On August 7, 2026, the Village of Beverly Hills mailed letters to homeowners whose sidewalks were part of the 2026 Sidewalk Replacement Program, and crews marked the flags for replacement in pink paint. Under the program, owners pay 80% of the cost of the first three flags next to their property. The Village pays the other 20% of those flags and all of the cost of any flags beyond three.
The invoices are due December 1, 2026. According to the Village's program notice, any balance left unpaid after that date is split between the July 2027 and July 2028 property tax bills and accrues 5% annual interest. If you're under contract on a Beverly Hills house this fall, that's the first sign that the Village tax bill carries more than the tax rate. The bigger issue is the rate itself, which Beverly Hills residents voted on two days ago and will vote on again within five years.
Pink Paint Now, a Tax Bill Line Later
The sidewalk charge is a small example of how things work here. In Beverly Hills, the Village tax bill also handles costs a homeowner would otherwise pay directly, and it has its own billing calendar. Owners can prepay the balance at any time. The Village also let owners hire their own licensed and insured contractor, but only if that contractor pulled a permit within 30 days of the notice. For anyone selling or buying this winter, the open question is whether a property got a letter and whether the invoice was paid by December 1. Questions about a specific property's estimate go to the Village at (248) 646-6404.
To see why this matters, you need to know how many bills a Beverly Hills homeowner actually gets.
Three Bills, Two Collectors
The Village's tax page says residents get one Village operating bill a year, mailed July 1. Separately, Southfield Township sends summer and winter bills covering township, county and school taxes.
| Bill | Who sends it | 2026 homestead rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village operating | Village of Beverly Hills, mailed July 1 | 13.4316 mills | General fund, public safety, library, parks, rubbish |
| Summer | Southfield Township | 20.4081 mills | State education, Oakland County operating, Oakland Community College, intermediate school district, Birmingham Schools operating and debt |
| Winter | Southfield Township | 4.9792 mills in 2025; 2026 rate not yet posted | Township operating, county parks, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, transit, Zoo Authority, Art Institute, Birmingham Schools |
The Village bill is payable without penalty from July 1 through September 15. After that, a 1% penalty applies from September 16 through September 30, plus another 1% for each month through February. Michigan Treasury's 2025 total rates report puts the full 2025 homestead rate for the Village of Beverly Hills at 39.2445 mills, and the non-homestead rate at 52.6239. Most of that roughly 13-mill gap comes from the Principal Residence Exemption. Treasury describes it as an exemption from up to 18 mills of local school operating tax on an owner's principal residence.
The Village bill is the line most likely to change on its own schedule, and it's the line the November ballot was about.
The Rate Fell While One Fund Kept Growing
Here are the Village's own published rates for the last two years:
| Village fund | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| General Fund | 1.7965 | 1.7763 |
| Public Safety Fund | 9.4608 | 9.3548 |
| Library Fund | 0.7819 | 0.7731 |
| Park Improvement | 0.3057 | 0.3022 |
| Rubbish | 1.2900 | 1.4000 |
| Total | 13.6349 | 13.6064 |
Every line except rubbish went down slightly. That's how Michigan's Headlee rollback works. The State Tax Commission's 2026 millage rollback bulletin explains that operating millage has to be reduced when it would otherwise bring in more than the prior year's revenue adjusted for inflation. The total for 2026 is lower again at 13.4316 mills.
So rates drifted down even as home values went up. The money still had to go somewhere, and the charter decided where. Since 2010, the charter has allowed up to 9.90 mills for public safety and dedicated nothing to roads. The structure was adopted in 2010 and renewed in 2020 with 69.16% of the vote, according to C&G Newspapers' Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle.
In that same Eagle report, Village President John George explained what happened next:
"With the changes in values of housing, we've seen the dollars going into the public safety reserve fund increasing more aggressively than we had originally assumed."
Village Manager Warren Rothe told the Eagle that "any growth that we had in revenue has kind of been funneled and locked into the public safety fund." Meanwhile, the Village says it has kept up roads mainly with State of Michigan transportation revenue and other Village resources when available, and that money has not covered every identified road need.
