HOUGHTON — The proposed bond for improvements at Houghton-Portage Township Schools is drawing opposition from a group of residents who say the debt would be excessive for district residents and the district should pursue other options to avoid overcrowding.

Robert MacInnes, a former city manager with Houghton, spoke at Wednesday’s Houghton City Council meeting as a member of the Concerned Citizens of the Houghton-Portage Township School District, a group formed to oppose the bond issue.

The $23 million bond issue would go towards additional classroom and flex space at the elementary school, a new robotics lab at the middle/high school building, and security and technology upgrades at both.

The timeline shown by the district would extend the current bond rate of 9.64 mills out an additional two years from 2029 to 2031, then continue the bond payments in decreasing numbers through 2055.

MacInnes said the $23 million bond cost stated in the ballot language understates the cost to taxpayers with principal and interest, which he put at $46 million, on top of the existing $22 million remaining of previous bond obligations. He said he had calculated the debt by adding the projected millages over the next 30 years as provided by the district’s bond attorney, then applying a 2.5% increase in taxable value each year, which he said was the average increase each year with inflation.

For a home with a taxable value of $100,000, he said, that would add about $12,000 to the $7,476 current debt.

“That’s a 60% jump between the two,” he said.

Houghton resident Betty MacInnes said the residents of Houghton and Portage Township were already paying high rates of taxes to schools, at 21% and 27% respectively. She worried the bond would make it more difficult for other community projects to get funded.

“In the near future, we will probably be voting on a new jail millage and other possible millage requests,” she said. “If this passes, it will seriously jeopardize the success of those millage requests.”

Superintendent Anders Hill said Friday the bond was pre-qualified, meaning it needed to be vetted by the Michigan Department of Treasury. He said he has asked the district’s financial people to get more information on the additional costs, which would be added to the district’s bond page on its website.

“When we started this process, we had a lot of humility in knowing this is not free money,” he said. “I live in West Houghton and understand my tax millage would stay the same for the next two years and that’s a cost. We don’t take that lightly, and want to be good stewards of what we’ve been given, and continue to support our community and our students.”

Robert MacInnes said during his time as city manager, there had been 10 to 14 houses constructed until about 2010; even after the market returned, that number has dropped to about one or two, he said. Julie Waara, a local Realtor, also spoke during public comment at Wednesday’s meeting. She said based on her conversations with buyers, people were not building in Houghton because of higher taxes.

“I sell houses all the time in our area, and buyers are telling me, ‘Well, I want to be near Houghton, so I can use all their things, and send my kids to their school, but I don’t want to pay the taxes,’ and that’s a real thing we’re dealing with now,” she said.

Brad Baltensperger, a Houghton resident and a member of the school board, said the schools of choice program had been a longstanding activity for the district, predating the downturn in housing construction MacInnes discussed. He said the 9.64 mills in Houghton, though higher than the 7.05 mills in Hancock, are identical to the rate in Portage Township.

He said one issue is the lack of availability of housing locally. He reiterated comments he’d made at workshops for ideas for the former Lakeshore Drive deck space, in which he called for building residential units to take advantage of the downtown area.

“Is it simply the lack of taxes that are causing the lack of construction, or is it the lack of availability of land, or whatever other factors go into this?” he said. “I don’t pretend to understand why there’s more growth in taxable value in the township or in Hancock than there is in Houghton, but I think that’s worthy of consideration as well.”

Robert MacInnes also asked for a breakdown of how the funds would be spent. Hill said Friday he would work to put a document on the bond page on the district’s website.

MacInnes called for the district to explore lower-cost options for addressing the overcrowding, including capping school-of-choice students. MacInnes pointed to the 47% of students coming from out of the district, coupled with a 5% drop over the past 10 years of students residing within the district. If another district became more attractive for school-of-choice students, it could leave the district with a budget shortfall, he said.

“It’s about time that we get the millage down to where it should be, and let’s figure out a long-range strategy of how we can do this,” he said. “The overcrowding was caused by the schools. The school board allowed that to happen. We cannot have our kids from the district going into overcrowded schools.”

Hill said the district’s school-of-choice numbers had allowed the district to extend its programming and do more for students.

The district closed enrollment in school-of-choice at the elementary school in two grades for the first time last year due to overcrowding, Hill said. The restriction was lifted this year, where the district was able to have enough sections to spread students out, Hill said; the highest class sizes this year are 23.

“To say that we haven’t been good stewards and we haven’t done what’s best for kids, I would push back on that … We came into this knowing not everybody would agree with this proposal,” he said. “It’s going to be up to voters, and we certainly respect that. If they think this is a good plan for the community’s growth and elevating education, they’ll support it. If not, they’ll vote against it.”