Issue of the Month: County Economic Development Policy

Over the years the Commission has encouraged economic development activity in the county. The more economic growth, the more property tax revenue we will receive— and that helps us perform our mission of enhancing quality of life for our citizens. We have taken an active role in funding the Right Place Program which aids development, funded the VanAndel and DeVos buildings, and partially fund Experience Grand Rapids which brings visitors and conventions to our area. The Downtown Development Authority Act of 1975 authorized formation of geographic districts that could receive partial property tax exemptions with the stipulation these funds would be used to enhance economic development activities. Over the years this practice has begun to negatively effect county revenue. The Commission adopted a policy in 2007 that set limits on how much of our county’s taxes could be siphoned off for such activities. We have set limits on the amount of taxes allowed to be ‘captured’ in each municipality, and we have begun to exercise our right to ‘opt-out’ of allowing complete capture of all taxes in some districts. While this may mean less money for the DDA, it does mean the County can control its future revenue stream a bit more by deciding how much and how long the capture of its taxes is allowed. This practice is often criticized as the county not favoring economic development, but just the opposite is intended.

Issue of the Month: County Budget for 2015

In October I reported the Commission had adopted the first portion of the FY 2015 budget of $70 M for Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2015. This is the portion that is partially funded by State funds, and runs the same fiscal year as the State. We recently passed the remainder of the budget which runs from Jan 1 through Dec. 31, and is primarily funded by county tax dollars and other local sources. The budget for this additional portion next year is $160 M operations, $12 M debt payments, and $5.4 M for capital improvements. Combined this is $250 M funds under Commission accountability. The County levies 4.2803 mills to cover approximately 54% of that total, plus special millages for the Correctional Facility, Seniors, and Veterans. Nearly 50% of the budget is used for public safety and justice services. A challenge every year is being able to live within a very small increase in revenue from property taxable values, while needing to absorb ever increasing costs for operations of the county functions. The Commission has been able to operate within a ’structurally balanced’ spending plan in recent years—which means anticipated expenditures are never more than anticipated income. With this spending discipline we have been able to maintain a healthy fund balance, with one advantage being the county and municipalities use our AAA credit rating when it comes time to borrow money for major capital projects.

Issue of the Month: Senior Meals on Wheels Program

I want to highlight a program that is not a formal Kent County operated program, but one which serves a large portion of our county’s citizens. This is the Senior Meals program, a Kent County based Michigan non-profit organization operating independently from any county General Fund tax funding. I am a Board member of Senior Meals, and actively involved in overseeing its services to seniors in our county. The Senior Meals program in Kent County is primarily funded through contracts with the Area Agency on Aging with funds received from Michigan’s Older Michiganians Act, and the federal government’s Older Americans Act. Senior Meals is also one of the major recipients of Kent County’s Senior Millage. Senior Meals serves over 500,000 meals annually to Kent County clients who are low income with 400,000 of those going to seniors who are living alone in their homes. Our state’s emphasis—and older adults’ desire—to remain living independently in their own homes as long as possible is made possible by the preparation and delivery of nutritious and well planned meals. In addition to the home delivered meals, Senior Meals provides food to 14 congregate meal sites in senior housing complexes and community sponsored Senior Centers. It also has a pantry giving low income seniors the ability to shop twice per month for a wide variety of nutritious foods including diary and fresh produce.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Veterans Millage

Kent County voters will be asked to vote on a special dedicated millage of .05 mills for veterans assistance on the November 4 ballot. The County Commission decided to ask the voters for extra money over and above what is currently allocated from the General Fund because our county has the 4th largest veteran population but is ranked 50th out of our state’s 83 counties in obtaining federal funds to help veterans. Since we’ve established our own Department of Veteran Affairs in 2008 we have significantly enhanced our services to veterans, but we still find there are many more needs out there that our limited staff cannot help. This dedicated source of funds will enable us to do a much better job of outreach to veterans, and will aid in providing more emergency service assistance to needy veterans and their families. Specifically, the proposed new millage funds will help provide (1) more emergency utilities help, grocery purchases, rent, and transportation assistance, (2) improve outreach services to locations where veterans live and need services, (3) assistance in filing claims for VA benefits, (4) burial services will become funded, and (5) helping female veterans transition back into the civilian community. The added tax for the average homeowner will only be $5 per year based on a home valued at $100,000. For more information visit the Vote Yes for Vets website www.kentcountyvets.com.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Veterans Affairs Department

