ABOUT BARBARA NIESS-MAY:
Barbara Niess-May joined YMOW in early 2024 as the second President/CEO in the organization’s 50-year history, bringing with her over 30 years of experience building strong resources to support the Ypsilanti community.
Prior to her most recent position as Development Manager at The King Center, Barbara served as Executive Director of SafeHouse Center in Ann Arbor, transforming the organization into a progressive service provider supporting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Barbara holds master’s degrees in social work and public administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, as well as a bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism from the University of Evansville, Indiana.
Barbara’s commitment to community extends beyond her job to include volunteer roles with the Washtenaw County Circles Program, Rotary Club of Ann Arbor, the United States Adventure Racing Association DEI committee, and the First United Methodist Church Anti-Racism Work Group in Brighton. She will begin seminary work in the fall of 2024 as she works toward becoming an ordained deacon in the United Methodist church.
In her spare time, Barbara trains and competes as an amateur endurance athlete in adventure racing, competitive navigation and mountain bike/gravel racing.
Barbara shares a home on the Huron River with her husband and their two Brittany spaniels, Meadow and Emmy.
ABOUT WASHTENAW COUNTY PROPOSAL 3:
"Shall the limitation on the total amount of taxes which may be levied against taxable property within Washtenaw County, Michigan, be increased by up to 0.5000 mill ($0.50 per thousand dollars of taxable value) for a period of eight (8) years, 2024 to 2031, inclusive, as a new additional millage for the purpose of providing funding for activities and services for older persons (age 60 or older) in Washtenaw County? If approved and levied in full this millage will raise an estimated $11,584,031 in the first year."
RESOURCES:
November 5, 2024 Official List of Proposals
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89 one WEMU. It is your community NPR station. Voters in Washtenaw County are deciding four different ballot proposals in this election. Proposal Three would authorize the county to levy a tax to support the county's growing population of older adults. I'm David Fair, and, if approved, the Older Persons Services Millage would raise property taxes a half-mill throughout the county and generate an estimated $11.5 million in the first year of collection. That tax would run for a period of eight years. Our guest this morning represents an organization that strongly advocates on behalf of the older population and stands in support of this proposal. Barbara Niess-May is executive director of Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels. And, Barbara, thanks for coming in to share your perspective! I appreciate it!
Barbara Niess-May: Thanks for having me!
David Fair: Before diving into the proposal itself, I kind of like to get a picture of what is happening at Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels. How many older adults are you serving in the community?
Barbara Niess-May: Thank you for asking that. Over a year, we serve well over 400 unique households. And on any given day when we're doing our meal delivery, it's between 300 and 350, which is a lot, because it's not like it varies from day to day. We're making those deliveries Monday through Friday. And in addition to that, we also do wellness checks, which are part of the meal delivery process, where we're asking how are things going and if they need anything. Also, we're able to kind of put eyes on them and get an assessment of how things are going and make a phone call to their designated emergency contact if needed. What a lot of people don't know is that we have additional services. We also have a program called Pals, where we support those that we're serving the meals to. They can register to be on the pet program, and we can assist with veterinary visits, emergency visits, prescriptions, dog food, cat food, litter, those sorts of things. And we also have what's called Care on Wheels, which is an extraordinary program that looks at what the person needs to continue to age in place safely. And we have a consulting occupational therapist that works with our senior neighbors. And we also have a couple of case managers that help our senior neighbors who are homebound and often very isolated to access what they need. So, we're often, we say, more than a meal!
David Fair: Are you reaching all who are in need of those services?
Barbara Niess-May: No, we are not. It is true that we don't keep a waitlist, but, mostly, that's because it's just not a good idea, because we can't give anybody any indication of when we can provide a service. So, we're connecting them with other food insecurity resources, but none of them are like the services that we provide at Meals on Wheels.
David Fair: Well, as you have pointed out, we know that, for many older adults, a good deal of their social or interpersonal interaction comes when these meals are delivered. Meals on Wheels is a volunteer-driven organization. Do the resources available to you support the staffing and volunteerism to match the community need?
