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Poland Twp. 2015 budget has cuts in spending
POLAND
The township’s final 2015 budget features spending cuts paired with a slight increase in revenue from last year.
Appropriations for this year total $2.6 million, down from $3.4 million last year; 2015 revenue is estimated at $2.6 million, up from $2.5 million last year, not including carry-overs.
The township started out both years with a fund balance of about $2 million.
Fiscal Officer Paul Canter attributes the cost savings mostly to lower health insurance costs, the timing of retirements and efforts to reduce spending on maintenance and repairs, for example.
“I like to be very conservative,” said Canter, who put together the township’s budget for the first time this year.
“I usually appropriate exactly what the revenues are. It’s possible it could go up later if we need it, but hopefully, we don’t,” he said.
Although he’s trying to be conservative with township funds, Canter says the township is in good shape financially.
“Everything looks good this year. We’ve cut back on [spending] on health insurance. We won’t have any retirements this year, so that’s going to save us,” Canter said. “We’re in line with how we’ve been ... over the last five or six years.”
Finances are tight because of state funding cuts and old levies that haven’t been replaced in decades, but the township still runs efficiently, township Administrator James Scharville said.
“[Trustees] have not talked about increasing taxes at all,” he said. The township has not added any new levies since the 1990s, and other levies, which generate about one-third of what they did originally, date back to the 1970s and 1980s without any replacements, he explained.
State local government funds dropped from $23,690 in 2014 to $23,531; homestead exemption and rollback funds increased from $219,176 last year to $231,910 this year.
Appropriations go to administration, police, roads and zoning. The general fund pays for administrative costs and some police department costs; there are separate police district, road and bridge and zoning funds, among others.
General-fund appropriations decreased from $1,430,409 last year to $1,183,700 this year.
Road and bridge-fund appropriations, which cover road-department personnel costs, increased from $398,800 last year to $444,800 this year.
Spending from the police district fund decreased from $730,000 last year to $400,000 this year, but that figure will increase as needed with transfers from the general fund.
Last year, zoning was appropriated $52,750; this year that dropped to $33,550.
The township appropriated $10,100 both years to the township park.
No major projects are slated for this year, Scharville said. The biggest expenses will be for road paving and road-salt purchases, but those figures still are unknown. Trustees are seeking input from the community on which roads to pave this year.
Trustees also want to add a new sidewalk on Dobbins Road, but that project would move forward only if the township secures grant funding.
The township is estimated to bring in $1,386,065 from real-estate property taxes, up from $1,346,305 last year.