<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2muEMY_1GvHOxjf00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2muEMY_1GvHOxjf00" width="2048" height="1542" ><figcaption>Voters complete their ballots Nov. 3 at Precinct 7, the Novi Department of Public Works. Photo by Charity Meier</figcaption></figure>Novi voters approved a renewal of the Capital Improvement Program millage on Nov. 3 that elected officials said would be used to purchase equipment and possibly acquire land. The measure will allow the city to assess a 1 mill property tax on residents for another 10 years starting in July 2027. The millage will provide the city with funding to pay for new public safety vehicles, building updates, land acquisitions and more. According to unofficial election results, 16,583 voters approved the millage, while 11,206 voted against it. “It was approved by a 20-point margin, so we were pretty happy with the results and feel like a lot of Novi voters saw the value in what we’ve accomplished in the last 10 years and want to make those same kind of investments in the next 10 years,” Mayor Justin Fischer said.He said that some of the notable investments the city made over the last decade with CIP millage funding include purchasing several new fire engines, renovating the Department of Public Works building and ITC Park, helping fund the building of Jessica’s Splash Pad, and purchasing 180 acres of woodlands and wetlands within the city for preservation with funds acquired from the first millage. “During CIP 1.0 we bought quite a bit of land, and now CIP 2.0 can kind of help us activate that land, activate some of those parklands,” Fischer said. For example, Fischer said that the millage renewal will allow the city to put the 80 acres of land it purchased to the east of ITC Park to use. The CIP millage renewal follows the public safety bond that voters passed in 2025. The public safety bond provides funds to pay for the construction of new public safety buildings. The CIP millage will provide funds for “smaller capital items” in the city’s various departments, such as Public Works; Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services; and Public Safety, Fischer said. “I really think of this as supplementing our operating budget by allowing us to do some really important capital investments,” Fischer said. The 2026-2027 Novi city budget has $4.9 million in the CIP fund. According to Councilman Brian Smith, the CIP fund accounts for a little under 10% of the city budget. Therefore, he said if the millage had failed, the city would have had to make budget cuts across the board, and city services would suffer. “Capital improvement is for big purchases like fire trucks, so we passed the public safety building bond last year. To put the fire trucks in there going forward, we need the capital improvement fund to buy those fire trucks,” Smith said. Smith spent a lot of time campaigning in support of the millage. He said that for him it was important, as it also allows the city to purchase land for preservation. “Since I’ve been on council, we’ve bought over 100 acres of land for preservation, and it came out of capital improvement (funds),” Smith said. “If that goes away, it would be very difficult to buy any land if it became available.” He said he feels preservation is important for the city, which was once all farmland. “I think we are approximately 90% built out. Everybody I talk to wants to preserve everything we have left, whatever land we can,” Smith said. He said he has seen the city change tremendously over the last 40 years. In order to preserve what’s left, he would like to see the city purchase as much of the land as possible, in order to prevent people from building on it. Smith said that another thing the CIP funds could be used for is the possibility of building a community center where the current police headquarters is located and/or renovating the Civic Center when the Police Department moves to its new building. “I think we have probably more ideas than we have money for, because we have things that we have to buy, like fire trucks,” Smith said. According to Fischer, when the first CIP millage was implemented in 2016, a fire engine went for somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000. Today, he said they cost upward of $1.2 million. Although the approved millage is for the same amount voters approved in 2016, residents may see a slight increase in their taxes next summer. As a result of Headlee Amendment rollbacks, residents are currently paying 0.9439 mills. </div></body>

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Novi voters approved a renewal of the Capital Improvement Program millage on Nov. 3 that elected officials said would be used to purchase equipment and possibly acquire land. The measure will allow the city to assess a 1 mill property tax on residents for another 10 years starting in July 2027. The millage will provide the city with funding to pay for new public safety vehicles, building updates, land acquisitions and more. According to unofficial election results, 16,583 voters approved the millage, while 11,206 voted against it.

Novi voters renew Capital Improvement Program millage

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Novi voters approved a renewal of the Capital Improvement Program millage on Nov. 3 that elected officials said would be used to purchase equipment and pos

Novi voters renew Capital Improvement Program millage

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