By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Lewis Cass Intermediate School District's special education millage restoration request failed Tuesday in the first election under Michigan's new consolidated election law.
Cass County was one of 28 counties impacted by resolving issues related to local school districts, intermediate school districts, community colleges, cities, villages, townships, counties and district library boards.
Dowagiac downed the LCISD request, 405 no to 330 yes.
Only Precinct 1, which includes part of the city's voters, favored the proposal, which lost across the four local districts by 206 votes, 904 no to 698 yes.
Precinct 1 approved of the millage increase, 128 yes to 107 no.
According to City Clerk James Snow, the tallies from Dowagiac precincts also included: Precinct 2 (City Hall), 40 yes-53 no; Precinct 3 (Wayne Township Hall), 83 yes-105 no; Precinct 4 (Silver Creek Township Hall), 67 yes-113 no; and Precinct 5 (Keeler Township Hall), 12 yes-27 no.
The levy lost in Edwardsburg (117 yes-226 no) and Marcellus (74 yes-159 no), but carried Cassopolis (177 yes-114 no).
The property tax proposal would have boosted the rate to 2.6365 mills ($2.64 per $1,000 of taxable valuation), generating a projected $583,362.
The two-part proposal would have raised taxes by half a mill for 20 years to restore the levy to the full 2.5 mills voters approved in 1987 before the Headlee tax limitation amendment rolled back the rate when revenues increased faster than inflation.
LCISD officials had hoped to erase a $400,000 special education deficit accumulated serving a special needs population that has grown by 40 percent to more than 1,000 students from the four county school districts.
Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said the new law makes elections more efficient and cost-effective by limiting them to four a year.
She said it also provides greater consistency, allowing voters to mark election dates on their calendars; reduces or eliminates election costs for school districts; and puts elections in the hands of local clerks who are trained election professionals.
The need for the law is clear, according to Land. Fewer than 5 percent of eligible voters in nearly half of Michigan school districts participated in the 2000 school board elections, according to the House Fiscal Agency.
Turnout was 10 percent or less in three-fourths of districts.
The law signed in December 2003 garnered broad bipartisan support from such organizations as the Michigan Education Association, Michigan Townships Association, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Municipal League, the League of Women Voters, Michigan Association of County Clerks and the Council of Election officials.
The next election May 3 will see voters deciding a Dowagiac school board seat from five candidates, Dowagiac's proposal to restore the 18-mill non-homestead tax for one year and Southwestern Michigan College's millage request.