LOWELL, Mich — The city of Lowell asked voters to approve an income tax to help repair the city's roads, but a majority of them voted it down.
"It was about 38 percent in favor and 62 percent against," Lowell City Manager Mike Burns said.
Lowell experienced a 27 percent voter turnout, which is fairly high on an off year election.
"It just goes to the anti tax environment that's out there right now and people don't want to pay taxes and asking people to pay taxes - it's very difficult for people to do, especially an income tax," Burns said.
The proposal was for a one-percent income tax for Lowell residents and a half a percent for those who commute to work in the city. If it did pass, property taxes would have been reduced.
"People want things fixed but they don't want to pay anymore than they have too," Burns said.
Now, it's back to the drawing board to figure out how to fund road repairs.
"By the time all expenses are met, we have about $300,000 for roads," Burns said. "Best we can with the $300,000 we have, that's all we have, unless the city council wants to start cutting services."
Burns is going to present all of the options to the city council, including scaling back city services.
"Some budget cutting options that I believe you could do that would have more money for roads," Burns said. "It would diminish services and diminish quality of life in other areas - it's not something I recommend but at this point I think putting everything out on the table is what we need to do."
Ninety one percent of Lowell's roads are ranked "fair" or "poor," 67-percent are considered "poor."
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