Michigan State University Extension District 8 Director Bill Hendrian raises his hand with a question about recommended budget cuts during an Aug. 25 meeting of the Ionia County Board of Commissioners. Also pictured from top right clockwise are Ionia County Commissioner Georgia Sharp, MSU Extension Supervisor and Staff Development Educator Katie Courtade, Ionia County 4-H Coordinator John Duvall and Lake Odessa resident Robert Cusack. — DN Photo | Elisabeth Waldon
IONIA — Deferred employee hours, cutting the 4-H coordinator position in half, no pay increases … these are just a few of the difficult decisions facing the Ionia County Board of Commissioners.
Budget talks will get underway next week for Ionia County, which is facing an anticipated $1.3 million deficit, a 20% decrease in state revenue sharing ($247,949) and an 8% increase in health insurance expenses.
Ionia County budget workshop meetings are scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, 2 p.m. Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Sept. 22 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 23 on the third floor of the Ionia County Administration Building in Ionia. All meetings are open to the public.
Finance Director Linda Pigue detailed some of her budget recommendations during an Aug. 25 meeting of the county board. She is projecting a 5% increase in property taxes ($7,911), leaving just over $1 million in anticipated revenue sharing. This compiled with a 7% reduction in county revenue ($4,159), a cost allocation transfer in of $970,691 and another transfer in of $98,029 in funds from Central Dispatch, the Road Department and the Automation Fund results in a projected general fund revenue of $14,236,602.
This amount coupled with projected general fund expenditures of $15,590,291 results in an anticipated $1.3 million deficit.
To deal with this deficit, Pigue is proposing a deferred hour program for county employees (not including elected officials or sheriff’s employees) and not filling positions to save $365,300; as well as contributions from the Health Department ($500,000); the Commission on Aging ($158,000); Friend of the Court ($84,213); Central Dispatch ($50,589); saving money by not hiring a finance director at the Road Department ($36,000); contributions from the Airport ($9,736) and $89,296 in other departmental contributions to make up nearly $1.3 million — still leaving a projected deficit of $60,555.
The deferred hours proposal brought forth concerns from Commissioner Chris Bredice of Ionia.
“At the end of the day, the money’s not being saved?” Bredice questioned. “So you’re kicking it down the road? Where’s the money going to come from when they turn it in?”
“We’re kicking it down the road until such time as we get through this crisis,” Pigue responded. “We still don’t like it. We’re asking our employees to take a 10% pay cut.”
“What happens if it goes the other way?” Bredice pressed. “What if the economy does not come back? How are we going to pay for this?”
“If the economy does not come back, we are going to have to look at what kind of county government will we have left,” Pigue noted. “A lot of bodies, a lot of FTEs (full-time equivalents) would have to be cut. Bad things happen, but eventually our economy always comes back. I have confidence our economy will come back. I think this is the best approach with the least harm. I’m going to hope for the best, but we’re planning for the worst.”
Bredice called this a gamble.
“Economies don’t flip in one year,” he said. “It’s a cycle. Those cycles typically last more than one year. To be brutally honest, if the cycle continues on a downward spiral for five years, which is quite common …”
“There are typical recessions,” Pigue interjected. “This is not typical (the coronavirus pandemic). This one, we created it. It’s not some underlying economic issue that happened. We created it.”
“Montcalm County is in the same financial situation as us with revenue cutting, pretty much the same population,” Bredice observed. “They’re giving a 2% across the board raise, raising the salaries for their prosecutors, raising the salary of their public defender.”
“They have a millage for their (sheriff’s) road patrol recently, which helps fund their road patrol deputies,” Fox noted. “We don’t have that here.”
“They’re using fund balance,” Ionia County Administrator Stephanie Fox added. “We don’t have fund balance to use for this crisis. There is no fund balance to use bail us out of this big of a problem.”
Commissioners gave Fox and Pigue the tentative go-ahead to keep working on the deferred hours recommendation.
IONIA COUNTY 4-H
Also possibly on the chopping block is a portion of Ionia County’s 4-H coordinator job.
The county allocated $87,196 to Michigan State University Extension in 2020, but the recommendation for 2021 is $53,129 — which would eliminate the county’s portion of paying for half ($31,270) of the 4-H coordinator position, which is currently held by John Duvall.
“That full-time position is absolutely necessary, especially during fair time,” Commissioner Larry Tiejema of Saranac noted.
“So you’ll have to decide where the other cuts are going to come from in the general fund,” Fox countered.
MSU Extension District 8 Director Bill Hendrian told the Daily News he doesn’t believe the 4-H coordinator job will be sustainable if it’s reduced to part-time. He said MSU Extension has decided not to charge 4-H participation fees for the upcoming program year to meet the needs of the community due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the local economy.
The partnership between MSU Extension and Ionia County provides for education in the areas of agriculture, health and nutrition, community, food, environment and youth development,” Hendrian said. “The local 4-H program is at the core of the local partnership to provide youth development. Although it has been done in the past and may remain the case in a very few number of counties, it is my opinion that the 4-H program coordination is not sustainable half-time in Ionia County. Barring another funding source, if the county cuts the funding for 4-H, the position will be cut accordingly. If that is not sustainable, there is an uncertain future for 4-H in Ionia County.”
The MSU Extension office is also in the process of moving to the first floor of the Ionia County Administration Building and Pigue is hopeful the county can rent out the former MSU Extension building and generate some additional revenue.
Other anticipated Ionia County budget updates include the following:
• Child care fund: The general fund transfer to the child care fund for 2020 was $238,096 and the transfer recommendation for 2021 is $188,000 — a decrease of $50,096, due to Probate Court Judge Robert Sykes and Juvenile Services Director Mark Jewell reducing staffing levels and expenditures.
• Court security fund: The general fund transfer for 2021 will remain at $156,807 with a reduction in court security hours to cover a $24,931 deficit.
• Ionia County Economic Alliance: The allocation recommendation for 2021 is $10,000 — which is a $15,000 reduction.
• Ionia County Literacy Council: The county board budgeted $10,000 for the literacy council in 2020, but the literacy council has not requested any money from the county for the coming year.
The Ionia County Board of Commissioners will meet for a regular meeting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and for their first budget workshop meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
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