No city income tax in Montcalm County

When Electrolux closed its Greenville refrigerator plant in 2006, about 2,700 jobs went with it, and much of the town’s working life reoriented toward Grand Rapids, half an hour southwest. That commute carries a line item worth knowing about: Grand Rapids taxes nonresidents 0.75% on wages earned inside the city. The tax follows the job, not the address — Greenville itself charges no income tax, and neither does Stanton or Carson City.

None of Montcalm County’s cities belongs to the list of twenty-four Michigan cities with a local income tax, but two members sit just past the county lines. Grand Rapids is one; Ionia, south of Carson City, is the other, taking 0.5% from nonresidents who work there. Work in either and that city gets its cut. Live and work in Montcalm County and no city touches your check — the local bill is property tax, set mill by mill for the city, county, and schools.

Greenville still throws the Danish Festival every August, as it has since 1965, with parades and a proper Danish breakfast downtown. The refrigerators left for Juarez; the festival stayed.