Proposal A

Article VIII

Sec. 2: The legislature shall maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools as defined by law. Every school district shall provide for the education of its pupils without discrimination as to religion, creed, race, color or national origin. The legislature shall ensure that public elementary and secondary pupils shall have equal opportunity of access to and experience of quality educational programs reasonably related to the pupils’ educational needs, capabilities and interests. The legislature shall provide for boards of intermediate school districts and for the election of boards of education of local school districts. Each board shall be responsible for the employment of personnel and the educational programs and services for the pupils of its district.

No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students. The legislature may provide for the transportation of students to and from any school.

Article IX

Sec. 6: Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, the total amount of general ad valorem taxes imposed upon real and tangible personal property for all purposes in any one year shall not exceed 15 13 mills on each dollar of the assessed state-equalized valuation of property as finally equalized nor shall it exceed the following limitations: seven mills for the county, two mills for the township, one mill for the community college, one and one-half mills for special education, one mill for vocational education and one-half mill for intermediate school districts. Revenues shall be used for purposes defined by law. A county shall not levy any mills in excess of the amount of millage the county was authorized to levy on the date this amendment becomes effective unless the increase is approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question. Under procedures provided by law, which shall guarantee the right of initiative, separate tax limitations for any county and for the townships and for school districts therein, the aggregate of which shall not exceed 18 mills on each dollar of such valuation, may be adopted and thereafter altered by the vote of a majority of the qualified electors of such county voting thereon, in lieu of the limitation hereinbefore established.

These limitations may be increased to an aggregate of not to exceed 50 24⁤1⁄2 mills on each dollar of valuation, subject to the following limitations: eight mills for the county, four mills for the township, two and one-half mills for the community college, and 10 mills for all other educational purposes, including special education, vocational education and intermediate school districts, for a period of not to exceed 20 years at any one time, if approved by a majority of the electors, qualified under Section 6 of Article II of this constitution, voting on the question. Millage rates authorized on the date this amendment becomes effective may be continued for the period authorized to the extent permitted by these limitations and provided by law.

Notwithstanding the foregoing limitations, general ad valorem taxes may be imposed by the legislature on all taxable property, except homesteads of the residential class and family-owned and operated farms of residents of this state of the agricultural class as defined by law, on a uniform statewide basis in an aggregate of not to exceed 30⁤1⁄2 mills for the support of public elementary and secondary school operational purposes.

The foregoing limitations shall not apply to taxes imposed for the payment of principal and interest on bonds approved by the electors or other evidences of indebtedness approved by the electors or for the payment of assessments or contract obligations in anticipation of which bonds are issued approved by the electors, which taxes may be imposed without limitation as to rate or amount; or, subject to the provisions of Section Sections 25 through 34 of this article, to taxes imposed for any other purpose by any city, village, charter county, charter township, charter authority or other authority, the tax limitations of which are provided by charter or by general law.

In any school district which extends into two or more counties, property taxes at the highest rate available in the county which contains the greatest part of the area of the district may be imposed and collected for school purposes throughout the district.

That portion of the state equalized value of the homestead of a retired person 65 years of age or over, that is not in excess of $25,000.00, shall be exempt from ad valorem property taxes. The amount of the exemption provided by this paragraph shall be adjusted annually pursuant to the increase or decrease in the Detroit Consumer Price Index—All Items or a similar index as determined by law. This exemption shall apply to a homestead held jointly with a spouse if one of the owners is 65 years of age or over. The legislature shall reimburse each year to the units of local government an amount equal to what the units would have received if the homesteads were not exempt from ad valorem taxation pursuant to this paragraph.

Sec. 6a: The legislature shall establish a program of general state taxation and a method of distributing funds to ensure equal per-pupil state financial support for all local school districts for general operational purposes. There shall be established a fund which shall be used exclusively for this purpose. All general ad valorem taxes imposed by the legislature on property as authorized by Section 6 of this article and other tax revenues provided by law shall be dedicated to this fund. Revenues may be transferred to this fund from the fund established by Section 11 of this article.

The legislature shall implement the requirements of this section in stages during a phase-in period of not more than five years after the date this section becomes effective. During this period, no school district shall receive an amount per pupil under this section which, in combination with state school aid payments and the amount of revenue which is or would be raised by 7 mills if levied, is less than the total amount of revenue per pupil for general operational purposes received by the district on the date this section becomes effective.

After the phase-in period, no district shall receive an amount per pupil under this section which, in combination with state school aid payments, is less than the highest amount per pupil received by the district from these sources during the phase-in period.

The legislature shall provide by law for a local income tax option of not to exceed one percent, in lieu of any portion of the 7 mill tax for general educational purposes authorized by Section 6 of this article, as long as the total revenue on the combination of the local income tax and property tax does not exceed the total revenue from the greater of a one percent local income tax or a 7 mill property tax. The local income tax option shall permit an income tax to be levied on one or more classes of taxpayers, as defined, provided that no taxpayer is subject to a greater combined income and property tax than he would be subject to if the income tax were levied on all taxpayers of the school district. Only taxpayers subject to the income tax shall receive a reduction in the property tax. The local income tax authorized by this section shall not be imposed in any local school district unless approved by the district’s electors.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit the legislature, in the funding of the added cost of special education, vocational education, intermediate school districts, and other special services, as provided by law, from taking into reasonable account local or regional variations in the needed level and cost of such services.

Sec. 26a: The revenue limitations established in Section 26 shall not apply to additional taxes imposed for the support of public elementary and secondary school operational purposes during the fiscal year 1986 or the maintenance of that amount of support in succeeding years. Funds distributed to local school districts for general operational purposes pursuant to Section 6a of this article, and funds distributed to units of Local Government pursuant to the last paragraph of Section 6 of this article, shall not be considered in calculating the proportion of total state spending required to be paid to all units of Local Government under Section 30 of this article, except that proportion of such funds that was included in determining the proportion of total state spending paid to all units of Local Government pursuant to Section 30 in fiscal year 1978-79.

Sec. 31: Units of Local Government are hereby prohibited from levying any tax not authorized by law or charter when this section is ratified or from increasing the rate of an existing tax above that rate authorized by law or charter when this section is ratified, without the approval of a majority of the qualified electors of that unit of Local Government voting thereon. If the definition of the base of an existing tax is broadened, the maximum authorized rate of taxation on the new base in each unit of Local Government shall be reduced to yield the same estimated gross revenue as on the prior base. If the assessed valuation of any class of property as finally equalized, excluding the value of new construction and improvements, increases has increased from the previous year by a larger percentage than the increase in the General Price Level from the previous year, the maximum authorized rate applied thereto to that class of property in each unit of Local Government shall be reduced to yield the same gross revenue from that class of existing property, adjusted for changes in the General Price Level, as that could have been collected at the existing maximum authorized rate on the prior previous year’s assessed value.

The limitations of this section shall not apply to taxes imposed for the payment of principal and interest on bonds or other evidence of indebtedness or for the payment of assessments on or contract obligations in anticipation of which bonds are issued which were authorized prior to the effective date of this amendment.

Sources

• General Election, November 4, 1980, Proposal A (Library of Michigan)
• Michigan Manual, 2021-2022, p. 100 (PDF, Legislative Service Bureau)