Here are answers to some questions we've been hearing, in no particular order.

The questions: Will my taxes go up? Why does the wording on the ballot say "increase"? What's this about 12 mills on homestead property when you say it's now 4.7 mills? How do these things show up on my tax bill? If I'm not happy about some past city millages, why should I vote for these? Is this another bond?

Will my taxes go up?

No. These two proposals are exactly the same ones voters approved in 1999 and 2004. We're simply renewing taxes taxes which we already pay, but for strange legal reasons they can't call it a "renewal" on the ballot.

The only wrinkle to this is that two parts of these taxes were given a "haircut" (Headlee rollback) in the last few years because property values rose faster than inflation. That means that the rates right now are a tiny bit lower than what the voters approved back in 1999 and 2004. These proposals would restore the taxes to the full amount approved by the voters last time, when they take effect in 2010. The impact of this on the average homeowner in Ann Arbor is less than $2 (yes, two dollars) per year.

Why does the wording on the ballot say "increase"?

Because State law makes us say it that way. The idea is that when the current taxes expire, the amount of taxes the AAPS is authorized to levy goes down to zero. So, we have to vote to "increase" the taxes back to where they had been. Most people call this kind of thing a renewal, but we can't say that on the ballot.

What's this about 12 mills on homestead property when you say it's now 4.7 mills?

That's a good question, and bear with us as we try to explain it. This portion of the "operating millage" is levied on residential ("homestead") property, and it's different from the other taxes. It's often called the "hold harmless" millage. This is because, back in 1994 when Proposal A took effect, Ann Arbor was already spending more money per student than would have been allowed under the new State school funding formulas. So, to make sure that districts like Ann Arbor would not have to suddenly cut their spending, they were allowed to put an extra tax on homestead property to "hold them harmless" when the new system took effect.

So Ann Arbor, and about 40 similar districts, were allowed to tax residential property just enough to collect the extra amount of money per student. At the time, Ann Arbor was spending $1,234 per student more than the State maximum, so that's what we were allowed to collect.

The $1,234 has never been changed, so each year they have to calculate how many mills of tax it will take to collect exactly $1,234 per student. Back in 1994, it took something over 12 mills to do that; last year, it only took about 4.7 mills, because property values have been going up over the last 14 years. The ballot proposal lists the 12 mills because that it the maximum we could ever be taxed, no matter what. But by law, we really can't be taxed any more than what it takes to get $1,234 per student. Right now, that's about 4.7 mills, and it may go up or down slightly each year depending on what happens to the taxable values of homes. (Remember that taxable value, unlike SEV, can't go up more than 5% or the rate of inflation each year, whichever is less.)

How do these things show up on my tax bill?

The names you'll see on your tax bill are a little different. If you're a homeowner, you'll see the "hold harmless" portion of the operating millage in the line called "school supplemental," split in half across the summer and winter tax bills. If you own commercial (non-homestead) property, you'll see the 18 mills in the "school operating" line, also split in half for summer and winter. (Homeowners should see a zero in the tax amount for "school operating.")

The sinking fund is in the line called "school voted," and it's also split between summer and winter.

If I'm not happy about some past city millages, why should I vote for these?

Whatever you may think about taxes levied by the City of Ann Arbor, or any of the other agencies that can levy taxes, it's really important to remember that the Ann Arbor Public Schools is a separate unit of government which isn't connected to the City of Ann Arbor or any other agency.

We elect a Board of Education which runs the schools, and they have the power to ask voters to approve certain taxes to help run the schools. The AAPS has its own budget, and doesn't mix its funds with any other government body. If these proposals are not passed and the taxes expire, it will have no effect on the City government but it would be devastating to our schools.

Is this another bond?

No. One of the things we did in 2004 was to pass a bond proposal, meaning that we agreed to pay taxes to pay off bonds which the AAPS would sell to pay for new construction all across the district. (Only about 40% of that went to building the new high school, by the way.) Those taxes still exist and are paying down the bond debt; you'll see them on the "school debt" line of your property tax bill.

These two proposals this year have nothing to do with bonds. The first one provides the money to help run our schools - about 45% of the operating budget, in fact. The second one provides money to a "sinking fund" which can be used for repairs and renovations of school buildings. This isn't a bond because we're not going into more debt. In fact, it has some real advantages: we can use the money to keep up with repairs, rather than take care of them only every 10 or 20 years with a bond issue; and since we're not borrowing money, all the tax money goes straight to repairs and none is used to pay interest. So we really save money two ways, and keep more of our operating dollars at work in the classroom to boot.