GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — City commission candidates and operating millages were on West Michigan ballots Tuesday.
KENT COUNTY
Voters in Grand Rapids approved an operating millage for the Grand Rapids Public Library. That measure passed with 71 percent of the vote. In 1997, voters approved a millage that funded brick-and-mortar library projects. That millage ran out this year. The new millage is for the same amount, but the money it yields will support general operations, including more digital projects and literacy programs for children.“
It’s going to go to train little people and literacy skills and it’s going to go towards electronic downloads and all kinds of new material for the public whatever format comes along next,” Marcia Warner, the director of the library, said.
Voters in metro Grand Rapids agreed to renew the Rapid bus service‘s operating millage for another 12 years. That measure passed with 61 percent of the vote.“
This is about 35 percent of our operating budget,” Rapid CEO Peter Varga said. “But what really happens here is it allows us to provide service, which means we get fares and with all of those extra funds, we can leverage state operating assistance, so it ends up being about 75 percent of our revenue actually in a year.”
Of the six cities whose citizens pay the millage, Walker was the only one to vote it down. Regardless, they will have to pay the tax because the millage passed.The renewal of an operating millage for Grand Rapids Public Schools also passed with 71 percent of the vote. The 18 mills apply to businesses and second homes within the district, not primary residences. The millage makes up more than $30 million of the district’s budget.
Grand Rapids City Commissioner Senita Lenear won re-election in the 3rd Ward, winning 66 percent of the vote.