channel 10 on WOW on the following schedule:
• Mondays and Wednesdays: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m. (Mondays only), 6 p.m., and 10 p.m.
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and 11 p.m.
• Fridays: 6 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m.
• Saturdays and Sundays: 8 a.m., 12 p.m., and 4 p.m. (Saturday only)
The League’s forum can be viewed any time at the City of Dearborn’s website, www.cityofdearborn.org
During the forum, Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. addressed questions from the League of Women Voters and audience members about the three ballot proposals.
Proposal 1 asks voters to decide if the City’s operating tax rate should be temporarily increased by no more than 3.5 mills for no more than 5 years. The operating tax is the most critical source of funding for most City services.
Proposal 2 asks voters to decide if they want to authorize a 1 mill dedicated tax for library services for no more than 10 years.
The forum also includes a presentation by Eric Lupher, director of local affairs for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, who gave a general overview about Civil Service Systems.
His information was background for Proposal 3, which asks voters to decide if the Civil Service System should be eliminated in Dearborn.
City Attorney Debra Walling joined the Mayor in answering questions about Dearborn’s Civil Service System, which applies to certain City of Dearborn employees.
The League also held a forum with the candidates for the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education. There are four candidates for two school board positions, which will be decided in the Nov. 8 election.
CDTV will broadcast the school board candidate forum every day from now until Nov. 8.
On the Nov. 8 election day, polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For more election information, call the City Clerk’s office at 943-2032.
October 20th, 2011 at 9:52 am
The propoganda machine is in full force for the next few weeks, hoping that the residents won’t pay any attention, and will simply roll over and pay for the rise in taxes — Don’t fall 4 it. Vote NO on the proposals.
October 21st, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Forum, schmorum—here is all Dearborn Property Tax Payers (not to be confused with Voters, as not all Voters pay property taxes, but are allowed to set our rates) need to know about the millage proposals:
Vote NO
October 21st, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Unless you are a complete idiot, voting NO is the only way to go, that is unless you waant your taxes to keep going up, even after the supposedly 5 yrs. that they are asking for, because taxes turn out to never be temporary.
October 22nd, 2011 at 12:42 am
I am voting no on all the proposals. I do NOT trust this administration. Go after all the taxes Fakhourey owes. Stop buying buildings (like Montgomery Wards) and homes at high prices and selling them from nothing. Sell the Performing Arts Center it is a drain on our taxes. Charge the Chamber of Commerce fair market value in rent. When the votes voted to sell Dearborn Towers you sat on it and waiting for the value to drop even more. Stop all the freebies and then we will talk about giving you more money.
October 22nd, 2011 at 3:44 pm
You don’t like the Mayor. I get it. You don’t like the way the City is run. I get it. How does holding your breath until you turn blue help pay for city services? Some people like to harken back to the ‘good ol’ days of Hubbard’ in Dearborn. There was huge waste in those days. The difference was, Dearborn could afford waste back then. We used to spend more on the Recreation Department than the police or fire departments, maybe even combined. Revenue has dropped like a rock, we are still paying Ford and Severstal back for back taxes, and the City bosses are having a hard time cutting enough heads to balance the budget because they can’t fire the whole fire department like Allen Park. (For which I am glad.) The tax rolls are finally squaring up to real values, so Dearbornites are paying less taxes. Voting in the increases will mean you will pay taxes similar to the amounts you paid before…you know, when the services were paid for? That is simple math, folks. If you don’t like property taxes, would you support a local income tax? I didn’t think so. Stop bitching and whining and pay for the services we need and enjoy. This Mayor can be voted out without bankrupting the City in the meantime.
October 22nd, 2011 at 4:32 pm
You are so correct in all your examples of horrible City government, especially with Fachoury. Hakim has made O’Reilly look like a chump, as well as Norwood and the rest of the big fella’s administration, and all the administration keeps doing is turn the other cheek, and ask for more. Vote NO on all the proposals for Big
Boys sake, this way he might wise up, and learn how to better use the money at hand. Maybe he can ask FICANO for help, they seem like two peas in a pod.
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:57 am
You must be a stooge or department head for Bluto, nice try, but I agree with other bloggers here, vote NO on the proposals regardless of what his stooges may be told to say, and write.
October 23rd, 2011 at 9:00 am
Like I said before…We JUST had a MIL increase to 15mils by the City letting us believe they wouldnt do an increase when we voted for the permission for the Charter Commission to override the Headlee Amendment…they did just that! Now they want ANOTHER increase and want us to believe that it will be used WISELY for city services B*******T. It will go to the general fund to pay for more lawsuits, real estate busts, and who knows what? VOTE NO! Let see if they use the current increase responsibly first!
October 23rd, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Voting no on the millages is not a vote against the mayor or any other city official you think should be booted out of office. It won’t affect them one bit – their positions and pay will still be the same whether the millages pass or not. What voting no is, is simply a vote against the services we all enjoy. You might think voting no will hurt the mayor or other department heads. Don’t be so foolish – it will only hurt city services and property values in Dearborn.
