Every Oakland County ballot carries two countywide property-tax questions, and voters in Royal Oak, Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, Madison Heights and several other communities face local ones too. Here is what each would add to a tax bill, in dollars, and why "no tax-rate increase" is not the same as "no new tax."
By BIG Real Estate · October 27, 2026 · Data: official ballot language and district and township notices; county assessment data for 2025
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Michigan's early in-person voting period began Saturday, Oct. 24 (BridgeDetroit). Most coverage of the ballot centers on the races at the top of the ticket and the two statewide proposals. Neither statewide proposal touches property tax. The local questions further down the ballot do, and for homeowners in southeast Oakland County they are where the money is.
This guide does not tell you how to vote. It converts each proposal into what it would cost a typical homeowner per year, explains which ones change your bill and which ones keep it the same, and points out the details that matter if you are buying, selling or own a rental.
First, the math: mills apply to taxable value, not your home's price
A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. Taxable value is not your home's market value. In Michigan, the assessed value (SEV) is set at half of market value, and taxable value is capped below that for owners who have held a property for a while. Across Oakland County's improved residential parcels in 2025, the average taxable value was $146,421, about 72% of the average assessed value (Oakland County Equalization, 2025 residential summary).
So the cost of any proposal is: mills × taxable value ÷ 1,000. A 1-mill proposal costs $100 a year on a home with $100,000 of taxable value. Your taxable value is printed on your winter or summer tax bill and on the assessment notice you receive each February.
This matters because some published cost examples blur the two. One widely shared description of the new museum millage gives about $30 a year "per $300,000 of taxable property value" (WDIV, Oct. 23). At 0.2 mill, $300,000 of taxable value would pay $60. The $30 figure fits a home with about $150,000 of taxable value, which is roughly what a $300,000 house would carry if its taxable value had caught up with its assessed value. Run the formula on your own bill's number.
The two countywide questions every Oakland voter will see
Detroit Zoo millage (renewal and restoration). The Oakland County Zoological Authority asks voters to continue its levy for ten more years, 2028 through 2037. The current levy has been trimmed by the Headlee rollback to 0.0927 mill; the proposal would restore it to the 0.10 mill voters approved in 2008 and 2016. The authority estimates $8.83 million in the first year (Oakland County proposal list). Cost: $10 a year per $100,000 of taxable value. Compared with today, the restoration adds less than a dollar per $100,000.
Historical museum millage (new). A new Southeast Michigan Public Historical Museum Authority would levy 0.2 mill in Oakland and Wayne counties for ten years, 2026 through 2035, to support the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, with 15% of revenue (after administrative costs) going to other historical museums in the two counties. The ballot estimate for Oakland is $17.73 million in 2026 (WDIV). Cost: $20 a year per $100,000 of taxable value, or about $29 at the 2025 county-average residential taxable value. Because the ballot years begin with 2026, the first levy could arrive as early as this winter's bill; the ballot language we reviewed does not say which bill.
In Troy, these two county questions are the only property-tax items on the ballot, according to the League of Women Voters of the Troy Area's ballot summary.
Local proposals in and around our market
Each proposal below is converted into dollars per $100,000 of taxable value (TV) a year. "Change vs. today" is the part that would actually move a bill.
- Royal Oak (city): parks, recreation and animal shelter renewal, 0.70 mill, 5 years from 2027. $70. No change (renewal).
- Royal Oak (city): senior services renewal, 0.20 mill, 2027–2031. $20. No change (renewal).
- Royal Oak Schools: bond up to $165 million, max 15 years; 1.41 mills first year, 2.05 average. Total school debt levy stays at or below $220 (2.20 mills). No change vs. the 2026 rate; extends the levy.
- Birmingham Public Schools: bond up to $240 million, max 20 years; 0.84 mill first year, 1.30 average. Total school debt levy stays at or below $380 (3.80 mills). No change vs. the 2026 rate; extends the levy.
- Bloomfield Township: police headquarters and fire station bond up to $50 million, max 20 years; 0.2350 mill first year, 0.4380 average. $23.50 first year, $43.80 average. New levy.
- Bloomfield Hills (city): library renewal, up to 0.52 mill, 6 years from July 2027. $52. No change (renewal).
- Beverly Hills (village): charter amendment moving 0.75 mill of the existing levy to roads. $0. No change (reallocation).
- Lathrup Village: library services, 1.0 mill, 2027–2031. $100. New levy.
- Lamphere Schools (Madison Heights): bond up to $47.34 million, max 30 years; 2.50 mills first year and average. $250. New levy.
- Ferndale Public Schools: operating millage replacement and restoration, up to 18 mills, 2027–2046. $1,800 on non-homestead property only. Mostly continues the existing levy.
