NEW DETAILS: Approved levy tax hike in spring election would bring more police officers

UPDATE @ 7:50 p.m.: Miami Twp. voters will be asked this spring to approve a tax increase to fund police services.

Trustees Tuesday night voted 2-1 to place a 5.5-mill replacement levy on the May ballot.

John Morris cast the no vote, saying, “I absolutely support our police department,” which is “doing more with less.”

Before voting against the measure, Morris said he did not “want to put our department at risk.”

But Morris said he wasn’t sure if voters would support the tax hike.

If approved by voters, the replacement levy would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $39 more a year than the 5-mill levy that expires at the end of 2019.

EARLER REPORT

Miami Twp. is recommending trustees vote in favor of a police levy seeking more taxes from voters.

Trustees are being urged tonight to consider placing a 5.5-mill replacement levy on the May ballot for police services, township records show.

A five-year, 5-mill police levy is set to expire at the end of 2019, records show. Its renewal would generate about $2.91 million annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $153 a year.

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A 5.5-mill replacement levy instead would generate an additional $447,558 a year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $192.50 a year, records show.

The 5.5-mill replacement levy is one of a handful of options outlined in a memo to trustees. Others include replacement levies of 5 mills, 5.25 mills and 5.75 mills.

The levy set to expire at the end of the year is one of two police operating levies for the township. It was approved in November 2014 by 54 percent of voters.

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The other — a 5.25-mill, five-year general operating levy — was renewed in November. It costs the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $150 a year and will generate about $2.9 million a year, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office.

Trustees are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. in the Miami Twp. Government Center, 2700 Lyons Road.

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