Mayor explains no vote on taxes

Dear Editor,

I have been asked why I voted against the millage reduction at the last Imlay City Commission Meeting. I did that for several reasons.

By my rough calculations, the benefit for an individual house in Imlay City would be very small–less than $3 per month.

Instead, the grand majority of that cut in taxes will benefit commercial properties.

However, the approximately $62,500 total reduction were funds that were already counted as revenue in the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget.

That 2026-2027 budget, which included the $62,500, had been previously approved by the City Commission and those funds had already been allocated to the city departments.

Making cuts to departments to compensate for that $62,500 may well result in some lost services or benefits.
As City Commissioners, we have to make difficult decisions all the time, for the benefit of the city and all of its residents.

As elected officials, we are tasked with spending the taxpayers dollars responsibly and we know that those are very hard-earned dollars. We take our jobs very seriously and know that not every decision will be popular but we are here to make the best decisions that we can given all of the priorities involved.

For example, several years ago we made the difficult decision to raise water and sewer rates because we had to do that although we knew that would create concerns for the residents.

We buy our water from Great Lakes Water Authority and they raise the rates every year. The city had not raised the water rates in over 10 years so we were at the point where we had to raise the rates.

We also must save and plan ahead to be able to fix infrastructure. The sewer situation is worse. We have 40 year old equipment in the waste water treatment plant.

When things stop working, we can’t get parts to repair the equipment because those parts are no longer being manufactured.

We are going to have to put approximately $18M into the Waste Water Treatment plant in the next couple years.
Hopefully we will be able to do most of that with grants, but we, as residents, will have to pay some of that so that we continue to have the service that we take for granted.

I understand that much of this can be overwhelming, but you will be in a much better position to understand what is going on in your City if you reach out and get your questions answered.

Please feel free to contact your City Commissioners, including me as your Mayor, or the City offices, if you have questions or concerns.

We are all here to listen, and to help.

—Barbara Yockey
Mayor,
City of Imlay City