Sources: ballot language published by Royal Oak Schools, Birmingham Public Schools and Bloomfield Township; C&G Newspapers for Lamphere; the Oakland County proposal list for Lathrup Village; and WDIV's compilation of Oakland County ballot language for the Royal Oak city, Bloomfield Hills, Beverly Hills and Ferndale items. This is not every proposal in the county; other communities and districts have their own. Your sample ballot is the final word.
"No tax-rate increase" bonds keep a levy going
Royal Oak Schools and Birmingham Public Schools both describe their bonds as no-rate-increase proposals, and the ballot language supports that on its own terms: Royal Oak's total debt levy is expected to stay at or below the 2.20 mills levied in 2026, and Birmingham's at or below 3.80 mills.
What that phrasing does not tell you is what would happen if the bond failed. A district's debt millage pays off bonds it has already sold. As those older bonds are retired, the levy needed to pay them usually falls. A no-increase bond replaces that retiring debt with new debt, so the rate stays where it is for longer instead of declining. For a homeowner, the honest comparison is not "today's bill versus tomorrow's bill" but "the bill with the bond versus the bill the existing debt schedule would produce without it." Districts publish those schedules or will provide them; it is a fair question to ask before voting either way. We did not find either district's projection of the no-bond path, so we cannot say how large the difference is.
In Birmingham's case, the bond's own levy starts at 0.84 mill ($84 per $100,000 of taxable value) and averages 1.30 mills over its life; in Royal Oak, 1.41 mills in the first year and 2.05 on average.
Bloomfield Township: check the per-home example
Bloomfield Township's bond page gives an estimated average of $128.96 a year for a home with a taxable value of $294,450. That matches the 0.4380-mill average in the ballot language. The first-year levy is lower, 0.2350 mill, or about $69 on the same home. The ballot allows the bonds to be sold in one or more series, and a first-year levy below the average usually means the cost starts lower and rises later. The township's FAQ also describes the $128.96 figure as a first-year increase; by the ballot's own numbers, that is the average, not the first year.
Ferndale schools: the cost lands on rentals and second homes
School operating millage works differently from almost everything else on the ballot. Under Michigan law, a homeowner who owns and occupies the house as a principal residence and has filed a Principal Residence Exemption is exempt from up to 18 mills of school operating tax. So the Ferndale Public Schools proposal, which would continue a levy of up to 18 mills for 2027 through 2046, falls almost entirely on non-homestead property: rental houses, second homes and commercial property. For a landlord, 18 mills is $1,800 a year per $100,000 of taxable value. The proposal mainly replaces millage that would otherwise expire, plus a Headlee restoration, according to WDIV's summary of the ballot language; we could not open the district's own notice to check the split. Investors with property in the district should read the full ballot text.
School debt millage, like the Lamphere, Royal Oak and Birmingham bonds, is different. Bond levies apply to homesteads and rentals alike.
What this means if you are buying or selling
Buyers: your future tax bill depends on two things that change at once. The first is the millage rate, which these proposals can raise or extend. The second is the taxable value, which in Michigan resets to the assessed value the year after a purchase. The second is usually the bigger number. On a home whose taxable value jumps from $150,000 to $250,000 after a sale, a 2.5-mill bond costs $625 a year, not $375. Our guide to property-tax uncapping walks through that reset; if you are building, the new-construction guide covers how unfinished homes are taxed.
A purchase agreement signed this fall should be written knowing that the seller's current tax bill reflects the seller's taxable value and today's millage. Lenders estimating escrow will usually work from the prior year's bill, so the first year of a new levy can show up as an escrow shortage the following year.
Sellers: a new local levy is a modest change in most of these communities, from $20 to $250 per $100,000 of taxable value. It is unlikely to move buyer demand on its own. Buyers do compare total monthly cost across communities, though, and Oakland County's millage already differs by city and school district. If a proposal passes in your area, expect informed buyers and their agents to ask.
Landlords and second-home owners: school operating millage questions, like Ferndale's, carry the largest per-dollar effect on you, because the principal residence exemption does not apply.
The bottom line
For most southeast Oakland County homeowners, the countywide questions come to $30 per $100,000 of taxable value a year if both pass, but only the museum's $20 would be new; the zoo levy is already on today's bills. The bigger swings are local: new bonds in Lamphere and Bloomfield Township, a new library levy in Lathrup Village, and two large school bonds in Royal Oak and Birmingham that keep current debt rates in place for longer. Before voting, find your taxable value on your last tax bill, multiply by the mills, and divide by 1,000. That is the number the proposal is asking you to weigh.
This article is general information, not tax, legal or voting advice. Rates and estimates are taken from the ballot language and the issuing bodies' own notices; actual levies depend on final taxable values, bond sales and the Headlee rollback. Confirm the exact proposals on your ballot with your city or township clerk or the Michigan Voter Information Center.