Six years ago the County Commission created a new department for Veteran’s Affairs in Kent County. Prior to the creation of this new Department the county provided only the services mandated by the State in the Sailors and Soldiers Relief Act. In 2008 the Commission set about creating a more central and fully staffed department whose mission was to “...provide a central, accurate, efficient, timely service to ensure delivery of benefits to Kent County veterans and their families.” We appointed a separate Advisory Committee of veterans to help in accomplishing this new expanded purpose. The prior Soldiers and Sailors Relief mission was enfolded into the new Department. Since 2008, the Veterans Affairs Department has now become the ‘go to’ place for veterans seeking answers to their VA issues, and seeking emergency support through tough times—as a result of their prior military participation. The County has gradually increased the operating budget assigned to the Department and creatively added several part-time and intern staff to help out. Since 2008 the Department has increased it’s services and output by 300%, and has helped bring in more than $18 million of financial benefits to veterans and their dependents. But we are not able to keep ahead of the demand, and thus are seeking additional funding through a small millage we are asking citizens to approve in November. I will be telling more in my October Newsletter.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Sports Commission—2nd Edition

In May 2013 I wrote about the Kent County Sports Commission, and the purpose of that body for our citizens. During the past fifteen months there have been many activities of the Sports Commission that I want to tell you about. The Sports Commission recently opened the Art Van Baseball field near Rockford. This new resource for baseball and softball for all levels of ability is already fully scheduled for the rest of the year. The new Miracle Field, built as part of the baseball/softball complex, will make it possible to hold games at which players with disabilities will be able to compete. The Sports Commission has gradually grown in influence and economic impact within the West Michigan area. The 5th Meijer State Summer Olympics this year had 39 sport offerings with 7,000 athletes participating, and nearly $2.8 million in direct spending by families and participants with hotels, meals, and other purchases. This was the 1st year the Sports Commission offered the Meijer State Winter Olympics with 12 sport offerings and another 2,000 participants—with its accompanying boost to our local economy. While we may not all agree we should spend our time and effort on sports—when we have many other issues to solve—we cannot dismiss the basic economic engine this Commission has had on our local economy, and the improvement in quality of life as a result. Visit www.accesskent.org for more information.

Issue of the Month: Kent District Library Millage

Each of us will have to weigh in on two special tax millages on the ballot August 5. I will highlight the second of these—Kent District Library millage—this month. On August 5, Kent District Library residents will vote on a 1.28 mills ballot proposal to provide funding for KDL for 10 years. The 1.28 millage rate consists of a renewal of the current 0.88 mill, which has been in place since 2000, and an additional 0.4 mill. The property tax millage provides 90% of KDL’s funding for services offered to more than 400,000 people at 18 branch locations throughout the county. During the past ten years KDL has made more than $1.6 million in budget cuts to live within a diminishing budget. If passed, the August 5 KDL operating millage will cost the average home owner a total of $8.50 per month, which is an increase of only $2.50 per month over what they currently are paying. The average cost per home owner of about $100 per year for the entire millage will be less than purchasing five new books. The proposed millage rate will allow KDL to offer additional materials and necessary technology upgrades and more convenient hours at all of its branches. It will expand services to the Blind and Handicapped and expand wireless services. The library patron’s use of E-books is the largest in the state, and more users are turning to this convenient but expensive system for their book needs. Visit www.yes4kdl.com for more information.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Senior Millage

Each of us will have to weigh in on two special tax millages on the ballot August 5. I will highlight the first of these—senior millage—this month, and the second—Kent District Library—next month. The Kent Senior Millage was first approved in 1998, and has been overwhelmingly approved each of the two times renewal was requested. This renewal request is for an increase from the present .33 Mill to .50 Mill—an increase of $12.50 per year over what a homeowner with a $150,000 valued home will pay above what is being taxed presently. This increase in millage rate—along with an extension of 8 years—is necessary because of the dramatic increase in older adults in our county, and the expected continued increase to occur over the next couple of decades. The number of older adults has increased over 30% since 2000, and will likely double over the next two decades. Unfortunately, over 15% of these older adults have less than 150% of the federal poverty level income ($16,000) and are not able to afford needed health supports to maintain living at home and not in an institution most likely paid from their eligibility for Medicaid. Helping more seniors stay in their home makes quality of life sense, as well as economic sense. It is anticipated the increase in Senior Millage funding will be used to provide more meals to home bound seniors, as well as more home care services. I will be voting yes, and ask you to join me.

