Dozens of Michigan school districts have tax requests on the May 7 ballot, including bond proposals, sinking fund requests and/or requests involving the 18-mill nonhomestead tax.
Our online database below takes a closer look at school taxes, by allowing readers to compare the relative size of each district’s tax base. The numbers come from the Michigan Department of Treasury.
The numbers listed here are for each district’s total taxable value -- homestead and nonhomestead. Taxable value is the number used in calculating property tax revenues for bond issues and sinking funds.
The database shows total taxable value by district, as well as the taxable value per full-time-equivalent student in 2017-18. (The latter is the taxable value divided by enrollment.)
If you call up a county without specifying a district, you can see the districts ranked by the taxable value per FTE student.
Taxable value by school district
Some districts straddle more than one county; this list organizes the districts by the primary county they cover. You also can type in a district name if you’re unsure of the county.
Below is a map comparing the county average of how much 1 mill generates per student. You can put your cursor over a county to see the underlying data.
(The values in some northern Michigan counties are boosted by the large number of second homes and the relatively small number of children enrolled in public schools. )
Average taxable value per student
Below are some fast facts about Michigan school district tax bases.
1. On average, a school district can generate $261 in tax revenue per mill per student.
Michigan had 1,355,743 full-time-equivalent students enrolled in traditional school districts in 2017-18. School districts had a collective taxable value of $349 billion in 2018 -- about $261,287 per student. Since a mill generates $1 of tax revenue for every $1,000 in taxable value, that’s about $261 in revenue per student for each mill levied.
2. The numbers vary considerably.
For instance, among school districts based in Kent County, the taxable value per student ranges from $381,505 in Kenowa Hills to $58,151 in the Godfrey-Lee district. That means Kenowa Hills can generate $381 per mill per student compared to $58 for Godfrey-Lee.
3. A low per-student taxable value isn’t necessarily a bad thing..
A smaller tax base definitely hurts districts when it comes to funding capital expenditures. That said, sometimes a lower per-student taxable value results from growing enrollment. And since operating revenues come from the state based on enrollment, fiscal health is much more dependent on its enrollment vs. the size of its tax base.
As an example, Carrollton Public Schools in Saginaw County has the lowest per-district taxable value in the state. But that’s because Carrollton pulls in so many students from outside the district. More students means less property tax revenues per student. It’s been a good trade-off for Carrollton because of the positive impact on Carrollton’s operating budget.
4. Districts with the highest per-student taxable values tend to be in northern Michigan.
Small districts with lots of vacation homes and relatively few resident children tend to have the highest taxable values per student. For instance, Mackinac Island Schools has a tax base that equates to $3.6 million per student.
5. In overall taxable value, Ann Arbor Public Schools has the largest tax base.
The total taxable value of property in the Ann Arbor school district is a little over $9 billion, or $510,358 per student. No. 2 is Utica Community Schools in Macomb County, at $7.1 billion (or $260,985 per student) and No. 3 is Detroit Public Schools at $6.1 billion (or $121,722 per student).