Barbara Niess-May: No, sadly not. One thing that I was talking about when I first got started earlier this year with the staff is what is the real need. And they said, "If we put a billboard up on Michigan Ave., we would probably have, like, 10 to 20 more routes." So, in some ways, we're the best kept secret in Ypsilanti, and we kind of have to keep it that way because, right now, we don't have the resources to meet the need. And we're not just in Ypsilanti. Our service area is just south of Whitmore Lake and extends to just north of Milan.
David Fair: If voters in Washtenaw County approved Proposal Three, how would it directly benefit Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels?
Barbara Niess-May: It would benefit us, and it would benefit the neighbors that we serve in incredible ways, because first of all, we'll be able to serve more neighbors. We don't have structural funding that we can count on year over year. We do get some senior nutrition funding and a little bit of money from ARPA, but we rely on the generosity of our community, including foundations and those sorts of things, to fund the work that we do. And if we had structural funding to address just the basics, then we're able to add more routes and support more people.
David Fair: This is 89 one WEMU, and we're talking with Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels executive director Barbara Niess-May about her organization's support of Proposal Three. It is being decided by Washtenaw County voters. It's a half-mill property tax levy that, if approved, would support activities and services for Washtenaw County residents aged 60 and older. That is directly from the ballot language that people are deciding upon. And so, Barbara, that's a pretty general description. What is your understanding of the kinds of activities and services it would pay for?
Barbara Niess-May: Well, of course, we try not to get too ahead of ourselves. There have been conversations about what the funding is intended for. And where I keep landing and people nod heads on where I keep landing is food insecurity, aging safely in place and transportation. And then, there's also caregiver support and things like that. And my friends in the senior serving groups probably could add even more to that. But I think those are the core activities with the idea that we know that there might be more that we uncover.
David Fair: In addition to Proposal Three. Washtenaw County voters are also being asked to renew three other tax measures. There's the mental health/public safety millage, the veterans millage and the parks millage. Is there a limit to what can be asked of taxpayers in Washtenaw County?
Barbara Niess-May: Absolutely! I think there are always limits. At the same time, I get the question a lot of how can we afford more taxes or what about people who need the support? And I don't have the answer for everybody and what everybody wants to hear. What I can say is that what we're doing helps everybody. Not only does it help the senior neighbors that we aim to support, but if you don't know as a senior yourself that would benefit from this, I'm pretty sure you probably know somebody who's in a caregiving role or a support role for a senior neighbor or a senior friend or a senior family member. And what we're able to do is afford more time and resources to those families because we're able to be in touch and in front of and supporting our senior neighbors. We're also in a circumstance that, by 2028, our population demographics are going to take a pretty major shift where we're going to see significantly more folks over the age of 60 and less under the age of 25. And there's probably lots of types of explanation for that. The reality is that's not something that's going to change, and we need to be prepared for it or there may be consequences that we're not ready to have.
David Fair: Taking the longer view as quite productive at times. And, at the same time, if you are among those who is suffering amid higher consumer prices and the cost of everything going up, sometimes looking at the week-to-week or monthly expenses can be overwhelming. And thinking about adding can be difficult. So, if you look at the voting map in Washtenaw County, there is the Greater Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area, which is heavily Democratic, but the rest of the county comes in as red. That is a voter block that is against taxes by nature. But again, we're in a circumstance where the cost of living has just gone up for everyone. So, I read one person who wrote, and I quote, "I'm voting against parks, old people, anything! I'm tapped out!" So, if you were to sit and have a conversation with this person, how would you present your argument?
Barbara Niess-May: Well, yeah. I mean, I wish I could say that's an easy conversation to have, but I guess I would start with, "What is it that you are expecting from your tax dollars? And are those needs being met?" And we are always in a better position to advocate with your representatives that these are the things that I want to support because people want to support our older neighbors. People want to support what is needed for people that have a high quality of life. But if their quality of life starts to get impacted, then they start to backpedal and say, "I've got to take care of myself first," which I completely hear. However, we all have a responsibility to address this, and if they don't see their people that are representing them at decision-making tables making the decisions that they would like for them to make, then they need to speak up. This has been eight years in the making, and we're grateful to the commissioners for bringing it to the voters. We're bringing up an issue that's really important and will have a significant impact very soon. And we would hope that people would stand with us on that, either at the millage table or other tables.
