For the past few decades, Lansing resident John Pollard has spearheaded groups fighting against millage hikes for schools, libraries, transit and general funds. He finally decided to incorporate his efforts into one all-encompassing group: the “No More Taxes Committee.” “I was pre-tea party,” Pollard said.

“I believe in open, honest, transparent government loyal to the people. And if [the city] is asking for more money, but not being loyal to that, I get out and urge people to vote ‘no.’”

Pollard got active early this year when the City of Lansing asked voters last Tuesday for a 4-mill increase on property taxes expected to raise $8.5 million. The property tax hike was narrowly defeated — by about 600 votes.

The proposal would also have raised the cap on the city’s taxing authority set by the 1978 Headlee Amendment in the state constitution, which caps property taxes. Pollard says his group was out on the streets talking to people and putting up bright red “Vote NO” signs around town. He says all he had to do to get voters to change their minds was show them how confusing the ballot language actually was. He doesn’t feel the city is being honest with how they would use the new money.

“They sell this as ‘essential services,’ and then they decide what essential and necessary services are,” Pollard said. “What they call essential, I don’t call essential at all.”

“This is [supposed to be] going for police and fire. Well, how much for police? How much for fire?”

Jack McHugh, a legislative analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said using public safety millages is often like trying to make someone pay extra for an engine after they've bought a car.

“When residents pay local property tax payments, they have a right to expect the core government services of fire and police will be the first things funded,” McHugh said. “People don't understand that public safety ‘enhancement’ millage money goes into the same pot that pays for much lower priority ‘extras’ that happen to be politically useful to municipal officials. So in the end, these ‘public safety’ millages are about preserving those low priority items, which is why they indicate bad faith by local politicians.”

According to the Lansing-based political newsletter MIRS Capitol Capsule (subscription required), Lansing's was one of only a few major millages to be defeated. While the most notable to go down were in Lansing and Garden City, rejection was not the norm across the state. Grand Rapids, Southfield, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Clawson, Sumpter Township, Flint, Saginaw County, Birch Run, North Muskegon, a variety of school districts, and many other local government units all passed tax hikes. Statewide, most millages passed by only a few percentage points.

But Pollard believes a little effort can go a long way. He said he concentrated on absentee voters, who were credited with taking down the tax hike. “All we did was go out and show people what the ballot language actually was,” he said. “After people saw it overriding Headlee, and read the fine print, they turned against it.”

With the failure of the millage, the $20 million city deficit is expected to be closed mostly by eliminating police and fire positions. But Pollard points out that though the cities of Ann Arbor and Lansing have nearly identical populations, Lansing has many more police and fire employees and spends a lot more money on them. According to the city, Ann Arbor has 124 sworn police officers and 89 firefighters. Lansing has 326 police employees, in which about 219 are sworn officers, and 225 fire department employees. The cuts are expected to bring Lansing down to 248 police employees and 154 fire employees.

Pollard believes that municipal governments should clearly explain to people why they need more funds. “I’m not interested in semantics,” he said. “Tell us what you’re doing with the money.”

“And if people don’t understand, they should vote ‘No.’ Just like they would on a contract or any other important document.”

The Lansing mayor and city council members did not return requests for comment.

The Clarkston Community Schools superintendent recently sent a letter wondering whether Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed $300 per pupil cuts were “the end of public education as we know it.” In his letter, Superintendent Rod Rock said the governor, other politicians and the Michigan Department of Education are “not knowledge authorities on education.”

Rock also wrote: “Improving schools is not a function of government. Governments do not improve schools. … The government needs to get out of the education business.”

Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said it’s ironic for a government bureaucrat such as Rock to be making such claims.

“He’s hired by government officials to run a government entity,” Van Beek said. “Government has to get out of the education business? Yeah, except school districts rely on government forcing people to attend them and forcing everyone to pay for them.”

After Rock said he wanted government out of the education business, he next noted that schools needed options to raise revenues.

“I suspect what he means is that he wants to be able to raise local revenue, which again is only available through the power of taxation and the power of government,” Van Beek said.

Van Beek said that Snyder’s plan is only a 4 percent reduction in state per-pupil funding.

What Rock didn’t put in his letter was that Clarkston’s general fund expenditures have grown 23 percent since 2000, after adjusting for inflation. Many teachers received raises between 6.3 and 7.7 percent this year and didn’t pay anything toward their health insurance premiums. The average teacher’s salary has grown 18 percent in the last 10 years, after adjusting for inflation.

“According to the fiscal track record of this district, ending public education as they know it means not being able to expand their budget every year and offer gold-plated benefits for employees,” Van Beek said.

Rock didn’t respond to an email or phone message seeking comment.

Clarkston Community Schools negotiated new employee contracts for next school year that will reportedly save $3 million a year, according to The Oakland Press.

Clarkston’s general fund expenditures were $53.9 million in 2000 ($68.2 million in 2010 dollars) and increased to $83.7 million in 2010. Student enrollment has increased from 7,344 students in 2000 to 8,251 in 2010.

The average teacher’s salary in Clarkston was $45,148 in 2000 ($57,171 in 2010 dollars) and increased to $67,995 in 2010.