Counties’ $217 Million Dam Repair Tax Survives Appeal Challenge

Property owners around four Michigan lakes failed to challenge a special assessment by their county boards to pay for local dam repairs because the petitioners hadn’t shown that the counties violated their procedural due process rights, a Michigan appeals court said.

Midland County and Gladwin County commissioners appointed the Four Lakes Task Force in 2018 in order to maintain normal inland lake levels at Wixom, Sanford, Smallwood, and Secord Lakes. After two of four dams failed in May 2020, the FLTF and counties determined that post-flood repairs would be funded through a combination of $200 million in federal and state ...