NOVI, Mich. — Novi voters go to the polls today to decide whether the city keeps collecting the property tax that has paid for much of its park, trail and fire equipment spending for the last decade. The question asks voters to renew the Capital Improvement Program millage, first approved in 2016 and due to run out this year.
The renewal keeps the same rate of 1 mill, or $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value, so a home with $100,000 in taxable value pays roughly $100 a year. City leaders stress the rate does not go up. If voters say yes, the levy runs for 10 more years beginning with the July 2027 tax bill and is expected to raise an estimated $5,412,997 in its first year.
Ballot language limits the money to capital work such as parks and facilities, land purchases, pathways and apparatus like fire trucks and heavy equipment, and bars its use for operations or payroll. City Manager Victor Cardenas has said the dollars are meant for long-term assets, not staff.
Past projects include the splash pad named for Jessica by the Beck Road and West 11 Mile Road corner, new work on the ITC Trail and at Bosco Fields, and a new fire apparatus. The city also lists more than 160 added acres of parkland and boardwalk repairs. Cardenas said fire trucks that cost $700,000 to $800,000 when the millage began now top $1 million, and Novi expects to need two or three more in the next decade, along with plans to rework land next to ITC Park for soccer fields.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and anyone in line at 8 p.m. can still vote.
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