When Washtenaw County closed the books on 2013, it recorded a $3.9 million surplus. Now the question is what to do with it.
From her perspective, “it needs to go into reserves,” says county administrator Verna McDaniel. Adding the entire surplus to the current savings account of $20.3 million, notes county commissioner Andy LaBarre, “would get us to 20 percent of our annual budget, and allow us to have a real reserve going forward.”
Commissioner Conan Smith agrees on the need to get to 20 percent but says: “We have problems right now, and we could build the balance over four years.” He’d like to use some of the money to restore recent cuts to social services like the foster grandparent and emergency heating programs, and beef up workforce development.
But even Smith predicts his colleagues will take McDaniel’s advice to bank it all. Commissioner Andy LaBarre agrees. He says he’ll be open to revisiting spending if property tax revenue continues to improve–“but not with this surplus.”
Whatever the county decides, the good news has already had one positive effect. “Our bond rating is up,” McDaniel reports. “We’re out of the ‘woe is me category’ and are now triple A rated.”
