County should set targets

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It’s time to set the targets.

Meeting with Jay County Council during a special session prior to its regular meeting Wednesday, financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz recommended that the group craft a resolution setting goals for its year-end balances in several key funds. Those targets, he said, will be key to council making decisions about the 2018 budget, such as whether or not it can afford to give raises.

Jay County finished 2016 in better shape than expected, coming in with a general fund balance of about $1.2 million. But that’s still well short of council’s long-term goal of $2 million (about 25 percent of annual revenues).

As the county continues to strive toward that number, Guerrettaz suggested adopting a resolution, similar to one he helped implement in Hancock County, that would set minimum year-end cash balance targets for the general, cumulative capital development, health, county highway, rainy day and local income tax public safety funds. Council members informally discussed setting a 2018 target of between $1.2 and $1.5 million for the general fund in hopes of at least holding steady while also being able to give 3-percent raises and absorb some of a potential increase in health insurance costs.

“The target fund balance that we put in this resolution … is going to be important because where do I believe you are? I believe you’re at the minimum target balance right now,” said Guerrettaz, who heads Financial Solutions Group.

Guerrettaz noted his concern about health insurance costs, pointing out that some counties are staring at 50-percent increases in 2018. While Jay County is planning for a much more modest increase (5 to 10 percent), it was still suggested that an insurance reserve account be established. That would involve setting aside money in case of a massive one-time increase in insurance premiums.

“That would buffer a huge increase in any one year,” said Guerrettaz. “Given today’s world, we’ve got to almost prepare you for anything.”

Council also discussed the coming decrease in assessed value on farmland — 43 percent of Jay County’s assessed value is in agriculture — because of a change the legislature made in the way that land will be assessed. Council member Gary Theurer asked if local income tax could be raised to help balance that decrease. That is an option but not an attractive one, as Jay County already has the eighth highest local income tax rate among Indiana’s 92 counties.

Council members Jeanne Houchins, Bob Vance, Cindy Newton, Faron Parr, Mike Rockwell and Theurer, absent Ted Champ, also talked about the need to increase the tax rate for the cumulative bridge fund. It has been cut back to 3 cents per $100 of assessed value in recent years, but will likely need to be raised to 4 cents in order to keep pace with costs.

Guerrettaz will take the numbers and other information from Tuesday’s meeting and use it to develop a financial sustainability outlook to discuss with council in June.

“My goal is for you not to have a budget that forces you to go to the rainy day fund,” he said.

Council hired Guerrettaz last year to help with the budget process after it spent $500,000 from its rainy day fund to balance the 2016 budget. Its next special meeting with him is scheduled for 5 p.m. June 14, with the regular council meeting to follow at 7 p.m.

In other business, council, with Champ in attendance:

•Heard an update from Jay County Hospital CEO Dave Hyatt about the strategic planning process a steering committee for the facility is going through to determine the best path forward to deal with financial difficulties. He gave the same presentation to Jay County Commissioners on Monday. Hyatt also reported that commissioner Chuck Huffman will take over Doug Inman’s spot on the steering committee given Inman’s resignation, which will be effective May 31.

•Approved the following additional appropriations: $25,000 for the health department for the purchase of vaccinations; $20,500 for a new vehicle for the sheriff’s office; $20,000 for renovation of the grandstand at Jay County Fairgrounds; and $5,120 for a Salamonie River watershed study. The expenditures for the study, new vehicle and grandstand had been approved at previous meetings.

•OK’d the following transfers: $39,406.72 to Jay Emergency Medical Service contractual services from claims coordinator to pay Jay County Hospital for the director position; $3,500 to county coroner office equipment from autopsy transfer expense for the purchase of a new copy machine; and a total of $1,843.23 within funds in the Community Corrections budget.

•Approved spending $5,200 for installation of a new air conditioner for the health department. That expenditure was approved last year but the work was not completed until this week.

•OK’d the purchase of an excavator at a cost of $109,800 for the surveyor’s office. County surgery Brad Daniels had brought the request for the equipment to the commissioners Monday. There is enough money in the surveyor’s office account to cover the cost.

•Assigned Houchins, Rockwell and Theurer to check in on the four active tax abatements in the county and make sure companies are in compliance.

•Heard an update from Kay LeMaster about two upcoming events about poverty being presented by Jay County’s Purdue Extension Office. The first is a Bridges Out of Poverty seminar May 24 and 25 at Portland Fire Station, 1616 N. Franklin St. The second is a discussion with author Robert D. Lupton about the effects of charity at 6 p.m. May 30 in the Jay County High School auditorium.