Benzie County voters have rejected a general operating millage proposal for a second time this year, a defeat that will leave the county without an operating millage for the first time since the levy was first enacted in 1982. The county's current millage is scheduled to lapse in December 2026, and officials say they now must figure out what comes next for funding core government services.
The revised proposal asked voters to approve a two-year, 4.95-mill tax limitation covering county, township and intermediate school district operations, according to the Manistee News Advocate. It failed, marking the second rejection of operating-millage funding this year after an earlier version also went down in August. The newspaper reported that the August proposal, a 5.83-mill plan, lost by 12 votes, while a separate account from Bridge Michigan, summarizing Interlochen Public Radio's reporting, put that August defeat at just nine votes. The two outlets have not been reconciled, and it is not clear from available reporting whether they describe the same tally.
The stakes behind the ballot measure are significant for a county that has relied on the same basic funding structure for more than four decades. The original 1982 framework, approved by voters, authorized 5.29 mills for the county and 1.21 mills for each township, according to Benzie County. Those rates have been chipped away over the years under the Headlee Amendment, with the county's levy settling at 3.1874 mills in 2026 while individual townships have seen their own rates fall, in some cases to nearly half the original amount.
What the Lapsing Millage Actually Pays For
The county has described the operating millage as the primary funding source for essential county and township services, and the breadth of what it touches is wide. Benzie County's own materials list the Treasurer, Clerk, Register of Deeds, courts, the prosecutor's office, public safety services including the sheriff's road patrol and 911 dispatch, plus township-level functions like fire protection, parks, cemetery maintenance, elections, zoning and community events among the operations that rely on the levy.
County officials had anticipated the possibility of another failed vote. Back in March, the county's tax advisory committee was unanimously reestablished to review the operating millage and potentially recommend changes, according to the Record Patriot. Officials said at the time that keeping the committee intact mattered because, without it, there could be no further discussions on the county's millage until a new committee was established in the spring of 2027 — a delay the county wanted to avoid if the ballot measure came up short.
Administrator Points to Tax Allocation Board
Leslie Bilbey, the Benzie County administrator, said county officials will now begin discussions on the process moving forward and that the county must look into creating a tax allocation board, per the Manistee News Advocate's report. State law requires such a board and allows it to split a minimum of 3 mills and a maximum of 15 mills among the county, school district and townships, though the News Advocate's account does not spell out a timeline for when that process might begin or conclude.
Animal Control and Drug Enforcement Millages Both Pass
While the broader operating millage failed, voters approved two narrower, unofficial-results measures on the same ballot. The countywide animal control millage was renewed and increased, climbing from 0.14 to 0.21 mill for five years, with 5,671 votes in favor and 4,862 against. Bilbey said the increase allows animal control to retain a second animal control officer and continue expanded programs, with the funding covering shelter operations, enforcement services, medical care for sheltered animals, vehicles, equipment and building operations.
A five-year, 0.1-mill drug enforcement proposal also passed, drawing 5,415 votes in favor to 5,086 against. That millage funds a Benzie County deputy's participation on the Traverse Narcotics Team, a Michigan State Police-managed multiagency task force that investigates narcotics offenses across eight northwest Lower Peninsula counties, including Benzie.
The split outcome leaves the county in an unusual position heading toward the end of the year: two narrowly focused millages intact and funded, while the broader operating levy that has underwritten core county and township government since 1982 is set to disappear in December. What replaces it, and how quickly a tax allocation board might come together, remains to be worked out by county officials.