Issue of the Month: Health Net of West Michigan (former Kent Health Plan)

For the past 12 years, Kent County has partially funded the Kent Health Plan. This Plan was originally formed by Lody Zwarensteyn of The Alliance for Health of Grand Rapids and Chuck Zech, retired executive from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The Kent Health Plan has recently combined with the Children’s Healthcare Access Program to form an expanded mission. The new entity is called “Health Net of West Michigan.” This new organization’s purpose is to “improve the health of children and adults, particularly vulnerable populations, through education and connections to health care and support services.” Health Net has developed broadened partnerships with more neighborhood support service providers such as Kent Department of Human Services and Hispanic Center of West Michigan to provide multidisciplinary teams of social workers, health educators, nurses, and community health workers to improve access and limit costs of primary health care to children and adults on Medicaid, uninsured, dual eligible low income adults, and newly insured. Health Net’s partnership with Kent County DHS will bring more federal matching funds to the county, and will increase the number of County residents with a primary health provider. This will reduce unnecessary emergency department visits and hospital admissions. See Maureen Kirkwood, Executive Director at mkirkwood@healthnet.wm.org for more information.

Issue of the Month: Kent County KConnect

Ever since 2002 Kent County has been contributing nearly $2 M per year to Prevention Programs for human service issues in the County. This initiative is coordinated by the Kent County Family and Children’s Coordinating Council. Part of this annual funding commitment was that the Council conduct an evaluation of how effective this funding is for improvement in human service outcomes for children and families. Recently the Council decided to engage FSG, a nonprofit strategy and evaluation firm, to help develop a community-based ‘impact effort’. This effort is called ‘KConnect’. The Doug and Marie DeVos Foundation, the Steelcase Foundation, GR Community Foundation, United Way, and Kellogg Foundation all contributed funds toward this effort. The vision of KConnect is for.. “all children and their families in Kent County to enjoy meaningful and fulfilling lives by achieving self-sufficiency and economic security through high-quality education and community support. Fundamental to our vision is that we are committed to nothing less than closing the unacceptable achievement gaps for low income students and children of color, and increasing the achievement for all students from cradle to college and career.” The Council recently selected an Executive Director to lead KConnect and implement initiatives. For more information visit www.accesskent.com/KConnect. As KConnect unfolds I will keep you informed.

Issue of the Month: MSU Extension Services to County Citizens

One of the unheralded services presented by Kent County is offered through the MSU Extension office located in Kent County. The Extension office is partially funded with county dollars, and provides a myriad of services in five key areas:

(1) Agriculture and Agribusiness education and assistance to all types of farming operations. Kent is #1 in the state and #8 in the country for apple production.

(2) Children and Youth programs through 4-H club activities in the urban and rural areas. There are 72 4-H clubs in the county with 1,200 youth involved. There could be more!! This is a way of keeping youth involved in growing activities.

(3) Greening Michigan Institute which is done at the New Downtown Market. The purpose is to develop new ways to use agricultural products as well as teaching basic home owner education and financial planning to low income citizens,

(4) Health and Nutrition through encouraging healthy eating and physical activities. During the past year there were over 4,000 presentations to low income adults and families about importance of proper nutrition and physical activity.

(5) Farmland Preservation activities by staffing the County Farmland Preservation Task Force. This involves one part time staff person to leverage public and private dollars to help preserve farmland in our county for future food production.

Issue of the Month: Experience Grand Rapids

Our county’s efforts to attract visitors and tourists is handled by an organization called Experience Grand Rapids. This organization is partially funded by county dollars and is tasked with the responsibility of marketing Grand Rapids and Kent County as a premier convention and visitor destination. In this way it provides positive impact to the economic growth and well being for citizens of the area. During 2012, Experience GR brought in $127 M in hotel room revenue, 223,000 convention attendees, and an estimated economic impact of over $1 B through use of restaurants, retail shopping, service stations, and art galleries, etc. There are over 70 hotels and 24,000 hospitality employees who are impacted with pay checks. The hotel occupancy has increased each year of the past 5 years, and each year return convention business appears to be the norm. And, in addition to its tourism goal, Experience GR has also brought new business development, better enrollments to local colleges and universities, and improved ability to attract quality human resources. Because of the marketing efforts of Experience GR our influence throughout the region continues to grow. Experience GR has integrated marketing of West Michigan with the Pure Michigan marketing efforts. This also has resulted in increased growth in tourism in West Michigan. Kent County and Grand Rapids have become recognized destination areas throughout Michigan!!

