“Free” Isn’t Free: What Livingston’s Wellness Center Is Really Costing Taxpayers

There is one word I think Livingston taxpayers should revisit as the new Wellness Center comes online: free.

For years, one of the major selling points of the project was that Livingston residents would be able to use the facility without paying a membership fee. At the July 21 City Commission meeting, Chair Melissa Nootz specifically credited City Manager Grant Gager with moving forward with the Commission’s initiative to make the recreation center “free for taxpayers,” including requiring a $5 million endowment to help sustain the facility.

But “free at the door” and “free to taxpayers” are not the same thing.

This year, Livingston property owners will be assessed 40.84 mills for the Wellness Center.

If you do not spend much time reading municipal budgets, a mill is simply one way local governments express property-tax rates. One mill equals $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. More importantly for understanding the scale of this levy, the City calculates that one mill in Livingston will generate approximately $26,933 in FY 2026-27.

So 40.84 mills represents roughly $1.1 million in property-tax revenue in a single year.

That is not free. It is a substantial public investment being paid through property taxes instead of through a membership fee.

And when you compare the Wellness Center levy with the other levies on the City's own tax schedule, the scale becomes hard to miss.

The Wellness Center receives 40.84 mills.

The Library receives 5.92 mills.

The Ambulance Fund receives 2.13 mills.

And Livingston taxpayers are still paying 1.99 mills toward the 2016 fire truck bond.

Of the City's 44.96 total voter-approved mills, 40.84 of them are for the Wellness Center.

That means more than 90% of Livingston's voter-approved mill levy this year is associated with one facility that has repeatedly been described as “free” for city taxpayers.

That is the part of this conversation that deserves more precision.

The Wellness Center may have no membership fee for Livingston residents. That is a real benefit, and it may be exactly the funding model voters wanted when they approved the levy.

But the absence of a membership fee does not mean the absence of a cost.

The cost simply moved from the front desk to the property-tax bill.

Property owners pay it whether they use the facility every day or never walk through the doors. Renters may not see a line item labeled “Wellness Center” on a tax bill, but property taxes are still one of the expenses landlords must account for in the cost of providing housing.

So the better description is not that the Wellness Center is free.

It is that Livingston residents do not pay a separate admission or membership fee because the facility is supported through taxpayer funding.

Those are very different statements.

The City's own year-over-year comparison makes the impact even clearer. Total City mills increase from 195.00 last year to 213.02 this year. At the same time, the combined General and Library levy actually decreases from 150.61 mills to 131.61 mills.

Then a new line appears:

Wellness Center: 40.84 mills.

Without those 40.84 new mills, the City's total levy would be approximately 172.18 mills, substantially below last year's 195 mills.

Instead, the total rises to 213.02.

The City's own examples show the municipal property-tax amount increasing from approximately $444.60 to $485.69 for a $300,000 residence and from $1,021.80 to $1,116.22 for a $600,000 residence.

At the July 7 meeting, Gager himself identified the new voter-approved Wellness Center levy as the largest increase in the City's examples. He estimated the levy would add roughly $33 annually for the City's $100,000 residential example and about $230 for its $600,000 example.

None of this is an argument that Livingston should not have built the Wellness Center.

Voters approved it.

Swimming, recreation, fitness programs, senior activities and youth opportunities all have value. The facility may become an enormous community asset.

But taxpayers should be able to talk about that value using accurate language.

A publicly funded service can be worth every penny and still not be free.

And in this case, the public investment is substantial: approximately 40.84 mills, or roughly $1.1 million in annual property-tax revenue at this year's mill value.

So as the Wellness Center opens, there is nothing wrong with celebrating what Livingston residents will receive for that investment.

Chair Nootz credited Gager with making the Wellness Center “free for taxpayers.” But it isn’t free. Livingston property owners are paying for it through their property taxes whether they use the Wellness Center every day, once a year, or never walk through the door.