CASSOPOLIS — The Cass County Board of Commissioners will vote to oppose a set of bills making their way through the Michigan legislature Thursday.

Cass County Equalization Director Tami Stewart presented to the board Tuesday about House Bill 6049 and Senate Bill 1025, asking the board to draft a resolution opposing them, saying that the bills take away local control, present budgetary problems, create a conflict of interest between the equalization and assessing departments and do not address a lack of resources within the state. The board approved for a resolution opposing the bills to be added to the consent agenda for Thursday’s commissioners meeting to take place at 7 p.m. at the county building in Cassopolis. The resolution will be voted on at that time.

The bills are meant to reform tax assessing and are aimed at specifying and setting minimum quality standards that every assessing district must meet, on their own, in cooperation with other local unites or through the county.

“This sounds like a good thing, but it can have a very negative impact on our townships and cities,” Stewart said. “I’m asking you and others to write your legislators and draft resolutions to send the message that we oppose this.”

The first impact of the bill covered by Stewart is that level two assessors and supervisors will no longer be able to sign their own assessment rolls. Instead, a signer must be level three or above. Currently all township assessors in the county are level 2.

Additionally, the bills create assessing districts. In order for a township or city to be considered an assessing district it must be at least 5,000 parcels and generate $12 million in property tax revenue annually. If a township or city does not meet these requirements, they can join with another township or city to create an assessing district. If a township or city chooses not to create an assessing district, the county will be automatically required to become the assessor of record.

The biggest issue, Stewart said, would occur if the county had to take over assessing functions, which could have major impacts on the county’s budget. Any county providing assessing services would need to employ a level four (or master level) assessor, despite the high cost of level four assessors and the shortage of level four assessors in the state. Any county providing assessing services would need to establish a county assessing office, overseen by a level four assessor, who would also be the equalization director.

“This means even the smallest county in Michigan assessing a tiny 500-parcel unit would need to employ a master level assessor,” Stewart said.

Though the bills stipulate that the changes would be funded through a one-percent admin fee on millages, Stewart said that is not stable income as millages change rates and end.

“Cass County will not have enough office space or resources such as computers, cameras, clipboards, measuring wheels,” Stewart continued, discussing the unitential impacts of the bills. “I honestly can’t find anything positive with these bills.”

Before voting to add the resolution opposing the bills to Thursday’s consent agenda, several commissioners agreed that the bills could have negative impacts on the county.

“The state needs to stop with these unfunded mandates,” said commissioner Robert Ziliak. “And this is a big one.”

Commissioner Roseann Marchetti said she would speak to state legislators about the issue.

“We need to talk to Dave Pagel. We need to talk to John Proos,” she said. “I don’t see anything good in this either.”