By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council voted 4-1 to adopt the village’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget and 2024 millage rates during its meeting on Monday.
Council member Michael Lamb cast the lone nay vote, saying he was opposed to the amount of village taxes the Lake Orion DDA captures, adding that the DDA doesn’t now return 100 percent of the police millage that it captures. The village council approves the DDA’s budget, including its tax capture, in the village’s fiscal year budget.
“I believe it’s a major inequity in our budget, is the fact that one, the DDA is sucking blood from the citizens outside of the DDA district, and two, we are misrepresenting to the public that our police millage comes even close to supporting our police,” Lamb said.
Council members Teresa Rutt and Nancy Moshier were absent.
The village’s fiscal year runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
The village’s estimated revenues are $9,185,448, while the estimated expenditures are $9,777,855, according to the meeting’s agenda packet, a budget shortfall of $592,407.
Wage adjustments, allocating funds for municipal purposes, providing for a charter tax rate general operating levy, voted police operating levy and other items are included in the budget.
An override levy “upon real and personal property for multiple purposes within the jurisdiction” was also adopted at the rate of 9.7844 mills for the operating millage, 2.6457 mills for the police millage and the Headlee override millage of 0.2013 mills.
The taxable valuation in the village is $189,182,040, according to village documents.
Lake Orion’s water and sewer balances are the village’s largest fund. The beginning fund balance is $7,758,815, with an estimated ending balance of $7,924,018. This includes estimated revenues of $2,953,270 and estimated expenditures of 2,788,067.
The general fund balance is $1,087,982, with expected revenues to be $2,400,288 and projected expenditures to be $2,286,111 for a projected ending fund balance of $1,202,159.
The beginning fund balance for the Major Streets Fund is $498,437 with projected revenues, expenditures, and an ending fund balance at $249,169, $239,732 and $507,857, respectively.
The Local Streets fund beginning fund balance is listed at $103,455, while the projected revenues, expenditures and an ending fund balance are listed as $177,869, $172,035 and $109,289, respectively.
The police beginning fund balance is $318,084 and the projected ending balance is $203,183.
The Department of Public Works fund is expected to experience an increase – the beginning fund balance is $83,350 while the estimated ending balance is $117,429.
The parking meter fund is projected to receive $26,000 in revenues. Its beginning balance is $4,918 and is projected to end at $20,920.
The DDA’s General Fund fund balance is expected to decrease from $397,529 to an estimated $270,827 ending fund balance.
Last year’s Downtown Development bond project is also expected to decrease from $2,019,950 in the beginning balance to an estimated $1,520,849 in its ending fund balance. Nearly all of the DDA property acquisition beginning fund balance of $169,456 is projected to be spent. Village documents project the ending balance to be $20.
No changes are expected in the capital projects, escrow and OPEB Trust fund balances.