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Welcome Argus Readers
What’s in a charter, anyway?
“The taxpayers are going to take back the Charter – Owosso Charter Township.” –Sherman Garnett, May 23, 2005
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In the heart of Shiawassee are two charter townships. The one on the east is home to Shiawassee’s “golden mile” … the strip of M-21 populated by our retail giants, restaurants, specialty stores, and our airport. The one on the west is rich with land and industrial parks, and has one of the lowest tax rates in the county. The City of Owosso sits between them. |
In 1947 the State of Michigan enacted what is commonly called “The Charter Township Act”. This legislation created a special form of government which specifically protects a township from annexation by a large neighbor. This is in contrast to a ‘general law’ township, whose land can be annexed by a neighboring municipality with relative ease. In effect, the ‘charter’ in a charter township acts as a gate, keeping large neighbors at bay.
A charter township has a streamlined system of government in which all legislative authority rests with the township board. The board is comprised of a supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and 4 trustees who are elected at large for 4 year terms. As of April 2005, there were 131 charter townships in Michigan, and most are congregated in urban areas. In northern Michigan, many rural area townships have also adopted the charter township form of government to protect themselves from spillover from nearby development. |
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The Charter Townships of Caledonia and Owosso both adopted their current form of government in the last five years; Owosso in 2000, and Caledonia in 2002. For the best protection from annexation, townships chartered after 1978 are required
to meet certain criteria:
- State equalized valuation of at least $25 million
- Provide police and fire protection, and water/sewer services through contract or some other method
- Minimum population density of 150 persons per square mile
- Has a comprehensive zoning ordinance or master plan
These requirements do not prohibit charter townships from buying services such as water and sewer from their neighbors, but they do allow such townships to provide these services using alternate means. For example, Owosso and Caledonia townships can provide water services by investing in their own wells, or they can purchase water from the City of Owosso. They can provide their own sewer services, or they can share sewer capacity with Owosso.
One example of these service considerations took place in the fall of 2002, when representatives of the cities of Owosso and Corunna met with representatives of Owosso and Caledonia townships to discuss shared sewer services. In such a scenario, the four municipalities would combine sewer services, and when capital improvements were needed to the sewer system, all four municipalities would share the costs. Because Owosso and Caledonia townships already had adequate and low cost sewer services in place, they were able to avoid such a merger. This protected their residents from sharing the costs of upgrading a sewer system
for the cities.1
The charter township form of government isn’t for every township. The charter requires more frequent meetings, more trustees, and the provision of additional public services. These requirements aren’t in place for general law townships. However, in the case of many townships, the charter is all that stands between them and an aggressive neighbor.
Next time: The Endgame (opinion)
Note: special thanks to the Michigan Townships Association and the folks in the usenet group misc.transport.road.
1 From an interview with Richard and Judy Gute, February 26, 2006: "As far as the sewer system, the four municipalities own a portion (bought) of the capacity of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. The entities of Caledonia and Owosso townships then went together and formed the Owosso/Caledonia Twps. Utility Authority and they together run and maintain the service in those areas. What happened in 2002 regarding the merging was they wanted the township to merge the whole sewer program, thus we would lose our purchased capacity and equipment that the authority had purchased. This was part of the whole merge plan presented by the Team 21 group. You see the two cities were utilizing almost all their capacity and by doing so would gain extra capacity and not have to pay overage charges to the townships. Both township’s could provide this at a lower cost. We had bills from residents of all four municipalities. Corunna and Owosso residents pay much higher costs. Naturally Owosso owned the bulk of the plant. I think next comes Owosso Twp., then Caledonia and then Corunna though I can’t remember exactly. Merging would not have only forced our rates to go up but it would also mean, as it became necessary for the sewer treatment plant to have major work done on it, our residents would then need to help with an equal portion of the overall costs. However township’s would not have near the population of taxpayers as cities do to help pay those costs. Remaining separate meant our residents would only need to pay for the upgrades on the percentage the township owned not the entire plant." No one else in attendance at the meeting was contacted for this article.
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