HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — Residents who live in Huron, Sumpter, and Van Buren Townships are fired up about a special tax assessment they say was sprung on them.
Watch Tiarra Braddock's video report:
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t pay it right now,” said Stephanie Moesby of Sumpter Township.
Moseby and her family have lived in Sumpter Township for 13 years.
She says on August 13th, she received a letter saying she had to pay more than $2,200 for a special tax assessment involving the North Branch Big Swan Creek Inter-county Drain.
The drain system primarily serves Wayne, Washtenaw, and Monroe counties, and it collects storm and wastewater to prevent flooding.
“I feel like we have no choice, and we are already paying pretty high taxes around here. In our case, it’s five thousand dollars a year,” said Moseby.
Residents can prepay the money, or the assessment will be spread over 20 years and added to a resident’s winter taxes with an unknown amount of interest.
“For the residents being charged for the Swan Creek drain, I do not agree with that,” said Katrina Burnham of Huron Township.
Burnham was sent an assessment of more than $900.
She says she wishes the county would have given residents at least six months' notice that the assessment would be coming.
“That is a big, big problem, especially for our seniors in the community that are on a fixed income,” said Burnham.
7 News Detroit reporter Tiarra Braddock reached out to Wayne County to learn about why they decided to send out the letters two weeks before the initial due date, and a spokesperson for the county told me the letters went out after several public hearings dating back to early July.
She was sent a statement also saying:
The North Branch Big Swan Creek Intercounty Drain is a multi-county maintenance and
improvement project through Wayne, Washtenaw, and Monroe counties. It is managed by the Drainage Board, consisting of those counties and chaired by the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development. There is a legally required process of communication for this type of drain improvement project, which has been followed and managed by the Drainage Board. The request for work was
initiated by a petition from multiple landowners, which was followed by several public hearings. Then a public day of review of apportionment was hosted on July 10, 2025, presenting assessment information for landowners. Notifications with assessment and prepayment details were sent after this meeting on August 13, 2025.
Transparency in communication and the legal process are of the utmost concern to the Wayne County Drain Commissioner and continue to be a high priority for this intercounty project.”
We’re told there is no finalized start day for the drain project, but it could start as early as fall of this year.