For those of us who can afford to pay what we were paying before, believe me, it is well worth it to vote yes on proposals 1 & 2.
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I wonder how many of the anonymous commenters here are Dearborn Heights resident Mario Fundaro/Fundarski/Adam Adamski. He was bopping between all of the Dearborn master plan meetings, giving his address at the Falcoln Inn Motel, and then leafletting actual resident’s cars with anti-Prop 1 literature.
Just Saying is (probably willfully) mistaken. The city council was allowed under the Headlee Amendment to raise our millage to 15 mills. Proposal 1 overrides the Headlee Amendment to allow them to raise it to 18 mills.
Proposal 2 will hopefully allow the Bryant Library to stay open. If it closes, the property goes back to Ford Land to do with as they will. That would be a genius move.
You want low taxes, crappy services, no police and fire, and plummeting real estate values? Look anywhere else in Metro Detroit. That describes most of the suburbs and especially the exurbs.
Do you want Dearborn to go the way of Redford? Then go ahead and vote no on proposals 1 & 2. We’ll keep our extremely well-staffed police and fire and lose every positive reason to live here.
October 23rd, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Dearborn Resident,
When you vote yes to have your taxes raised to the highest level they were at before, just be prepared that when the economy turns around and the property values increase, you will be pay more than twice that. You are never going to get a break. Once they have your taxes dollars they will spend it any way they chose. They will be able to stay in the real estate business buying properties at high prices and selling it at low prices like Montgomery Wards. Do we really need luxuries like the Performing Arts Center? If it was privatized they might be able to run it more efficient and bring in acts people really want to see. Right now it is a drain on our tax dollars. Our tax dollars are subsidizing a health club for a handful of the City. It doesn’t make sense.
October 24th, 2011 at 8:17 am
You can call it what you want, an override, a maxout of the headlee, an increase to our taxes, an INCREASE is an INCREASE to 15mills. Im just saying they put that in the charter commission to allow the city council to increase our taxes and I think most people were not aware of this nor are they aware that the city just increased it to 15mills. Lets just let the facts be known that our tax mill just went up and they are asking for another increase and I dont see where the current mill increase went to help anything. We are stilling paying for so many mills right now that we need to look into each one very carefully before we vote because more mill requests will come in the future. Just like the CSO project that was put on our taxes, what if another mill is required by law to be put on our taxes? They ask for these mills and they don’t always use them like they say they will. One of the last mills that we agreed upon was through Wayne County (so im not just talking about what Dearborn asks for in mills) was the Smart bus mill. Look how that turned out we voted yes with the premise that it would lock rates and keep it running. Well they increased the fares soon after and now cutting more routes. I dont take the bus but I voted yes because I believed them when they said it would help those who needed it. I dont use the pools but I do believe that when people bought their homes they said I don’t mind paying a little more for my house because it is in a neighborhood that has a pool so I will, its kind of like when you buy a house on a golf course or a waterfront you expect to pay more but you don’t want someone after years living there to come and rip out the golf course or the lake. I know there has to be cuts but I also know there is alot of waste. How many times does that sweeper truck really need to go back and forth down military? Anyways just in a darn the Lions lost mood and probably a little crabby but my point is…Not another mill increase right now until we can get a specific use, not just more money thrown into the general fund to do as they please.
October 24th, 2011 at 8:27 am
someone’s not a stooge for voicing an intelligent position. move to redford, please. let those of us who like the way Dearborn is to keep it this way.
October 24th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Yea, well, even the Morons need a place to spiew…sheesh! Funny how much misinformation is being spread around these parts. Not “haha” funny but funny as in ‘something smells funny’. In any event, because we are still paying on our mortgage (get off my back you cranky, fixed-income pensioners with a paid off crib), our escrow has had overflow for at least the past couple of years, so that means the S.E.V. has tanked (thank you Wall Street crooks) and our property taxes went (hold onto your catheter) D-O-W-N.
Now, I know some of you want to shake your walkers and canes at Jack, Tom, and the Council and show them a thing or two. But, a no vote on proposal one (and two for that matter) won’t “learn them” a thing. You know what they’ll say? They’ll say, the voters said they don’t want city services at the level that has been in the recent past. It won’t be their fault, it’ll be ours, the voters.
Vote down the increase and you’ll slit your own throat. No skin off their backs.
Look, I still think the leaves in the street fiasco has got to go, but, there’s a whole helluva lot of things that I love about our city.
Mostly, the residents do a bang-up job keeping the yards looking great. The libraries are great. We have competition on cable. Fire and Police are the best in the state. Love the parks.
I don’t get to the Ford Center enough, but I know a lot of people who enjoy the fitness and the shows there.
Hey Wanting, privatizing ain’t gonna get you better shows, that’s what ticketmaster is for. Show me some evidence how privatization of that facility will be more efficient than it is currently running? Got some numbers? What is the subsidy for that facility? You got the breakouts for your statement?
