Oakland County’s board of commissioners will consider creating a new authority dedicated to supporting area museums, in partnership with Wayne County.

The commission’s Legislative Affairs and Government Operations committee endorsed the plan on a 5-2 vote on Tuesday, with Republican Commissioners Robert Hoffman and Karen Joliat voting “no.”

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The resolution calls for a five-member board to govern the authority. Two would be chosen to represent Oakland County, two would come from Wayne County and each county’s executive would take turns appointing a fifth member to the board. If approved by Oakland County commissioners Thursday, the resolution would create the Southeast Michigan Public Historical Museum Authority as a partnership with Wayne County.

The goal is to provide oversight and funding for major regional museums, including the Detroit Historical Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.

The Wright Museum is the nation’s largest dedicated to African American history while the Dossin preserves and interprets Detroit’s maritime and Great Lakes history.

Oakland County’s resolution, sponsored by Democratic Commissioners Dave Woodward and Brendan Johnson, cites the state’s Recreational Authorities Act, which allows counties to create authorities to protect or preserve cultural or historical resources.

Wayne County commissioners must pass an identical resolution for the plan to move forward, Johnson said.

Once the authority is created, the five-member board can propose a 10-year, 0.2-mill levy to Oakland and Wayne counties’ voters. That would have to be done by Aug. 11 to put the question on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The millage, if approved, would cost the owner of a home with a taxable value of $300,000 an estimated $30 a year. In the first year the tax collected would amount to an estimated $16 million from Oakland County. Of that, an estimated $2.5 million would be used to support more than two dozen museums and historical sites in Oakland County.

Voters in both counties must approve the millage or it fails. If the millage fails, the authority would be dissolved.

Oakland County has millage-funded authorities with Wayne and Macomb counties for the Detroit Zoo, regional transit and the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Oakland County’s recently created Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) Authority is funded by members.)

The 10-year 0.1-mill zoo millage is up for renewal this year and will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Wayne County commissioners will consider its resolution when they meet, 10 a.m. Tuesday July 14, in the commission chambers on the mezzanine of the Guardian Building, 500 Griswold St. in Detroit.

Oakland County Commissioners meet 9:30 a.m. Thursday, July 16, in the commissioners auditorium at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac.

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