David Fair: We're talking about countywide ballot Proposal Three on 89 one WEMU. The Older Person Services Millage is being decided by voters. We'll know the outcome late on the night of November 5th or early the morning of November 6th. Our guest today is the executive director of Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, Barbara Niess-May. There are 83 counties in the state of Michigan. Only nine are without some kind of dedicated tax to support aging services--Washtenaw County among them. Getting this proposal on the ballot, as you mentioned, has been nearly a decade in the making. Why, from your perspective, is this the right time?
Barbara Niess-May: It's the right time because this is the first time we've been able to get on the ballot. And it gives us a chance to catch our breath and put infrastructure in place before that magic 2028 year comes. We are already behind and struggling to meet the needs of the people in our communities, and we do it in a very cost-effective and efficient way. Without this support, I don't know how we will address the needs as they continue to grow. And I think if we were talking to a consultant on timing, they'd say this is the worst time. That there's no question in my mind about that. The end, also, is we've got to try. And we've got to put our case out to the voters, and we need to share how everybody is going to benefit as a result of something like this happening. I can't speak to the feelings that they might have about the other millages. And there are pros and cons to everything. What I'm here today to speak to is that this will benefit everybody. And it's very important that we have this structural support in place, so that, one, we can leverage additional dollars and, two, to be ready as our population gets older and to support them.
David Fair: So, again, this would be an eight-year levy that, in the first year of collection, if approved, would generate over $11.5 million. That's $11.5 million that's not being pumped into aging services right now. And people are saying, "Well, maybe we're getting by as we could and as we should." What, in your estimation, are the short-term and long-term repercussions should this measure go down to defeat?
Barbara Niess-May: Well, I think where we land is that, for example, let's think about schools and how tax dollars support schools. Even though I know parents are seeming to pay more and more out of pocket, there are those of us who don't have children in the school, and we're still paying into the schools. It is because it's considered an investment that supports everybody and that it helps everybody. And this is what the senior millage will do. If it doesn't happen, we are going to see more and more seniors have the adverse impacts of isolation, of food insecurity, of not being able to get where they need to go, such as doctor's appointments and things like that, and living in homes that are not safe to age in. And a lot of the seniors that we are in front of really don't have another choice. And they paid into a lot of systems that supported other people than themselves. And that's the point of having government involvement. I'm just imagining the people that are listening to this. They're like, "We don't want the government taking more money!" And I hear that also. This is what we're set up with right now. And until we have a better system, this is the direction we needed to go on behalf of our senior neighbors.
David Fair: You've spent a lot of time out in the community talking with a lot of people advocating for passage of this millage. Anecdotally speaking, do you think it's going to win voter muster?
Barbara Niess-May: You know, that's a tough one. I mean, I've heard everything from, "Because you're supporting our senior neighbors, everyone is not going to be able to say no." But I've also heard people say, "I could barely afford to buy a house in Ann Arbor. And this could tip me over the edge of being able to continue to afford it." And I hear both sides. And I'd like to believe that this is going to come through. However, we need to be honest with ourselves and not get ahead of ourselves knowing that it might not. I feel good about it. But I also recognize there's a lot of people around me that are saying, "Yeah, it's going to pass!"
David Fair: Well, thank you for sharing the time and the perspective today, Barbara! I do appreciate it!
Barbara Niess-May: Thank you for always digging into the tough issues and sharing all of this information with your listeners! You're a gem in our community, David!
David Fair: That was executive director of Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, Barbara Niess-May, discussing her organization's support of Proposal Three being decided by voters throughout Washtenaw County. To learn more about Proposal Three and a host of other election related stories, stop by our website at wemu.org. I am David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti.
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