OTSEGO COUNTY: With the prospect of higher property tax revenues, the Otsego County budget will see a more significant increase for 2017 than it has in several years. John Burt, county administrator, indicated the general fund would go from $7,880,769 in 2016 to $8,064,151 in 2017.“We’re expecting property taxes revenues to go up by approximately 2.5 percent, due in large part to new construction, including the new Wolverine Power Plant,” Burt said in an email. Ken Borton, Otsego County Board of Commissioners chair and county Budget and Finance Committee member, echoed Burt with a similar observation about the new budget. “Obviously in years past, property tax revenues were down,” Borton said. “We are slowly working our way out of this. Building construction is up and the Wolverine Power Plant has really helped in 2017. Everyone is still watching their budgets, but I was happy with how it all worked out.”
The power plant, located in Elmira Township, became operational in July, and, according to Burt, how much revenue the county will see from this project for 2017 is yet to be determined. “I have Bill Kerr (equalization director) working on it,” Burt said. “It is very tentative though. The cost can go down or up — I’m hoping quite a bit up. The forms that determine the value aren’t filed until February though, so it’s really only a conservative educational guess at this point. “ The total budget for 2017 is almost $36 million compared with a total of about $33.6 million for 2016 and $33.8 million in 2015.
After a Truth in Taxation public hearing, the Otsego County commissioners unanimously approved the proposed budget at the Nov. 22 meeting, 6-0. Three commissioners, Paul Beachnau, Robert Harkness and Doug Johnson, were excused from the meeting. The county’s fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, and the budget is prepared to go before the commissioners for a vote by the second board meeting in November after the Budget and Finance Committee works most of the fall on the new funding plan, according to Rachel Frisch, county finance director/assistant administrator.
Despite the budgeting process being fairly straightforward for 2017, Burt said there are still things to keep in mind for future budgets. “The biggest budgetary challenges we have moving forward is the increasing cost of health care and retirement plan costs,” he said. “We’ve been making changes to better manage those costs and the liability associated with the retirement. No employee positions were either added or dropped for 2017.”
Borton agreed with Burt that health care costs and retirement funding are future concerns, but so far, the county is able to meet its obligations to its employees. “With health care costs — every place is worried about that,” Borton said. “Looking at retirement, we get these numbers that we have to watch, but we have not had to cut any departments, and we are making all entitlements.”
Borton also commended Frisch for her guidance through the budgeting process. “I had no idea (how involved the budgeting process was) until I got on the finance committee,” Borton said. “We are so fortunate to have Rachel. I couldn’t image how to get through all this without having Rachel to walk us through it.” Burt had praise as well for Frisch and others who worked on the budget.
“Rachel Frisch, the county’s finance director/assistant administrator, Paul Beachnau, the finance committee chairman, Ken Borton the county board chairman, and the rest of the county commissioners worked hard to arrive at a reasonable budget that continues to better position Otsego County into the future,” Burt said.
