SAGINAW COUNTY -- Sheriff Bill Federspiel declared victory Tuesday night when he saw that 56 percent of the vote went to his side. At that point about 75 percent of precients were in but his team saw enough of a break away from the neck-and-neck trend that had dominated most of the night. The sheriff said he was surprised that there was so much opposition.
“I am (surprised) especially in some places where our agency is the primary agency. I know that everyone has a reason for voting the way they did. This is a democratic society,” he said.
The department would have lost 35 deputies and crime investigators and would have cut the number of jail inmates if the millage failed, he said.
Opposition organizer Thomas R. Call of the committee Stop Taxing Our People saw things may not go his way Tuesday night and pointed to the wide difference in money spent by each side.
“We spent about $1,000. I think they spent about $25,000,” he said. Call said the tax proposal came at a time when residents could not afford to pay more and challenged the sheriff to make modifications to his department, and cut costs.
However, Federspiel pushed for the millage saying it was necessary to keep current operations at the same level. “We’re not asking for more. We’re not asking for raises,” he said.
The proposal asked voters for a little more than $40 extra per year in property taxes for a home valued at $85,000.
You can get the final vote tally here at the Saginaw County website.
