Village to study financial impact of development
Dundee Village Council has decided to conduct a study to determine the financial impact of development on both the village and the township.

Village Manager Patrick Burtch said Council has budgeted $20,000 for the study; but has not yet decided what firm will conduct the study.

“The whole idea is that most communities equate development with higher taxes. That’s because most jurisdictions increase spending when they have higher tax revenue. The village plans to work on parks in the village, but we are trying over the next three to four year period to substantially lower our taxes through the millage rate,” said Mr. Burtch.

“We’re hoping the millage decrease will offset any taxable increase, minus new construction, which we can’t do anything about. But if a person lives in their house and doesn’t do any construction work on it, their taxes should go down.”

The village decreased its tax rate this year with a two-mill decrease.

“The township’s consultant said that every $1 of residential tax revenue costs $1.40 in services. We don’t believe that,” said Mr. Burtch. “Residential development is more service consumptive than industrial or commercial, because they want trees palnted, sidewalks fixed, fire and police services, but it’s not anywhere near that [$1.40].”

The study also will enable the village to do long-range planning, and try to determine how much it can lower the taxes over the next five years.

The village will look at land added to the village through land transfers and boundary alterations, looking at the land’s value at the time it was added to the village, and its value now.

“We want to know what percentage is new construction and try to understand that issue much better than most municipalities,” said Mr. Burtch. “We want to look at five-year budget projections.”

He added, “There are a lot of erroneous statements out there. Our taxes dropped when Cabela’s came in, they did not go up. About 90-% of our tax revenue is captured by LDFA’s to pay for infrastructure improvements for the new development, and if we can lower taxes, we feel we can show other taxing jurisdictions how to do that, and serve as a model for other jurisdictions.”

The Village has used captured tax revenue also to improve infrastructure for the village at large. The new $8 million wastewater treatment plant will be built with funds from the new GEMA (Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance) plants, and will not cost taxpayers anything.

Dundee Township tax revenue for Cabela’s and the new GEMA plants have not been captured, so the township should see a significant increase in tax revenue.

Some problem swith development cannot be solved at the village level. More stress and traffic on local roads are not necessarily something the village can address. Although there’s a large housing development off Stowell Road in the village, the road itself is not in the village and is a county primary road.

Similarly, new housing developments planned off Wilcox Road do not put the road itself in the village. The Monroe County Road Commission is responsible for those roads.