Issue of the Month: Kent County Children’s Care

Kent County has about 900 abused, neglected, and delinquent children in care situations. Approximately 500 of those are in foster care, 100 in various residential settings throughout the County, and the remainder in supervised ‘In-Home” care. The cost is approximately $11 M per year, evenly split between the County and State Department of Human Services (DHS). In the FY 2013 State budget, the Legislature required DHS and Kent County to collaborate with local courts and private agencies to develop a 100% private ’purchase of service’ (POS) model for child welfare services in Kent County. Since then, the County DHS office—in conjunction with Kent County Community Mental Health—and the above entities have developed a plan that will move our county from having 85% POS arrangements to 100% POS. The goal is to create a ‘Care Management Entity’ which will utilize a fixed fee financial model that provides reimbursements to private agencies to come up with creative, community-based programming where residential and out-of-home placement savings can be reinvested into prevention/family preservation activities. County Administration recently unveiled this work to the Commission. We will continue to hear how this collaborative work within the county, private agencies, and state department unfolds. I will keep you posted. Hopefully, it will result in better outcomes for our County’s children.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Treasurer

As we all receive our winter taxes, it is timely to give a report about the County Treasurer and his functions. The Treasurer is one of 4 county individuals elected on an every four year basis. The Treasurer is responsible for collecting and taking custody of all County funds. This includes general tax revenue and the County’s share of state sales tax—revenue sharing monies from the state. He is also responsible for collecting delinquent taxes and holding a tax foreclosure sale after receiving a court order of properties that have been delinquent for 24 months. Usually the tax sale occurs during the 12 months following the initial foreclosure action, so delinquent taxpayers have essentially 36 months to take care of back taxes. The Treasurer also collects and audits hotels for compliance with the county hotel/motel tax collections. In terms of numbers the Treasurer takes in over $85 million in general county taxes, $15 million in special tax for the county correctional facility, $6.5 million for seniors, and $6 million hotel/motel tax. We receive about $11 million in state sales tax revenue sharing. The Treasurer also serves as the Investment Manager for all county funds that are not immediately required for operations. This Investment Fund is made available to all local municipalities. By combining funds the Treasurer is usually able to obtain a better rate of return for all local governments with their available investment funds.

Issue of the Month: Grand Valley Metropolitan Council

The Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC) was formed in 1990 to be a place where area governments of all types could work together to enhance the quality of life for citizens of West Michigan. It started with 13 members, and today there are 35 governments entities representing 650,000 residents doing regional collaborative efforts together. The GVMC is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for West Michigan and is responsible for planning the expenditures of $100 Million state and federal monies on all modes of transportation. The benefits to a government entity being a member include (1) participating in the decisions of MPO and having a say in area transportation improvements; (2) working together on state and national legislative advocacy; (3) implementing the Regional Geographic Information System (REGIS) (see my newsletter of last month about access to REGIS now being free to all citizens); (4) being part of the Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds, and (5) being part of implementation of other instances of local and regional governmental collaboration. The GVMC recently was designated as the organization to lead the Governor’s efforts to consolidate our states’ 55 different regions into ten large regions to cover all government business. This will be a two year project. The operational and staffing costs of GVMC are funded by dues payments from participating members.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Sheriff’s Department

As our county prepares a new budget for next year I want to discuss the department that takes the biggest share of the general fund. This is the Sheriff’s department with its 550 employees. The Sheriff is responsible for enforcement of both criminal and civil law in the areas surrounding the immediate six city jurisdictions. It is responsible for operating an emergency call dispatch center for answering all 911 calls in the county, as well as operating the countywide emergency management center in the event of natural or man caused disasters—such as the recent flooding conditions this past April. The county Correctional Facility houses up to 1,100 inmates, and is available to all police departments and courts for housing individuals breaking local and state laws. Judges can assign up to one-year county jail terms. The total budget for the Sheriff’s Department is projected to be nearly $70 million. Nearly $60 million of that is received from general tax revenue, and the remaining $10 million through a special ’correctional center’ tax paid by all county citizens. Although the normal budget gives sufficient funds to the Sheriff to provide minimal road patrols to all townships, the Sheriff does maintain contracts with several of the more populated townships for enhanced patrol services and the townships pay for these extra services. The Sheriff does have a mounted patrol to provide specialized services to cities and areas at request.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Road Commission

