By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Hartland Township officials have approved the budget for the next fiscal year.

At this week’s meeting, the Hartland Township Board of Trustees established their General Appropriations Act for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Following a public hearing, Township Manager Bob West and Finance Director Susan Dryden-Hogan touched on key points within the budget while fielding questions from Board members.

Millage rates were set with Supervisor Bill Fountain saying that due to the Headlee amendment, the Township will only be collecting .76930 of the roughly 1.1-mills they were once authorized to pull. Though there is a process for reversing or stabilizing the lost mills, West said they aren’t going to go down that road. The voter-approved Fire Millage is 2.0437-mills and the Road Millage is 1.4317-mills.

Dryden-Hogan said their revenues are anticipated to come in at over $3-million, which is the highest amount she’s seen in her time with the township. Just under half of that is from state shared revenue and a quarter of the remaining amount is from property taxes.

Expenditures were said to go up a relatable amount, but West said inflation has outpaced that increase and they are proud of their efforts at battling it with success. Dryden-Hogan and Fountain still explained what brought a 25-percent increase in expenditures. The township budgets $164,000 for police services that they hadn’t budgeted in the past. Fountain said they put it there just in case they need it in the future, but they don’t have plans to start additional police coverage.

It was noted that historically, the township has transferred some of its yearly savings into community projects. Last year they were able to transfer $328,000, and anticipate another $500,000 next year. West said that is money for capital projects, and pure savings, not ARPA-funds, which many of their projects are also eligible for.