Commissioners also heard from supporters of a "senior millage" for the November ballot and from an anti-gun-violence group concerned with a remark the Vice-Chair made last month.
Kalamazoo County is poised to decide whether to pursue a program that would make residents eligible for a county-wide ID. Supporters say many people can’t get ahold of the paperwork they need for a state ID, and sometimes that means they cannot access services like banking or health care.
The Kalamazoo Board is set to vote July 5 on whether to craft a local ID plan, which supporters hope would launch in January.
A task force has proposed charging $10 for the card. The program would cost the county up to $60,000 the first year, the task force says, with expenses going down after that. Residents could use a variety of papers to apply.
Kalamazoo County Sheriff Rick Fuller says his officers run into problems when residents don’t have IDs, especially with when someone’s name resembles that of a suspect.
“And we have to, because there’s a warrant for that person’s arrest and they fit the same general description, there are a lot of different factors, they could end up going to jail just to prove who they’re not. And that’s something that we’d like to eliminate,” he says.
The task force on county IDs says many local governments and nonprofits have endorsed the idea, and one credit union says it would accept the ID for people who wanted to open a bank account.
Supporters of the program have turned out in large numbers at several county meetings this year. They say it would help everyone from formerly incarcerated people to the elderly to the homeless gain access to important services.
But Commissioner Ron Kendall suggested on Tuesay that if residents are struggling to get a state ID, that’s not Kalamazoo County’s problem to fix.
“Trying to address a problem that the state is actively committing I guess would be the best way to put it, that they’re disregarding these populations through an initiative that’s trying to cast a wider net, I just don’t think is the answer,” he says.
If Kalamazoo County does create its own ID, it will be the third local government in Michigan to do so and the 17th nationwide.
Senior Millage
Advocates for Kalamazoo County’s older adults have asked commissioners to put a so-called “senior millage” on the ballot in November. That’s a property tax that would help to pay for a variety of services for the elderly and their caretakers. A number of supporters spoke at a county commission meeting Tuesday. They say Kalamazoo is one of only a handful of Michigan counties that don’t collect such a tax. The Kalamazoo County board would have to vote to put the issue on the ballot, and the public would have to approve it for the tax to take effect.
Vice-Chair's Comments
An anti-gun-violence group says it’s concerned about a remark that Kalamazoo County Commission Vice Chair Stephanie Moore made last month. The Kalamazoo Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America says Moore seemed to be referring to a gun when she said she’d had to restrain herself after arguing with a demonstrator in front of the county building. After the confrontation Moore told commissioners she’d felt threatened by the demonstrator and said, in her words, ‘you know what I have in my purse.’ She did not comment on Moms Demand Action’s request at the county board meeting on Tuesday.
