Townships have cash to spare

A quick glace at the end of year cash and investment balances for Jay County’s two most populous townships might raise some eyebrows.
Both are carrying large sums at the end of recent fiscal years that exceed what they’ve spent in previous years. But trustees in both said there has been an effort to reduce that sum or carry it where the township needs it most.
One of those is Richland Township, which encompasses Redkey and Dunkirk. At the end of December, Trustee David Champ said the township had an ending cash balance of $255,000.
Between cash and investments, that balance was $506,748.26, according to reports on the Indiana Gateway for Government Units.
Champ explained the cash balance contained about $87,000 in the township general fund and $122,000 in its township assistance fund, which is used to assist residents with needs.
Champ said the “game plan” is to keep the current cash balance steady.
Last year, he lowered the ending balance for the general fund and indicated that will continue.
“My general fund is pretty healthy,” Champ said “I’d like to keep a balance in poor relief. Last time was the first time we came out in the black. The previous four years we’ve lost $10,000 to $12,000.”
He added, “Just for the simple fact that I feel, as the trustee, is the poor relief fund is in poor health”
In Wayne Township, there has been an effort made to reduce the cash balance over the past decade.
The township, which includes Portland, started 2011 with $429,602.28 in cash and investments. That figure stood at $230,405.06 at the end of last year.
When township trustee James Brewster took office 10 years ago, he said the township was sitting on more cash than it needed. He saw “no reason to tax” if the township would just be banking it.
For a number of years, Brewster said the township received zero in tax revenue. In addition, it has sold off investments.
In the past five years, it had divested $135,000 in investments. That includes $75,000 in 2015, $25,000 in 2013, and $35,000 in 2011, according to financial reports.
For the larger townships like Richland and Wayne, one challenge of the budgeting process is trying to estimate how much it’ll need to allocate for township assistance. Richland and Wayne distribute a far greater amount of assistance than the smaller townships.
That may explain why a smaller township like Wabash has kept a consistent ending cash and investment balance over the past five years, which has hovered between $21,597.67 and $26,538.04.
When asked if that balance is kept deliberately stable, trustee Ronald Rosenbeck said it hasn’t been purposely done.
“It just basically happens,” he said. “What comes in goes out.”
Some of that may be a result of Wabash’s lower population, which was estimated at 576 in 2015.
That smaller population means less township poor relief assistance. Rosenberg said five checks is probably the most he’s written in a year for township assistance in his handful of years as trustee.
Overall, 10 of 11 Jay County townships that submitted financial information for fiscal year 2015 carried larger end of year cash and investment balances than the amount of money they disbursed in the fiscal year.
Analysis of the two largest townships in each of neighboring Adams, Blackford, and Randolph counties show that three of the six carried cash and investment balances at the end of 2015 that were larger than the amount they disbursed that year.