What the Nov. 3 Question Could Change, and What It Couldn't
The charter amendment on the November 3 ballot asked voters to move 0.75 mills of the public safety authorization to roads. Public safety would drop to up to 9.15 mills, and roads would get up to 0.75 mills. The Village estimates that would raise about $700,000 a year, roughly a 50% increase in the money it has for road work, or about $2.8 million over the July 2027 through July 2030 levies.
The Village's proposal page lists 13 Mile Road from Evergreen to Lahser, Evergreen Road from Beverly to 14 Mile, and portions of Beverly Road as planning priorities. It calls them priorities, not guaranteed projects. The Village also projected the Public Safety Fund balance at the end of fiscal 2031: about $850,000 if the measure passed, and more than $3.1 million if it failed.
Southfield Township lists conducting federal, state and local elections among its primary duties, and its 2026 election information page covers Beverly Hills. Confirm the outcome against official results. For a household budget, the outcome matters less than it might seem. Either way, the Village's total authorized rate stays at 12.9184 mills. The Village also says individual bills can still change because of taxable value, required rollbacks, or millages from other governments. The vote decides how existing money is split. It doesn't change how much a homeowner pays.
The Date That Matters More Is June 30, 2031
According to the Village, the 12.9184-mill authorization is temporary and expires June 30, 2031, whatever happened on November 3. If voters don't approve a new charter amendment, the Village's maximum charter millage drops to 11 mills. For someone buying now, the timeline looks like this:
- December 1, 2026: 2026 sidewalk program invoices are due. Unpaid balances move to tax bills.
- November 2026: The Beverly–Southfield intersection study, which presented four redesign concepts at a July 14 open house, is expected to go to Council this month.
- July 2027 and July 2028: Deferred sidewalk balances appear on Village bills, along with the first road levy if the amendment passed.
- Through about 2028: Giffels Webster carries out a two-year master-plan update and zoning rewrite under a $151,673 contract funded by an MEDC grant.
- Possibly November 2030: The Village expects Council to decide whether to put a new charter proposal before voters, possibly at this election.
- June 30, 2031: The current authorization expires.
A buyer who closes this winter and stays seven years will see the Village redesign its millage structure while they own the home. The Village says the 2030 proposal "could maintain, reduce, or otherwise restructure" the authorization.
Your Own Number Resets the Year After You Buy
The rate is only half the calculation. The other half is taxable value, and buying a home changes that. Under Proposal A, the State Tax Commission's transfer of ownership guidelines limit yearly taxable value increases to 5% or inflation, whichever is lower. After a qualifying transfer, taxable value is reset to state equalized value the following year. Treasury's ownership change page notes that statutory exceptions mean not every change in ownership uncaps the value. For 2026, Treasury set the inflation multiplier on capped values at 1.027.
Each sale in the Village resets one home's taxable value toward its market value, while long-time owners' values rise only by the capped amount. That growth in the tax base is what President George described flowing into the reserve. A mill means $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. So a home with a $200,000 taxable value pays $150 a year on the 0.75 mills in question. How the Village divides that $150 is what the vote decided. The size of the taxable value it's charged against is set by the sale.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm how these rules apply to your own property with the Village, Southfield Township, or a qualified tax professional.
Quick Answers
Does the road amendment raise my Village tax rate? No. According to the Village, it moves 0.75 mills within the existing 12.9184-mill authorization and leaves the total unchanged.
Why is the 2026 Village rate higher than the 12.9184-mill cap? The Village's published 2025 schedule lists rubbish as its own 1.40-mill line on top of the general, public safety, library and park funds. Southfield Township lists the 2026 Village total as 13.4316 mills.
Where does the library millage go? To Baldwin Public Library. The Eagle reports the charter structure includes 0.8184 mills for it, plus 1.88 mills for general administration and 0.32 mills for park capital improvements.
If you're pricing a Beverly Hills home to sell, or weighing an offer on one, it helps to know which costs belong to the house and which come with the Village calendar. The Siciliano Group can walk you through the tax bills, the sidewalk notices and the 2031 timeline for a specific address before you commit to a number. Get your instant home valuation and start there.
