TRAVERSE CITY — After months of preparation and weeks of debate, the Grand Traverse County Commission finally passed its 2025 budget on Wednesday morning during a four-hour marathon meeting.
State law requires all counties to pass a balanced budget by Dec. 31 or all expenditures must stop.
The new $51-million general fund budget was approved with some minor revisions after about 40 minutes of sometimes heated discussion. Most of the final changes were relatively small in scale compared to the overall outlay.
For example, the board voted to cut $145,000 from the Parks and Recreation Department’s budget that was originally earmarked to pay for a bathroom and “kayak kiosk” at the Camp Greilick property in East Bay Township.
Commissioner T.J. Andrews argued that other county parks could use more attention in next year’s budget – especially after the county invested about $3 million in ARPA money to purchase Camp Greilick from Rotary earlier this year.
“We have to be equitable in our appropriations for county parks,” she said. “Bathrooms at Power Island are a higher priority for me, for instance.”
Commissioner Scott Sieffert said he had a constituent who was willing to build a rack for kayaks and equip them at little or no cost to the county, rather than installing a third-party kiosk rental machine.
Board member Darryl Nelson, who has championed Camp Greilick as a new county park, said the parks and rec board was “extremely frustrated” with such last-minute changes because of the impact they could have on water quality, neighboring property owners and future donors.
“This has been in our papers since April and I’m frustrated that we waited so long to do this,” he said. “The parks and rec board has demonstrated the need for these things. Both will protect the quality of water in the surrounding lakes.”
In the end, the board voted 5-3 to cut those two items from the 2025 budget before they could get a majority vote favoring final budget approval. Commissioners Andrew, Ashlea Walter, Lauren Flynn, Sieffert and board Chair Rob Hentschel voted yes. Nelson, Vice Chair Brad Jewett and Penny Morris voted no.
In another matter, some commissioners have complained that they’re not getting the type of financial reports they need from the county’s relatively new “Workday” enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
Andrews acknowledged the heavy load on the county’s financial department and suggested adding a new member to that five-person staff.
However, Finance Director Dean Bott said he didn’t have the time to train a new team member now and that there is “a light at the end of the tunnel” in terms of the massive software implementation.
“The new ERP system has been a huge learning curve for all of us,” he said. “Give me some breathing room here. I’m fine.”
PENSION FUNDING
Overall, the county’s pension system is “very strong” and operating as planned, Bott said.
The 2025 budget includes a $798,000 payment to the Michigan Employee Retirement System (MERS) for an unfunded liability amount based on actuarial data. Such payments are usual, officials said.
Deputy Administrator Chris Forsyth then presented a slide presentation about the county’s pension stabilization fund (PSF), which currently has a balance of about $6.5 million.
After a robust discussion about how to invest those funds and acceptable risk levels for that investment, Forsyth recommended making a $2 million employer contribution payment to MERS using $1 million from the PSF.
The motion to approve that payment passed unanimously.
CONSERVATIVE BUDGET
As in recent years, the proposed 2025 budget uses a conservative approach for projected revenues and expenditures instead of depending on “wishful thinking” for extra funding.
“Hope is not a plan,” said Bott.
The estimated 6.3-percent increase over the 2024 budget is largely due to higher costs for personnel, health insurance and projected capital expenditures.
The biggest slice of the $51-million budget is earmarked for public safety, which will receive $22.5 million. Required transfers between funds is second at $20.8 million and general government is third at $10.4 million. The fourth-largest allocation of $3.4 million is for judicial costs.
The majority of funding for the county’s general fund comes primarily from taxes (including five millages), which total $35 million. Other sources include charges for services, fees, interests, government grants and contributions from local units, such as townships and villages.
OTHER BOARD ACTION
On Wednesday, the county board also approved the purchase of 62 new Taser 10 “less than lethal” devices for use by patrol officers at a total cost of $289,721.
The money is coming from a fund balance in the department’s existing 2024 budget, rather than a new allocation.
The department’s current X26 Tasers are no longer supported by the manufacturer, Axon Enterprise Inc., and the remaining X26P units will soon be discontinued, officials said.
As required by accounting rules, the new Tasers must be delivered by Dec. 31. An Axon representative at Wednesday’s meeting said they would meet that deadline.
In another action, the board heard a brief update from Senior Center Network Director Lacey Edgecomb about the new facility that is now nearing completion on West Grand Traverse Bay.
Edgecomb said the agency expects to move staff into the building in early February. A grand opening event for the 18,000-foot center is tentatively scheduled for April.
Also on Wednesday, commissioners approved a new six-year agreement between the county Veterans Affairs office and Leelanau County for specific veterans’ services. It then reviewed a request from Whitewater Township to reallocate ARPA money from a trail project to a firetruck “pumper.”
Board members then provided detailed input on proposed questions for the upcoming “National Community Survey” that will be used again in the county in 2025. Key issues of discussion included adding questions about housing, public interaction with county government (including transparency), use of the online permitting system and future community development.
Commissioners also heard a brief update on the progress of “Project Alpha,” a plan to build a new 911 dispatch center, tower and storage facility at the county’s LaFranier Road campus.
It later approved a revised compensation policy for county commissioners that would allow board members to receive per diem compensation from specific outside authorities, such as Northern Lakes Community Mental Health, when offered.
Finally, the board recognized the contributions of outgoing board Vice Chair Brad Jewett and retiring Register of Deeds Peggy Haines for their service to the county.