In a bold move that one Leelanau County commissioner called an “irresponsible, ‘gotcha’ action” at the board’s executive session this week, Board Chairman Will Bunek recommended that the early childhood millage applied to the December 2021 tax collection be reduced to 0.000.

Bunek’s motion passed 4/3, with Commissioners Debra Rushton, Melinda Lautner, and Rick Robbins in support. The rates for two other voter-supported mills levied in December — .4958 for the road commission, and .3173 for senior services — were not decreased.

Commissioner Ty Wessell addressed Bunek at the meeting, saying, “Voters approved an early childhood program. You didn’t just make a motion to reduce the millage, you made a motion to eliminate the entire program. That is out-of-this-world crazy.”

Bunek says his rationale for reducing the tax rate to zero is that “the program taxes those with limited income, the elderly, and the poor, and it has no income restrictions as to who may use those services.”

He also says, “There is a tremendous redundancy of early childhood programs for children in Leelanau County,” citing “NMCAA for 0-to-5-year-olds; existing health department programs; private and public schools, libraries, and 4-H.”

He adds that his motion should have come as no surprise: “I have stated my opposition from the beginning. This is a constitutional republic. As representatives of our constituents, we vote to do what’s right for the county. When things are wrong, and people make a wrong decision we’re here to make sure that doesn’t go on.”

Wessell calls that notion “shameful and scary.”

The board of commissioners will now vote to approve the proposed millage rates at their regular session on Tuesday, September 21. If placing the early childhood millage at 0.000 passes, this vote would only apply to this December’s tax bills.

But what’s at stake if the vote goes through?

In a November 2019 special election, county voters supported a 0.253-mill property tax request to fund early childhood development services from 2020 through 2024. The proposal raises approximately $728,000 annually, for services administered by the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department (BLDHD). The millage funds salaries for health workers, a part-time coordinator, and social workers to implement home visits, plus playgroups, parenting programs, and health resource connections for families.

Wessell says, “The BLDHD has staffed, trained and planned for a program that will now be eliminated. There will be associated costs with unemployment. Families and kids will not be served.”

Commissioner Patricia Soutas-Little says, “In essence setting the 2022 funding at 0.000 invalidates the millage — even if legally it doesn’t eliminate it. The Parenting Communities program will terminate. Withdrawing funding from this program removes an important support structure for our families.”

She says Parenting Communities was created to foster positive cognitive, social-emotional, and physical experiences to promote infant and child development. “It sustains and strengthens the full constellation of parents and caregivers who support infants and young children. It fills the gap in early childhood services and is integrated with other services for families.”

She notes that home visiting is a core focus of the program.

Michelle Klein, director of personal health at BLDHD shares that 38 families have received 174 home visits in 2021 so far. “Home visits are a family-centered team effort, with community health workers, nurses, social workers and dieticians all working together to serve families.”

She notes that the early childhood millage is also supporting a MomPower group, “which started this week, an evidence-based program of the U of M Department of Psychiatry. The impact is tremendous…and we currently have nine moms enrolled with a waiting list.”

Leelanau Early Childhood Development Coordinator Betsy Hardy adds, “This summer we were able to expand to in-person home visits and five weekly opportunities for playgroups across the county.” (The fall playgroups for ages 0 to 6 began this week.) 

Commissioner Rushton says she supports reducing the early childhood millage at this time because of the dollars that are now sitting in the health department coffers unused. Bunek says, “There is still over $400,000 to be spent on this program. The program has been spending less than $50,000 per quarter to date.”

Soutas-Little counters, “To take the action of eliminating all millage funding for 2022 without even discussing it with the health department is irresponsible government. Parents are appalled and can’t believe this action was taken as the program is just starting, they question what evaluation this was based on. They are angry, and don’t understand how [the commissioners] can decide what they need and override their vote.”

Commissioner Rushton says her constituents share the opposite: “I have heard nothing but complaints about the over-taxation about this particular item when there are so many programs and agencies out there to serve these needs. [There are those who say], ‘I have to support early childhood development when they have two parents working, and I’m struggling on a fixed income.’ We are taking money from the poor to subsidize not only the poor and the middle class but the wealthy.”

Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier believes there is more is at stake than millage funding, should the vote go through on Tuesday: “The voters of this county stated they wanted this support. For us to pull it back, we are slapping the face of the voters. This is not the forum to reverse a public vote.”

Wessell concurs: “The voters will learn that whatever they decide at the polls can be nullified by a seven-member board of commissioners.”

He adds, “If there was a sincere interest in program improvement or cost reduction, Chairman Bunek would have scheduled a time to have discussion about program needs and possible cost reductions. His motion was an attempt to override a vote and serve a purely partisan and ill-informed position. We should all be embarrassed.” 

At the request of Wessell, Soutas-Little, and Allgaier a board of commissioners committee of the whole meeting is now scheduled for 1pm Monday where the commissioners will revisit the early childhood millage and program ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

Photo: Parenting Communities of Leelanau County.