In 3-2 Vote, Commissioners Approve LifeWays Bond Despite Public Protest

Hillsdale County moves one step closer to issuing $15.5 million to finance LifeWays' new facility.

May 13, 2025

Hillsdale County—At its May 13 meeting, the Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 in the face of public protest to move forward with a $15.5 million building bond for LifeWays.

The taxpayer-backed bond will fund the Jackson-Hillsdale Community Mental Health Agency’s effort to build a 28,000 square foot office building at the corner of Beck Road and Industrial Drive.

Hillsdale County resident Lawrence Peters, along with dozens of other residents, attended the meeting to oppose the bond.

“Somehow or another it seems like you’re trying to railroad this through,” Peters told the board. “I’ve got tell you, I’m appalled.”

Despite public opposition, the Commissioners pledged the “full faith and credit of the County…to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds” if LifeWays defaults.

Resolution 25-077 and Exhibit A, as seen in the Appendix below, show that Hillsdale County will be required to repay the bond as a “first budget obligation.”

In other words, the county is legally obligated to repay the bond from its “lawfully available funds,” such as the General Fund or the Capital Improvement Fund, before paying for priorities like law enforcement, courts, parks, and other discretionary expenses.

“The legal security pledge will then be the county’s limited tax full faith and credit, which means that the county must, if it needs to, pay from General Funds within existing tax limitations, so it can’t raise taxes beyond existing authorized tax limits,” said Bond Counsel Eric McGlothlin of Dickinson-Wright.

District 5 Commissioner Brent Leininger motioned to approve the bond, with support from District 2 Commissioner Kevin Collins. District 3 Commissioner Mark Wiley joined them to pass the motion.

District 1 Commissioner Doug Ingles voted “no,” and District 4 Commissioner Brad Benzing voted “emphatically no.”

Benzing said that public opposition to the bond proposal was “a little bit more than 2-1, not quite 3-1.” He added that LifeWays supporters were “on the clock”—taking a paycheck from a government-funded agency—while citizens speaking against the bond took “away time from their day to be here.”

The District 4 Commissioner also reminded his colleagues that the people “used to tar and feather politicians they didn’t like,” remarking that “it’s good to smell the tar, and it’s good for us to see a few feathers float by every once in a while.”

Ingles discussed the bond’s “devastating” financial effects on the county if LifeWays’ revenue declines and it cannot cover the debt payments.

“The annual payment is upwards of a million dollars,” the District 1 Commissioner said.

The $1 million bond repayment would eat up about 7% of the county’s $15,675,662 annual General Fund.

While the debt repayments would cripple the county, the savings for LifeWays of the county-backed bond compared to a commercial loan are marginal.

The commercial loan, according to LifeWays’ estimates, would cost $22.7 million over 20 years, or about 0.8% of the mental health authority’s $120 million annual operating budget.

The county-backed bond would cost $18.2 million over 20 years, or about 0.7% of Lifeways’ operating budget.

The bond authorization also comes as House Republicans are considering new restrictions on Medicaid funding. LifeWays receives the bulk of its funding from Medicaid.

Hillsdale County will own the LifeWays building for the duration of the bond, and LifeWays will pay the county a lease payment in the amount of debt service on the bond.

“I think the best route would be that the County own the property,” McGlothlin told the board. “I believe that while the bonds are outstanding there’d have to be some mechanism by which the County owned the asset it was financing.”

Joshua Paladino

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