Cityhood Committee releases FAQ & schedules public hearing
The nine-person Citizens Advisory Committee, organized to research the process of the Village of Manchester possibly becoming a city, met again last Tuesday, May 7. Based on questions they’ve been hearing from community members and on the recommendation of City of Jonesville, representatives who recently went through the process of becoming a city, the committee created and approved a FAQ list.
Read all of the FAQ HERE.
The first question addressed is “Why is the Village looking to change to a city?” The answer given in the FAQ is really a two part answer.
First, because the village is part of the township, not separate from the township like a city would be, the village and township are currently tied together even when decisions that are beneficial for one aren’t beneficial to the other. This reflects the impetus for researching cityhood, Manchester Township starting the process of researching broadband in January of 2018 and the fear on the village’s part that the township would hold a vote on a broadband millage, the way Sharon Township and Lyndon Township did. The Village recognized that if a millage vote was held and passed, Village residents would not equally benefit from the newly acquired access to broadband (as they already have access to broadband) but would be equally taxed for it.
Addressing this issue directly, Manchester Township board member Lisa Moutinho attended the May 7th meeting and spoke for her allotted two minutes during the public comments section at the start of the meeting. She passed out copies to the committee members of the broadband feasibility study that Manchester Township commissioned CCG Consulting to do. She pointed out that the study states in multiple places that the township insisted that a millage could not be explored. She also stated that maintaining their relationship with the village was important to the township. Ultimately, CCG found that under such constraints, there was no feasible way to bring broadband to all of Manchester Township.
Even though this broadband millage was off the table, it made the Village realize that theoretically in the future the township could put up for a vote or even pass a millage on any given issue, that benefitted non-village residents at the expense of village residents. During her public comment, Moutinho also pointed out that Village President Pat Vailliencourt continued to express concern over possible taxes even after the feasibility study had been commissioned without a millage as an option. Vailliencourt stated in December on the subject of cityhood, “Broadband opened our eyes. [Manchester Township] told us they wouldn’t do a millage, but it could happen in the future, with a different group of people.”
Village manager Jeff Wallace had a slightly different take on this. He explained last December that because the village is part of the township, the township could not investigate all possible broadband solutions and this hurts the township. He stated, “Each municipality should be able to proceed without inhibiting the other. Each municipality should be able to do what is right for its residents.”
The second part of the answer to the question “Why is the village looking to change to a city?” in the FAQ is what the village discovered when they started looking into the procedure of becoming a city. Currently village residents support duplicate government structures and there may be benefits to removing one layer of government.
Another frequently asked question the FAQ addresses is, “Would this change affect my property taxes?” The answer is that while city residents would no longer pay township taxes, the city would need to levy a new tax to pay for fire service, for which it would contract with the Township. This tax would likely be similar to the current Manchester Township fire millage.
The next meeting of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee will be May 21st at 7 pm in Village Hall and it is a special public hearing. The committee is asking village residents, people who aren’t residents but own property in the village, and village business owners to attend to give their input on the prospect of the village becoming a city.
The following meeting, which will be on Tuesday, June 4, will focus on the effect Manchester becoming a city would have on Manchester Township.
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