A $15,000 shock on a $791 bill
One Vicksburg homeowner paid $791 in property taxes in 2025. The bill for this year exceeds $15,000. Another saw taxes jump from $1,464 to nearly $10,000. Several others who owed just $72 last year now face bills around $7,000.
Those numbers are not isolated cases. They are the result of years of assessment errors in Schoolcraft Township, where most of Vicksburg sits.
38 homes. Millions in lost revenue.
Thirty-eight homeowners in Schoolcraft Township are seeing massive increases in their property taxes this year, according to MLive. Thirty of those 38 homes are in Vicksburg.
The average tax bill for those 38 homeowners will jump from about $1,100 in 2025 to almost $9,100 this year, per MLive calculations.
The cause: homes built since 2020 were never properly added to the tax rolls. The township taxed only the land value, leaving the value of the actual structures off the books.
"The homes, all of which were constructed since 2020, were being taxed just on the land because the township's former assessor failed to update the tax rolls after the homes were built."
Lydia Paille, who replaced the former assessor, conducted an audit going back to 2020. She found 48 parcels listed erroneously on the tax rolls: 38 residential and 10 commercial or industrial. The collective taxable value under the old rolls was about $3 million in 2025. Paille calculated the actual taxable value at $13.5 million.
That gap changes expected property tax revenue from $152,000 to almost $700,000 for 2025 alone.
Who loses when the rolls are wrong?
The revenue shortfall is shared among a dozen government entities. They include:
- Schoolcraft Township
- The villages of Schoolcraft and Vicksburg
- Vicksburg and Schoolcraft schools
- The Vicksburg District Library
- Kalamazoo County
- Kalamazoo Valley Community College
- The Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency
- The state School Aid Fund
James Mallery, Vicksburg village manager, said the village lost about $200,000 in tax revenue in recent years. His entity receives roughly 30% of the property tax revenue from Vicksburg homeowners.
"It's their mistake," Mallery said. "They can pay us out of their general fund or use their liability insurance."
Mallery said the village is considering a lawsuit if reimbursement does not happen.
The assessor at the center
The former assessor is Nathan Brousseau, whose contract with Schoolcraft Township was terminated in early 2025. Brousseau did not respond to requests for comment.
State records show Brousseau was put on probation in August 2022 by the State Tax Commission. He was ordered to complete courses on professional ethics, organization and time management, and communications.
South Haven Township confirmed it terminated its contract with Brousseau in 2021 due to assessment issues.
The Michigan Department of Treasury confirmed a complaint about Brousseau's assessments is currently under investigation.
Township says move on. Village wants answers.
Don Ulsh, Schoolcraft Township Supervisor, said the mistakes have been fixed.
"I have nothing to say," Ulsh said. "I'm just so sick of talk about this."
Township attorney Michael Homier noted that state law allows government entities to bill property owners for two years of back taxes. The township has chosen not to pursue that option.
"The township immediately recognized there was a problem and has taken the position that in order to rectify the issue, it's better to simply put them on the roll going forward rather than try to reach back and give them a huge outstanding property tax bill," Homier said.
Mallery wants more than closure. He said he only discovered the issue after someone tipped him off. He also said a similar problem was found in 2020, yet the township continued to contract with Brousseau for five more years.
"Why is (Ulsh) covering up Nate (Brousseau's) errors?" Mallery said.
Mallery said the village's lawyer is talking with Homier. He is seeking the results of the 2020 audit to determine how much revenue Vicksburg lost during that earlier period.