Request for Exemption and Notice of Denial.pdf

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From: Veronica Steele veronica.steele@rocketmail.com

Subject: Request for Exemption Determination (MCL 211.7b) and Submission to Board of Review

Date: July 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM

To: Angela Swoffer swoffera@porthuron.org

Dear Ms. Swoffer,

Thank you again for your previous correspondence regarding the refuse, recycling and leaf collection charges applied to our property at

 2712 Military Street. The property is approved for a 100% property tax exemption under the Disabled Veteran’s Exemption (MCL 

211.7b).

Request for Qualified Error Correction – Board of Review Submission (2020–2024 Tax Years)

We’re requesting the following written statement be forwarded to the July 22, 2025 Board of Review for inclusion in the meeting packet. 

This request seeks correction of a qualified error under MCL 211.53b for prior years in which charges were improperly applied to a fully 

exempt parcel.

Please confirm that the statement below has been received and will be forwarded to the Board of Review. We ARE able to attend the July 

22 meeting in person if required, but not any of the earlier meeting times due to a family reunion out of town. We will remain available for 

questions or documentation if needed. Just email us.

Thank you again for your assistance in these matters. Please confirm once our request has been submitted to the Board of Review for their 

consideration and let us know what time and where the July 22 meeting will be held.

Sincerely,

Veronica Steele & Marion Adam Mills

2712 Military Street

June 27, 2025

To the Honorable Members of the Board of Review:

We respectfully request that you correct a qualified error under MCL 211.53b for the tax years 2020 through 2024, related to refuse, 

recycling, and leaf collection charges applied to our property at 2712 Military Street, which is and has been fully exempt under the

 Disabled Veteran’s Exemption.

Background:

Until 2023, refuse services were funded by a 3-mill property tax, from which this parcel was fully exempt.

In June 2023, City Council passed Resolution #23-082, discontinuing the millage and replacing it with a flat $285 fee per 

residential parcel, to be added to the tax bill. This charge is now applied even to fully exempt properties.

Additionally, beginning in 2021, a $25 “leaf and recycling” fee was added via Resolution #20-043, adopted in May 2020 without 

special assessment procedures.

In 2023, recycling was moved from the $25 fee into the new $285 charge, but the $25 fee remains in place, resulting in 

potential double billing for the recycling.

The total charge now billed to our exempt parcel is approximately $310–$312 annually, despite the exemption. These fees:

Were not approved by voters,

Were not structured through any formal Special Assessment District (SAD),

And do not meet the constitutional standards outlined in Bolt v. City of Lansing, 459 Mich 152 (1998), which requires:

1. Voluntariness

2. Proportionality to use

3. Strict cost-basis justification

Legal & Procedural Defects:

The refuse and leaf fees are mandatory, not based on use, and have no published cost analysis.

No SAD process was followed (no notice, roll, apportionment, or individualized benefit).

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The charges are being collected via the tax bill, on a parcel otherwise exempt from all property taxes.

The City claims these are “special assessments,” yet neither the tax bill nor the approving resolutions describe them as such. 

In fact, Resolution #23-082 expressly refers to the charge as a “billing rate”, not a lawful special assessment.

We understand the $25 leaf and recycling fee originated in May 2020 under Resolution #20-043, and began appearing on our 2021 winter 

tax bill. That resolution likewise did not establish a special assessment district and offered no cost apportionment or proportionality. When 

recycling was later included in the 2023 $285 refuse charge, but the $25 fee continued, it effectively resulted in double billing for the same 

service.

Request for Relief:

I respectfully ask the Board to:

Remove all refuse, recycling, and leaf-related charges from the 2020–2024 tax rolls for our property, and

Correct this as a qualified error under your authority in MCL 211.53b.

Thank you for your consideration, and for your role in upholding legal and constitutional integrity in local tax administration.

Sincerely,

Veronica Steele & Marion Adam Mills

2712 Military Street

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From: Swoffer, Angela swoffera@porthuron.org

Subject: RE: Request for Exemption Determination (MCL 211.7b) and Submission to Board of Review

Date: July 22, 2025 at 2:48 PM

To: Veronica Steele veronica.steele@rocketmail.com

Cc: Allen Francis tfrancis@fletcherfealko.com, Ward, Lee wardlee@porthuron.org

Good afternoon,

 

Our July Board of Review does not have a “hearing” like our March Board of Review with

allotted times for tax payers to come in and dispute. So you were never going to receive a

hearing notice or written response before the Board date in regards to this. As stated by my

response in previous emails, the City Treasure response in his email, the trash is not a tax.

