Fallout of failed Ypsilanti Township police millage could mean slower response times, less proactive policing

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Voters defeated the measure to raise an additional 2 mills for police protection by just 169 votes.

The impact to citizens won’t be clear until after officials from the sheriff’s department, township and county meet, but changes will occur, said Mike Radzik, the township’s director of police services.

“People will feel it. It won’t be a positive impact, that’s for sure, but just how negative it will be is to be determined,” Radzik said this morning.

If passed, the increase would have cost the owner of a home with a taxable value of $100,000 an additional $200 annually until 2013. Nearly 70 percent of voters approved a millage renewal for police protection in May, which maintained the township’s police budget at about $5.4 million.

But by late summer, grim revenue projections tied to declining property values and the closure of the GM Powertrain Plant showed the budget couldn’t fund the 38 deputies currently under contract for next year. Each deputy contracted through the county costs $144,802.

Despite some initial reluctance, township officials said they put the measure on the ballot after a summer survey showed more than 58 percent of township voters would back the tax levy.

But the measure passed in just nine of the township’s 20 precincts, according to the Washtenaw County Clerk’s Web site. It received the most support in precincts 2 and 3, made up of neighborhoods on the township’s west side bordering Pittsfield Township, which has its own police department.

Election results show millage opposition was strongest in Precincts 5 and 6 (62 percent), which covers the northeast corner of the township, and in precincts 15 and 16 (66 percent), which encompasses areas west of Whittaker Road between Merritt and Ellsworth Roads.

Fewer than 16 percent of the township’s 38,307 registered voters cast ballots.

Millage supporter Linda Mealing said she feared low turnout would doom the measure from the start.

“When you add it all up, people have to decide how much they are willing to pay for police protection, and to me, it was worth it. I don’t know what’s going to happen without 10 more deputies,” said Mealing, a resident of the West Willow neighborhood since 1970.

Radzik said officials believe the police millage was overshadowed by the contentious countywide school enhancement millage, which voters countywide shot down by more than 8,200 votes Tuesday. In Ypsilanti Township, 66.5 percent of voters said no to the schools millage.

“It’s just speculation, but some people I spoke with said they had a hard time voting for both and didn’t want to take a chance of their tax bills going up 4 mills,” Radzik said.

Officials with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t be reached for comment today.

Art Aisner is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.