Ingham County has two ballot initiatives on the 2024 General Election ballot.  The ballot language is listed below along with the purpose of the millage. 

INGHAM COUNTY HOUSING AND HOMELESS MILLAGE

For the purposes of expanding and improving the quality of housing available to low- and moderate-income families, to prevent and reduce homelessness, to provide services to unhoused persons in Ingham County, including the purchase, acquisition, construction, maintenance, operation, improvement, extension, or repair of housing facilities and the elimination of detrimental housing conditions, and funding other housing programs, shall the Constitutional limitation upon the total amount of taxes which may be assessed in one (1) year upon all property within the County of Ingham, Michigan be increased by up to 0.5000 of one (1) mill, (50 cents per thousand dollars of taxable value), for a period of four (4) years (2024-2027) inclusive? If approved and levied in full, this Millage will raise an estimated $5,618,512 in the first calendar year of the levy, based on state taxable valuation. 

Purpose: The County established the Housing Trust Fund in 2021 in part to, “build stronger communities through investments in housing and neighborhoods including the investment in affordable housing development to increase the supply of affordable and high-quality living units”, and utilized $9,000,000 in ARPA funds to help achieve this goal. In order to continue the work of the Housing Trust Fund, and to expand services to the unhoused, this millage would generate $5.6 million per year. This funding will also work to leverage additional state and federal housing resources. 

Current Housing Trust Fund projects include: 

• Walter French Residential Renovation - $1,500,000 – 76 units 

• Land Bank Row House Construction/Rehab - $2,000,000 – 17 units 

• Land Bank Single Family Construction/Rehab - $1,230,000 – 9 units 

• Homeowner Habilitation Program CAHP/CACS - $1,000,000 – 40 units 

• HTF Competitive Grant Recipients - $2,170,000 – 90 units • Down Payment Assistance Program - $400,000

INGHAM COUNTY LODGING EXCISE TAX INCREASE 

Shall Ingham County increase the rate at which the excise tax is levied on all persons engaged in the business of providing rooms for lodging purposes to guests staying less than 30 consecutive days under Public Act 263 of 1974 as amended from 5% to 8% of the total charge for accommodations to be used for allowable uses under Public Act 263 of 1975, including the acquisition, construction, and maintenance of convention and entertainment facilities designed to encourage tourism and convention business to the County, starting January 1, 2025 and continuing so long as the County Ordinance remains in effect which was adopted under Public Act 263 of 1974, as amended? 

Purpose: The County collected $3,587,992 in excise tax in 2023 from 37 hotels/motels in Ingham County. 

The current allocation for the funds collected is:

• GLCVB (Choose Lansing) – 80% 

• Ingham County Fair – 10% 

• Arts Council – 5% 

• Ingham County Administration – 5% 

With passage of this ballot initiative the County would collect an additional+$2,100,000 in excise taxes. This additional funding could be added to the current funding split on the same percentage basis, or the Board of Commissioners could choose to amend the funding formula or even add facilities/organizations to the funding distribution as long as the meet the requirements of the ballot language (acquisition, construction, and maintenance of convention and entertainment facilities designed to encourage tourism and convention business to the County).