With three key millage proposals on the November ballot, Webster Township officials want voters to know they aren't new taxes - they're requests for renewals.

One way officials will get the word out is a public forum set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Webster Township Hall. Hosted by the Webster Neighbors for Responsible Growth, members of the group - along with township trustees and directors of the township’s land-preservation program - will make presentations about the renewal requests.

If voters pass the renewals Nov. 3, they'll guarantee five more years of full funding for the township’s general operating expenses, as well as financing public safety. The third proposal would allow the continued acquisition of development rights for open spaces and farmland within the township.

Township Supervisor John Kingsley emphasized no new taxes are involved and said the proposals are merely to renew or restore levies that voters approved in 2005.

“The board was concerned about not increasing taxes,” Kingsley said. “Webster Township in particular has always been very fiscally responsible. We’re careful how we spend the dollars.”

Proposal C will renew up to 1.9726 mills for police and fire protection. Kingsley noted the required ballot language says two mills. The owner of a $200,000 house with taxable value of $100,000 will continue to be assessed $197 per year if the proposal passes. 

The township currently has an agreement with the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department for two full-time deputies. Fire protection is provided through an agreement with the Dexter Fire Department, and two fire trucks are kept at the Webster Township Hall. If passed, the levy would generate $683,000 in 2010.

Proposal E seeks to override the millage rollback, which would reduce general operating funds from the voter-approved 1.144 mills to 0.779 mills in 2010. The requested recovery of the 0.381 mills to offset the rollback would keep the township from losing the source of revenue that brought in $131,919 in the last four years.

Proposal D renews funding for the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve open land. Some 69 percent of township voters authorized the PDR in 2005. If reapproved, the measure will continue the assessment of 0.4931 mills for the program, or $49 for the owner of a $200,000 home.

“It has been in my mind a very successful program,” said Kingsley. He noted the PDR has meshed well with similar land preservation efforts in the City of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Township and Scio Township.

The estimated $170,733 the assessment would raise in 2010 would be used as seed money to secure matching funds from federal, state and local programs.

“These four programs have really started to develop a significant greenbelt around the north and west side of Ann Arbor,” said Tom Bloomer, a PDR board member who operates Bur Oaks Farm.

Bloomer said the PDR was “an attempt to preserve blocks of open lands for different purposes - one of which is agriculture - as well as open space. Scattered development was the issue. There was so much land fragmentation agriculture becomes difficult to practice."

Natural areas such as wetlands and woodlands also are a focus of the program, he said.

Ross Martin, who campaigned for the PDR in 2005 and is active in the Webster Neighbors group, said 733 acres have been preserved or are under contract for preservation.

The forum “will give the public the opportunity to come out, ask questions and get the facts,” Martin said.

Controlling growth is the program’s goal, he said

“Growth tends to increase the tax burden, whereas farmland is low-demand,” he said.

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