MOUNT VERNON — Voters in Miller Township will be voting on a levy to provide funds for ambulance and EMS service in the May primary. The 1.4-mill levy is a replacement and decrease levy.
“The levy has been put on as a replacement and decrease,” said Knox County Auditor Jonnette Curry. “What they have done is the current levy, which expires Dec. 31 of this year, is for 2.5 mills and was generating $41,500. The 1.4-mill levy will generate $29,600. What they’ve computed is between the value increasing and the millage decreasing, this is the amount of money they’ve determined they need to operate on.”
Curry said replacement and decrease means exactly what it says. The new levy will replace the expiring levy, and decrease the actual revenue generated.
“On a $100,000 home, you take that $100,000 and take that times 35 percent,” said Curry explaining how much the levy would cost a taxpayer. “That would be $35,000. Then you take that times 1.4 mills and that’s $49. Multiply that by 10 percent, which is $4.90 and reduce the $49 by that. That’s the 10 percent reduction that everybody gets. That’s $44.10 and you divide that by two, which gives you $22.05 per half on a $100,000 home.”
Miller Township Trustee Gary Rowe explained what the money will be used for.
“On the squad levy, we are contracted with Homer fire and squad,” he said. “They are contracted with us for the service. We use the levy money to pay them for that service. They provide fire and squad service for us.
“Those are two different things, fire and squad,” he added. “The fire levy was in the fall and the squad levy will be this spring.”
Because the new levy is a replacement for the one which expires at the end of the year, the township will have no squad service if it fails, said Rowe. However, if that is the case, Curry said the levy could be run again on the November ballot.
