During our City Council meeting on Nov. 27, 2017, comments were made by PSLZ Certified Public Accountant Rana Emmons regarding the library millage credits that seemed to create some confusion within the council (“Audit clean, library millage talk returns,” Nov. 29, 2017)
To gain the history of the millage, we reached out to Julie Meredith, who is the director of the Clarkston Independence District Library and she was able to provide a very detailed summary showing the linkage to the current millage.
An excerpt of that history, which dates to 1954, is:
• 2012, the Independence Township Board and Clarkston City Council approve the District Library agreement, forming the Clarkston Independence District Library with a millage rate of 1.25 mills, to be placed before voters with a deadline of approval of August 10, 2014. The city passes a resolution to reduce its general fund by 0.691 if the library’s new funding passes in order to prevent double-charging residents for library service.
• August 2014, voters in Independence Township and Clarkston approve library millage of 1.25 mills.
• 2015, Clarkston Independence District Library funding takes effect.
On Jan. 22, 2018, Council member Scott Reynolds, City Manager Jonathan Smith, Treasurer Greg Cote, and Rana Emmons from PSLZ CPA firm held an informal discussion to review the matter.
A couple of important points.
The City of the Village of Clarkston’s fiscal year runs July of a given year to June of the following year.
Given this, the initial starting period of this millage would have impacted the village starting in July 2014.
Clarkston is applying a credit of 0.691 on a fiscal-year bases to the maximum allowable millage as defined by Oakland County. Given Clarkston’s fiscal year periods, this 0.691 credit was half applied then in our fiscal years of 2014 and 2015 in the amount of a 0.3455 credit (0.3455+0.3455=0.691).
The city treasurer provided the following information showing these credits:
• 2013, maximum allowed millage, 13.1979; city levy, 13.1979 (zero difference, library credit not yet applied);
• 2014, maximum allowed millage, 13.1979; city levy, 12.8524 (0.3455 difference, credit half applied);
• 2015, maximum allowed millage, 13.0777; city levy, 12.5069 (0.5708 difference, credit not fully applied);
• 2016, maximum allowed millage, 12.9168; city levy, 12.1056 (0.8112 difference to make up for 2015. The years 2015 and 2016 used an average value of these two combined fiscal years to be compliant, 0.5708+0.8112 / 2 = 0.691);
• 2017, maximum allowed millage, 12.7876; city levy, 12.0966 (0.691 difference).
In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, the city used a two-fiscal-year average to apply the 0.691 millage credit. In fiscal year 2017, the 0.691 millage credit was fully applied.
The 0.691 credit is not cumulative year over year, though the dollar differences are.
In conclusion, we feel the City of the Village of Clarkston is honoring the agreement reached regarding funding of the district library and the comments made by PSLZ during the Nov. 27, 2017, City Council meeting were not exact in their representation.
By Scott Reynolds, Clarkston City Council member