By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
CARO — Tuscola County Commissioners officially approved placing two millage proposals for funding before voters on Tuesday, February, 24, 2015.
The board supported asking voters to approve a millage request to fund Tuscola County Veteran Affairs department and another ballot issue to fund the Tuscola County Economic Development Corporation (EDC) for business and job development.
The funding request for veteran services asks for .17 of a mill for six years, which would generate about $274,000 the first year if voters approve it.
The millage would cost a property owner of a $100,000 home about $8.50 a year.
The request to fund EDC operations is for .20 of a mill for six years, which would generate about $322,000 the first year if voters approve it. The millage would cost a property owner of a $100,000 house about $10 a year.
According to Tuscola County Controller Mike Hoagland, the Tuscola County Medical Care Facility will have a 1 mill tax levy expiring next year so that will be coming off of property taxes; so if both millages are approved, homeowners would be paying less taxes than they are now.
The current 1 mill levy for the medical care facility costs property owners of a $100,000 home $50 a year.
“If the other two (new) millages are approved, it still would be a .63 of a mills saving from the 1 mill for medical care,” said Hoagland.
The decision to ask voters for financial help for those two agencies comes at pivotal time.
Michigan has about 660,417 veterans; and of that number, Tuscola has about 4,739 veterans.
“I received an e-mail from the VA (Veteran Affairs) public health stating that a new generation study of 60,000 OEF/OIF deployed and non-deployed veterans finds that 13.5 percent of veterans screened positive for PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) overall,” said Tuscola’s Veteran Affairs Director Ron Amend noting that as veterans of pervious wars age their health care needs also increase.
PTSD is a significant public health problem in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) deployed and non-deployed veterans and should not be considered an outcome solely related to deployment, said the VA report Amend read.
That study also did a break down of PTSD by service branch and for those deployed and those who were not deployed:
PTSD by service branch finds that: Marine Corps: 20.6 percent of deployed and 10.5 percent of non-deployed have PTSD.
Army: deployed 18.6 percent, and non-deployed 13.8 percent have PTSD.
Air Force: deployed 6.6 percent and non-deployed 6.2 percent have PTSD.
Navy: deployed 12.3 percent and non-deployed 10.1 percent have PTSD.
Currently, Tuscola’s Veteran Services office only operates three days a week. It is funded with $70,000 from the county’s general fund, and it is getting more difficult for the county to sustain that funding level.
If approved, that money would pay for a full-time veteran affairs director and an assistant, the purchase to new vehicles to transport veterans to medical appointment and services, contracting drivers instead of relying on finding volunteers, putting $40,000 into the soldiers and sailors relief fund to help with emergency living expenses, $15,000 for burials of indigent veterans, and much more.
Hoagland noted that once the department was set up to be full time, the .17 millage could be lowered if that amount of money was no longer needed, but it couldn’t be increased without a vote of the people or its funds be used for anything else.
Approval of the EDC millage would give the agency more funds to help municipalities with matching funds, ability to write grants for funding, writing master plans as well as writing park and recreation plans without charge, business and job development, and contributions from municipalities would no longer be needed so that money could be spend elsewhere. Also, the county’s contribution towards business and job development of $49,000 wouldn’t be need.
During discussion, it was noted that, EDC’s efforts was instrumental in bring $5 million in investments to the county, new business development… like the milk plant being built in Cass City, and job creation and retention.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.