The following letter addresses an error in last week’s print edition of the Star. In the story, ‘BVCC gives it one more college try,’ the article and press release claimed the Bitterroot Valley Community College (BVCC) district, a separate entity from the University of Montana, would be running a $1.5 million levy. This is factually incorrect. The levy will be for 1.5 mills, to run for a four-year duration with the goal of raising an estimated $197,000 per year for the district. In her letter, Jean Butler, vice chair of the BVCC board of trustees, writes:
Wish I had a mill – or is it a mil?
by Jean Butler
I admit that I am a geek. A bookworm. The kid who chose a book over playing dodge ball at recess. Who wants to get hit by a hard ball, anyway? Words are my sport.
Last week’s Bitterroot Star published an article about Bitterroot Valley Community College and the upcoming levy ballot. I suspect that spell-check took liberties with the word “mill,” thinking it meant “million.” While the words “mill” and “mil” are terms related to units of money, that is all they have in common – there is a HUGE difference between the two.
Let’s start with the definition of the word “mil,” as it is the simplest: according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, mil is slang for “a million dollars.” That is the sum of money we all hope to win every fall when we play the Montana Millionaire lottery.
And then there is the word “mill,” a more complicated four-letter word. The same American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a “unit of currency equal to 1/1000 of a US dollar, or 1/10 of a cent.” It was first coined (pun intended) by the Continental Congress in 1786 as the “lowest money of account, of which 1000 shall be equal to the dollar.” The word comes from the Latin word “millesimum,” which means “thousandth part.” Latin was the language used for all legal documents of that time and is still found in many legal documents today. The mill rate, also known as millage rate, is used to determine property values for tax bill calculations.
Two years ago Bitterroot Valley Community College (BVCC) ran a 9.5 mill levy ballot in hopes of making the college operational. It failed, quite possibly because folks thought it was a $9.5 million dollar levy. It wasn’t. This spring, BVCC is running another levy ballot of 1.5 mills that, if passed, would be applied to residents in the community college district based on assessed home market values. The tax impact PER YEAR for a home with an assessed value of $100,000 would be $2.03 (17 cents/month); for a home value of $300,000, tax of $6.08 (51 cents/month); and home value of $600,000, tax of $12.15 ($1.01/month.) More information about BVCC and the levy can be found online at bvcommunitycollege.org.
So now you know what a “MIL” and a “MILL” is. That extra letter makes an “L” of a difference, don’t you think?