The disabled veteran exemption is exempt from property taxes. The trash fee is still a

required payment. As stated by our City Attorney, that was speaking on behave of myself,

that this is not a qualified error for the July Board of Review to make a decision on.  Please

see below State guidelines on what the July Board of Review can approve or deny. This

situation does not fall under any of these qualified errors.   

 

 Pursuant to MCL 211.53b the Board of Review can consider “qualified errors” at the July

meeting. Specifically, the statute provides “if there has been a qualified error, the qualified

error must be verified by the local assessing officer and approved by the board of review.” 

MCL 211.53b(1). “Qualified error” is defined as the following:

 

 (a) A clerical error relative to the correct assessment figures, the rate of taxation, or the

mathematical computation relating to the assessing of taxes.

 (b) A mutual mistake of fact.

 (c) An adjustment under section 27a(4) or an exemption under section 7hh(3)(b).

 (d) An error of measurement or calculation of the physical dimensions or components

of the real property being assessed.

 (e) An error of omission or inclusion of a part of the real property being assessed.

 (f) An error regarding the correct taxable status of the real property being assessed.

 (g) An error made by the taxpayer in preparing the statement of assessable personal

property under section 19.

 (h) An error made in the denial of a claim of exemption for personal property under

section 9o.

 (i) Any of the following errors regarding an exemption under section 7b:

 (i) An error made by the local tax collecting unit in the processing of a

timely filed exemption affidavit.

 (ii) A delay in the determination by the United States Department of

Veterans Affairs that a veteran is permanently and totally disabled as a result of military

service and entitled to veterans' benefits at the 100% rate.

 (iii) For tax year 2023 only, a denial by the board of review of an exemption

claimed under section 7b(1)(b).

 (j) An exemption under section 7u(10), for the immediately preceding tax year only,

if the exemption was not on the assessment roll and was not denied for that tax year. A claim

for exemption must be filed with the board of review on a form

 prescribed by the state tax commission and provided by the local

assessing unit, accompanied by supporting documentation establishing eligibility for the

exemption for that immediately preceding tax year under the criteria in section 7u(2) and

any other supporting documentation as may be required by the state tax commission.

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The Assessor’s office is responsible for applying your exemption in a timely matter. I show

that you have been receiving this exemption since 2019. Which shows that our office has

applied it timely. I see no other errors that my office has done.

 

If there is anything else that I may assist you with in the future please let me know.

 

 

Angela Swoffer

City of Port Huron

Assessor's Office

City Assessor, MAAO, MCPPE

Work (810) 984-9742

swoffera@porthuron.org

Maritime Capital of the Great Lakes®

     

 

From: Veronica Steele <veronica.steele@rocketmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2025 1:20 PM

To: Swoffer, Angela <swoffera@porthuron.org>

Subject: Request for Exemption Determination (MCL 211.7b) and Submission to Board of

Review

 

EMAIL ORIGIN EXTERNAL: Use proper judgment and caution when opening

attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email.

 

Dear Ms. Swoffer,

I am writing to follow up on my July 1, 2025 request regarding the improper application of our MCL 211.7b disabled veterans exemption

for prior years, and to formally submit our exemption request for the 2025 tax year.

As of July 22, 2025 at noon, I have not received a hearing notice or written response from your office or the Board of Review regarding my

request for correction of refuse, recycling, and leaf collection charges assessed in tax years 2022 through 2024. The only communication I

have received came from the City Attorney, who is not the statutorily authorized decision-maker in these matters.

Because the Board of Review is meeting today, and I have received no notice or acknowledgment of my timely submission, I must

consider this a constructive denial of my 211.53b correction request. However, if the Board still intends to hear the matter today, I

respectfully request that I be contacted by phone at (810) 990-6070 with at least 60 minutes’ notice so that I may attend. I’ll need to know

the time and meeting location.

Separately, I now formally request that our granted MCL 211.7b exemption be applied in full to the 2025 tax year, including exemption

from any refuse collection, recycling, or leaf collection fees listed on the summer tax bill. If you are unable to grant this exemption, I

respectfully request a formal written denial so I may preserve my appeal rights to the Michigan Tax Tribunal.

Thank you for your time and attention to these matters.

 

On Jul 1, 2025, at 3:22 PM, Swoffer, Angela <swoffera@porthuron.org> wrote:

 

I am currently out of the office until July 7th. If you need assistance before then please call

the office at 810-984-9742. Thank you.

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