Republicans pretend they have a monopoly on caring about our veterans, but for too many of them, it turns out to be mere lip service.
County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri showed that at the March 9 meeting of the county’s Finance and Asset Management committee when he pushed through a resolution to make it harder for the county Veterans Services department to renew the millage that funds the agency and to chisel the commission out of up to $720,000 at the same time.
Since 2014, the county has been collecting a small property tax levy to raise about $1 million to pay for services to the county’s approximately 10,000 veterans – services like financial aid, counselors, transportation to medical appointments, and more.
Department Director Ramon Baca and members of the Veterans Services Committee met with Nakagiri to discuss a resolution that would put a .1127 millage renewal on the August primary ballot. But instead of putting that resolution before the finance committee, Nakagiri substituted one of own.
It would reduce the millage maximum to .1117 mills. That would cost Veterans Services potentially $90,000 a year for each of the eight years that the millage is in effect.
He also added another resolution that would mandate that millage renewals only appear on November general election ballots, when turnout is higher and passage could be more difficult.
Baca bluntly spoke out against the switch during the meeting. He detailed the plight of some of the veterans who have recently come to the agency seeking help: the wife of a veteran with dementia; a veteran with prostate cancer; and a single mom applying for help after her GI bill expired who needed money for rent, utilities, and car payments.
“She damn near broke down crying” while discussing the help that was needed, Baca said.
He bluntly told the commissioners that Nakagiri was depriving the other commissioners of their voice by failing to present what the veterans committee had asked for.
He pointed out that the levy amounts to $15 to $25 a year, an amount easily affordable for most county taxpayers.
“You’re damn right I am passionate about lowering the levy, when the taxpayers aren’t asking for that,” he said.
Trimming the millage a one-thousandth of a mill may not have immediate ramifications since the full amount is not being levied. But Michigan’s Headlee Amendment means that the millage amount is rolled back each year to account for inflation. Baca said Veterans Services will bump up against the limit sometime in the next eight years so he thinks it’s vital to have the extra amount available.
Livingston County’s commissioners never want to raise taxes for anything, and they always are looking for ways to say they are cutting taxes.
But to do it on the backs of veterans – at a time when the nation has sent troops into another Mideast War – seems tone deaf.
Although the finance committee approved the millage resolution on a 6-3 vote, some complained. Commissioner Jay Gross called Nakagiri’s actions “dictatorial,” and Commissioner Dave Domas said Nakagiri disrespected veterans with the switch.
“It’s a matter of who you respect, and we didn’t respect the veterans,” Domas said.
That’s not the end of the matter, however.
The resolutions will come to the county commission at its March 23 meeting. Veterans and supporters are invited to attend the meeting, which will be at 6 p.m. at the Livingston County Administration Building, 304 E. Grand River Ave., Howell.
To speak against cutting the millage during the Call to the Public, attendees must fill out a card with their name and township before the meeting begins.
People may also watch the meeting on Zoom here https://milivcounty.gov/boc/virtual-meetings/ and can raise their hand to speak during the Call to the Public.
If our county residents care about veterans as much as they claim to, the room should be packed.
