Special Message from the Supervisor-March 2011
Many people hear
stories on the news of doom and gloom and hard times for cities, townships,
states and so on. Everywhere you turn the news is dire and frightening. I
want to put out a state of the township message that will quash fear and any
rumors or speculation about our township finances and give a realistic
picture of where we stand both now and in the near future.
One important item to note: We are solvent.
Beginning in late 2008 and early 2009 the township leadership took proactive steps to scale back spending, reduce overhead and expenses and right size our staffing levels. We have taken a number of moves that saved enough dollars early on to combat losses that we knew would be coming. With health care costs spiraling out of control nationwide, we moved to a very high deductible plan that produced a 30% savings. What does this mean? We are currently paying health insurance premiums for employees at pre 2006 levels. While many communities are being drained of dollars on health insurance, our premiums have dropped. In 2006 premiums cost the township $263,270 per year. They climbed to a high of $358,055 in 2008. Today we pay $251,321. Click here for how much does your Township spend on health care.
How is this possible? We went to a very high deductible plan and fully reimburse employees for those deductibles. It’s more paperwork for our insured employees, but it helps people to understand what their health costs are and, with a relatively young employee base, the reimbursed funds are a mere fraction of what the premiums would have been as indicated below. We got creative and came up with a solution that was positive for everyone with a stake in it. We dramatically lowered costs without impacting employees financially to create savings for the township and maintain moral among our hardworking employees.
The consolidation of jobs and positions and the bidding out of contracts ranging from the highest ticket to the lowest cost items has had such a strong positive impact on our budgets and finances that we have no fears over what the state will propose to mandate. Revenue sharing cuts? Our budget projections assumed we would get NO statutory revenue sharing for the last two years worth of budgets. In addition, we assumed a decline in constitutional revenue sharing and we learn that portion will not be affected. We anticipated the worst and got something that is not as bad as we planned for.
Spiraling energy costs? We took proactive steps to reduce both consumption and costs by going green and implementing energy savings and by renegotiating contracts.
Is this all a bed of roses for us? No. Employees are working harder than ever with reduced staffing. Do we still have economic threats? You bet we do. We expect declining property values and revenue streams to drop every year and they probably will continue to drop in the near foreseeable future. Are we worried? Let’s say we are concerned and proactive enough to continue to find more ways to reduces expenses.
Another threat to our financial health is long term post retirement health care benefits and our board is examining ways to address this. Some years ago the board adopted a plan to provide health care for employees after retirement but never funded that plan. That was both irresponsible and unrealistic to burden future boards and departments. The current board will address this one way or another and find a solution that we can afford just like we have with other financial threats and burdens. We will use the same approach as we did with health care and that is to be creative and find ways to provide coverage that is affordable while showing our employees that we appreciate their work and commitment. This creates win-win solutions for everyone.
I have confidence that we can weather this economic storm. We will continue to change and adapt to the funding we have to work with and live within our means. The spreadsheet information below details how much revenue each of our departments has lost in the last two years and what projections are for the next two years. Despite these declines we continue to remain fiscally sound and are able to continue to bring the services our citizens expect and demand by being fiscally conservative, frugal with your tax dollars and cognizant of the state of the economy.
We will be presenting a millage renewal for Policing Services in May of 2011. Please understand that our renewal will actually be a cut due to declining property values. Even with a renewal, that millage will generate fewer dollars to work with than last year. We are prepared. With a renewal only and no increase, property owners are virtually guaranteed to pay no more than they did last year and likely a tad bit less. Both our Police Department and Fire and Medical Rescue continue to look for ways to deliver better service at lower costs. We need your continued support and will NOT be asking for any tax increase whatsoever.
Where does my tax dollar go, click here. For a complete list of cost cutting measures click here. In an effort to remain as transparent as possible we have our checkbook listed on line and a breakdown of salaries of all persons employed by the township and their benefit packages.
Links
How much has the Township lost in the revenue in the last 3 years
How much does your Township spend on healthcare
Dollars saved through cost cutting and applying for grants
Salaries of all persons employed
Where we are in the current budget
Current Cash Balance for each Department
