2019 Millage Facts

There have been quite a few questions regarding the wording of the millage in regards to the DDA. Here is our response.: 

RCTA has been supporting the Downtown Development Authority for quite some time, I am not exactly sure when the DDA started, but I am told that this happened sometime back in the 90’s, We are not the only agency affected by this, other agencies within the county participate as well. In a nutshell, I will explain how it works as I understand it to be. The downtown development authority offers grants to property owners to spruce up the downtown area properties to encourage business and residents to come to the downtown area. The DDA offers grants to property owners to invest into the properties thus making the property values go up. RCTA collects the original property tax that was imposed prior to any renovations and the DDA captures the remainder of the increase in that property value. Example: If a property was worth 50k prior to any work being done and the DDA offered a grant for 25k and the homeowner put in 25k, the property value is now worth and taxed at 100k, RCTA would receive the tax on the prior taxable value (50k) and the DDA captures the increase to go back into the DDA grant process. This is how I understand it to be.

The reason it is visible on the ballot this time and not prior? My understanding of this is due to the newly developed transparency laws that were put in place recently. The DDA captures a portion of the millage and taxpayers have a right to know about it. The DDA is not anything new, we have been a part of it for as far back as I have history. Last year, the total amount of the capture for was just over $3305.

I hope this answers any questions you may have had. Please feel free to reach out to me should you have any other questions.

Steven Dubois

Executive Director

Roscommon County Transportation Authority

989-366-5309

transit@rcta-transit.net