Indeed, the statement made by Offwiththeirheads is valid. Not all voters are property owners! But, there is an obvious, overwhelming disagreement among property owners. Less city services means continued devaluation of our property. Less people will want to come to Dearborn to live. Less will consider moving here.
By the way, when can I get my refund on all those senior services I’m paying for, but will never get to use?
Guess nepotism pays big dividends.
Anthony
October 25th, 2011 at 9:23 am
I am a Senior without a walker or cane to shake at city hall. If I could get someone to tell me which services WILL be cut if the proposals don’t pass I might change my vote.
I to would like a refund on all those senior services that I am paying for and will never use.
October 26th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Thanks, Rsk173. I am not a stooge of any elected official. I am just a resident who thinks it is obvious that if we want the garbage to be picked up and the grass cut in the parks, we need to pay for it. The tax rate will be increased…or as some like to type, INCREASED…but the tax dollars that we pay will just come closer to what we were paying before. I would love it if Ford Motor suddenly gave us $100 million and made the increase unnecessary, but that ain’t gonna happen, is it? So, like always, if we want good services we need to pay for them. My taxes recently went DOWN about $500 total, and my house is not palatial. It was about a 20 percent reduction. If Vinnie can explain how to pay for services on that decrease, he can win the next Nobel Prize for economics. I don’t see that we have a choice. We must vote for the increase.
October 26th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Vote YES. See my other comments for reasons. The negative attitude is not logical.
October 26th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
I was just reading that AAPAC is recommending a “NO” vote on all 3 proposals and also recommending Guido and McDonald for school board.
October 27th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I’m sorry, but AAPAC is a bad place to look for voting advice. They are so obviously anti-American it isn’t funny. Their leaders have made public statements supporting terrorist groups who hate America. Guido and McDonald seem to be nice people, but Petlichkoff deserves our vote. The tax proposals need to be passed…unless AAPAC is volunteering to pay for city services?…No, I didn’t think so.
October 27th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
The tax rate increase is limited, isn’t it, ‘Wanting?’ It will expire at five years, so your rant is not making sense. Property values have dropped sharply, with most taxes being lowered over twenty percent. The City can’t operate that way. The fact that you don’t like the Center does not mean you should condemn the city to bankruptcy. That isn’t going to help anyone.
October 27th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
As for tax rates, ‘Just Saying’, please remember that the highest tax rates in the Metro area are in Detroit. Why? Because the house values there are so low, on average, a very high RATE is needed to generate income for the city. If we allow Dearborn to go bankrupt, housing values in the city will fall as services disappear. What do you think will happen to the tax rates in Dearborn if housing values go down even more? Yes. The rates will have to increase to pay for services. As the ad for oil changes said: “you going to pay me now, or you going to pay a lot more later?” Paying for restoring tax revenue now will help our housing values. We need to vote for the tax increase for our own self interest.
October 27th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Wanting Better, you reference the city buying ‘homes’ at high prices and reselling for less. I don’t remember that happening. Can you please clarify?
October 27th, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I don’t like the mess with Fakhoury, either. What I don’t get is how bankrupting the city is going to help that situation. Do you think Fakhoury is going to suddenly pay what he owes if the tax proposals fail?
October 28th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Some comments here about voting no would “bankrupt” the city are a joke. The voters don’t bankrupt a city, the elected officials who choose to squander our funds have done that.
November 3rd, 2011 at 11:09 am
Correcting a statement in my entry above, I should not have said there was ‘huge waste’ in Hubbard’s day. I am sure there was some waste, but most of the expenditures are better labelled ‘extravagances.’ Civic centers, Camp Dearborn, Christmas movies (remember them, with the huge Baby Ruth candy bars after? I went to the Camelot Theater for mine) and many more were programs for the citizens. Camp Dearborn is called ‘The Citizens Country Club.’ Point being, we could afford them, back then. The tax burden shifted onto us, the citizen, away from Ford Motor. Now we are being asked to restore only some of the tax revenue that has been lost. Let’s vote that way Tuesday.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:58 am
CORRECTION to my own post. The tax RATE increase on the ballot will NOT result in our paying taxes at a total similar to before. The tax rate increase will only restore part of the lost revenue…from what I have seen, about a third of the lost revenue will be restored. Even with the separate library tax added on, the total taxes we will pay will be LESS than what we were paying before. So, despite what some of the people have said on this forum, our taxes will not be increased higher than what they were before. We need to increase the tax rate so the total dollars we pay will be enough to pay for the city services that will still remain after more cuts.
November 5th, 2011 at 11:04 am
You need to do better homework, Saab. There was a temporary tax in Dearborn’s past that wasn’t even used as long as the taxpayers approved. And, most importantly, the tax rate increase is only restoring SOME of the total tax dollars lost to dropping property values. Our actual tax dollar total will still be less than what we were paying just a couple of years ago. In my opinion, it is foolish to vote against the tax proposals. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If we want the city to function, we must pay the bill.