A Regional Enhancement Millage is a voter-approved property tax that allows public school districts within a county to generate additional funding beyond what is provided by the State of Michigan under Proposal A (1994). This millage would create an equitable distribution of funds to each district, using the same per-student amount. If approved:
School districts continue to experience costs that outpace state funding increases, as well as costs that outpace inflation. This proposal would provide additional, locally controlled revenue to support students, staff, and district operations.
In addition, special education funding is underfunded by approximately 40%. This means that districts must use dollars from their general fund to support students with special needs to close this gap in funding.
[Links to the School Finance Research Collaborative, described as a non-partisan study on the cost of education.]
In 2022, the voters in Troy generously approved a bond millage, allowing the Troy School District to renovate and update our existing facilities, as well as construct a new Smith Middle School and academic wing at Athens High School. By Michigan law, the funds from the bond millage have limits on how they can be spent. While they can be used for new construction, renovations, and certain capital outlay purchases, they cannot be used for the general operation of the school district. In other words, they cannot fund program enhancements, pay teacher salaries, purchase supplies, fund day-to-day transportation, pay utilities, or update curriculum.
A Regional Enhancement Millage is one of the only ways that a Michigan school district has to increase general operating revenue. Since the passage of Proposal A in 1993, the amount of funding that a school receives for operating expenses has been controlled at the state level, and individual school districts cannot ask voters to increase that revenue. A Regional Enhancement Millage is the exception to this rule. It allows Intermediate School Districts (ISDs), such as Oakland Schools, to ask all of the voters in their service area to approve additional funding for the schools - funds could be used on programming, paying teachers, purchasing supplies, day-to-day transportation, updating curriculum, and more.
Unrestricted funds mean that if the ballot proposal passes, funds can be used for the general fund without specific spending requirements. This means that one district could use the funds to increase pay for their teachers, another could buy school buses, yet another could hire a school resource officer, and finally another could continue to keep elementary mental health staff on the payroll. All of these expenses would typically come from the general fund, and the regional enhancement millage would support expanding each district’s budget to allow for a variety of uses to support their budgetary goals.
[Presented as six graphic tiles:]
Home worth $200,000 = Taxable value of $100,000. 1.5 mills levied on home = $150/year, before any income tax considerations.
Home worth $400,000 = Taxable value of $200,000. 1.5 mills levied on home = $300/year, before any income tax considerations.
[A “Tax Calculator” link was included for residents to review their individual cost.]
Currently, approximately 44% of students in Michigan, or 617,635 students, receive enhancement millage funding. Several Michigan counties have voter-approved enhancement millages, including Wayne, Macomb, Kent, Kalamazoo, Midland, Monroe, Ottawa, Muskegon, and Charlevoix-Emmet. The newsletter also states that over 80% of districts in Oakland County approved placing the millage on the August ballot.
Vote August 4.
Source: Troy School District, “Oakland County Enhancement Millage Proposal,” email newsletter, June 30, 2026. The county-wide campaign’s materials are at oaklandenhancementmillage.com. Reproduced here for comment and criticism; recipient information removed.