Garrett Neese/DMG The Portage Lake District Library will hold three informational sessions this month on its millage request on the August primary ballot.

HOUGHTON — Ahead of the August primary, the Portage Lake District Library will hold three informational sessions for the public about the library’s upcoming millage renewal measure.

People will be able to learn more about the ballot question and operational millage, and also hear more about the library’s current services.

There will be two sessions at the Portage Lake District Library — one at 6 p.m. July 17, and ne at 3:30 p.m. July 30. Library Director Katrina Linde-Moriarty will also give a presentation to residents at The Bluffs at 11 a.m. July 29.

The operational millage has been in place for more than 25 years, last passing with more than 89% of the vote in 2017. The money raised by the millage provides the necessary funding for the library’s operation and services, the library said.

If passed, the measure would restore the library’s millage to an amount not to exceed 1.9606 mills ($1.9606 for each $1,000 of taxable value). That’s the amount voters approved at the last millage renewal.

Under the state’s Headlee amendment, the millage rate is reduced to keep property tax increases at the rate of inflation. Over the past seven years, those Headlee rollbacks have dropped the library’s millage to 1.8633 mills.

“A little bit gets taken off through the Headlee amendment every single year, and so it gets docked down, docked down, docked down,” Linde-Moriarty said at Wednesday’s Houghton City Council meeting. “So we had to put wording in there that makes it sound like we are seeking new additional millage. That is the legal terminology around it, but it is just to restore back to the originally voted-upon amount from seven years ago.”

If the millage is approved, the library will collect an estimated $617,000 in the first year.

Taxable value is generally half of the market value of the property. A family with a property valued at $150,000 — taxable value $75,000 — would pay about $147 a year, the library said.