TRAVERSE CITY — Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees called a special meeting today to remove the Benzie Annexation proposal from the Nov. 5 ballot.
Trustees had been trying to salvage the proposal for the past week after they learned of an error in the ballot language. The proposal was originally approved by the board on April 22. The ballot language was approved Aug. 7 and submitted before the Aug. 13 deadline.
But, last Wednesday, the college legal counsel found a reference in the Community College Act to some details that made the ballot language problematic.
NMC trustees, who met in a regular session Monday evening, voted to try and remove the words from the proposal. But, according to Benzie County Clerk Tammy Bowers, it was already too late to modify that language.
Bowers said she communicated with the county’s attorneys once she was notified of the issue and they thought that changes could be made to the ballot if it happened prior to printing.
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However, on Monday, Bowers heard from the state Bureau of Elections that the only changes to ballot language allowed after final submission would be to fix typographical errors.
“Anything that is substantive may not be changed at this time,” Bowers said, adding that there was really only one course of action, besides leaving the language as it is.
“Until the ballots are printed,” she said, “the body that put the question on may take it off completely by taking action.”
During today’s special meeting, the board is expected to vote on just that — removing the proposal.
“President Nissley, along with the Board of Trustees, hold true to our years of integrity, transparency and honesty, therefore, we will ask the Board to halt campaign efforts and not go further with incorrect ballot language,” said Laura Oblinger, the board’s chair.
NMC President Nick Nissley sent an email early Wednesday to the NMC community sharing his disappointment that Benzie citizens would not have access to reduced-cost or free education and training through NMC.
“For the entire 73 years of our history, NMC has built a reputation of trust and honesty,” Nissley said. “I am not willing to risk that reputation by continuing an annexation effort that included inaccurate information.
“Therefore, I am recommending to the Board that we suspend our effort and withdraw the proposals. Tomorrow, they will consider a resolution to do so formally.”
According to the email, NMC will be reassessing and regrouping before deciding how to move forward “since northern Michigan families deserve the same access to higher education as the rest of the state.”
These 15 words were the problem: “Two Benzie County residents will be added to the Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees.”
That ballot language, as they proposed it, stated that if voters approved the proposal: “Two Benzie County residents will be added to the Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees and an advisory board composed of local Benzie County residents and businesses will be created to advise the College how to invest in Benzie County.”
In reviewing Chapter One of the Community College Act, NMC’s legal counsel found a requirement that community colleges formed by county lines, such as NMC, must be limited to a seven-member board.
Chapter Three of the Community College Act allows for the addition of two new board members — but that applies to other types of community colleges.
NMC, which currently has seven board members, had proposed expanding the board to nine if Benzie voters had approved the proposal. That addition to the board would have violated Chapter One restrictions.
“It is something that was missed,” board Chair Laura Oblinger said. “It was missed through to the state board as well. It was missed by many reviewers.
NMC’s taxing district has been limited to Grand Traverse County since it was founded in 1951, according to an NMC press release. The possibility of Benzie County joining the district was raised in 2019 by a group of Benzie County residents. Since then, NMC had held 25 listening sessions throughout the county to determine whether to move forward.
If voters in Benzie County had approved it, residents there would have paid a millage levy to support college operations in exchange for NMC’s lowest tuition rates. The difference in tuition would have been $122 per contact hour for in-district students versus the $261 per contact hour they pay now for being out-of-district.
The proposition involved two separate ballot questions: The first would have addressed the annexation, asking the voter to approve or disapprove it. The second question would have asked the voter to vote “yes” or “no” on the millage in perpetuity.
For the annexation to be approved, both requests would have needed to pass.
In a press release from NMC, it confirmed that, if these measures had been approved in November:
- Benzie County residents would attend NMC as in-district students and pay a lower rate.
- NMC would establish a physical presence in Benzie County, which was expected to include teaching/classroom space, a computer lab and technology resources for students, meeting spaces and office space for permanent and visiting staff.
- NMC would have received an additional $2.6 million/year from this millage.
The current rate for NMC is 2.0574 mills. For the owner of a home valued at $200,000, the levy would have cost $206 annually. For a $300,000 home, it would have been $309 per year.
Overall, the tax would have generated about $3.1 million more for NMC, with a net gain of about $2.7 million after being offset by lower tuition for Benzie County students.
