Kalamazoo County voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax Tuesday that will help pay for services for older adults.
The proposal for a senior millage, as it’s known, passed with about 67 percent of the vote before absentee ballots were counted.
Judy Sivak is the former director of the Kalamazoo County Area Agency on Aging and a supporter of the 0.35-mill levy. Sivak says service providers first started talking about a senior millage for Kalamazoo in 2003.
“In essence it’s taken fifteen years for everything to align,” she said on Tuesday.
Dale Hein co-chaired the campaign for the millage. He says the number of older adults in Kalamazoo County is growing.
“And I think they understand the value of supporting services to seniors,” he said.
Supporters say the millage will put a big dent in the waiting lists for senior services in Kalamazoo, and will help older adults who want to do so to stay in their homes.