One question I am asked a lot is to do something about our roads in Kent County. I always answer that roads are the purview of the County Road Commission, and the County Commission does not have direct approval/disapproval authority to spend road money. That is written into the State Funding Act. The County Commission only gets involved with Road Commission activity through the appointment of a five member Road Commission. The allocation and decisions about actual road projects is made by that body. The Road Commission is managed by a Director and has 226 employees to carry out their duties. There are nearly 2,000 miles of county roads and 177 bridges maintained by the Commission. In FY 2012 the Road Commission had less money to spend than in the early 2000’s ($48.5 million vs $54.2 M). The biggest share of this funding comes from the state, although there are local match funds with some projects, and periodic federal grants for specific projects. As all of you know, the state’s ability to fund road improvements has been diminishing the past decade, and our roads are getting worse. Because of limited funds, the Commission is forced to spend an increasing amount on ‘road maintenance’ rather than ‘construction and preservation’. Like all governmental entities, the Road Commission is reaching out to other units of local government to do things more cooperatively, and this results in some savings.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Clerk/Register of Deeds

The Kent County Clerk’s office, with a budget of $3.7 million, has four functions: (1) manage County elections, (2) maintain county and citizen vital records, (3) serve as Register of Deeds, and (4) process and maintain 17th Circuit Court records. There are 44 total employees assigned to these responsibilities. The office is supervised by an elected Kent County Clerk, which is a partisan office with an election every four years. The Elections Division oversees all elections conducted in Kent County including school and local elections, and monitors campaign finance law. The Vital Records Division files, stores, and retains 20,000 vital records annually such as birth, marriage, and death records and makes them available to citizens. This Division also processes licenses for concealed weapons, business registrations, and records military discharges. The Register of Deeds office records nearly 125,000 documents annually pertaining to real property including deeds, mortgages, land contracts, liens and other real estate documents. The Clerk’s functions with the 17th Circuit Court includes keeping over 350,000 court records including records of court proceedings, judgments, fines, and other court related issues. This function involves the largest number of staff in the Department. A significant accomplishment the past year was implementing ‘e-business court’ mandated by the Michigan Supreme Court to streamline court procedures.

Issue of the Month: Local Emergency Planning Committee

Kent County coordinates planning for local emergencies with the City of Grand Rapids through its appointed Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). This committee is made up of 20 representatives of local government, public safety, industry, education, media, and health who meet to develop plans for all kinds of emergency situations that may occur in our county that endanger our citizens. The recent major flood issues were part of their planned responses through the Kent County Sheriff’s Emergency Management Department. While the flooding danger was most visible recently, there are other disaster incidents that need to be addressed, and plans prepared for response to them in order to minimize damages. The LEPC has over 300 ’plans of response’ in event of emergency situations of all kinds. The LEPC plans emergency exercises to prepare for disaster situations. A recent exercise held at Lacks Enterprises tested the planned response in event of a formaldehyde gas leak; and, at least once each year an exercise is held at the airport for an airline disaster event. An exercise planned for later this year will be something dealing with farm operations. The LEPC annual report and educational materials regarding how you can be prepared for unforeseen emergencies can be found at www.accesskent.com/lepc. Check out the many plans for emergency situations and find out how you can be prepared!

Issue of the Month: Kent County Drain Commissioner

The past several months I have highlighted a county department performing services for our citizens. This month I want to highlight our County’s Drain Commissioner, Bill Byl. The County Drain Commissioner is an elected official whose mission is to “improve and maintain storm water drainage for the public health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of the county.” There are over 536 miles of County Drain and 356 storm water detention ponds in the county. In recent years the Drain Commissioner worked with all local units to update their drain master plans, and covered half the cost. The Drain Commissioner also has responsibility to monitor and control lake levels in 19 lakes throughout the county. We have had several months of record rainfall and snowfall this year—culminating in the mid-April deluge that really taxed our county’s drainage systems. Grand Rapids sits about in the middle of the Grand River basin which begins way back in the central part of the state and has numerous smaller rivers and creeks draining into it. Each smaller river and creek has numerous ponds and drainage tiles flowing into it. Although Commissioner Byl has taken precautions to minimize flood damage by installing new drainage systems, and maintaining storm water ponds, the rain deluge over an extended period of time still sent unprecedented flood waters into the Grand River and nearly swamped Grand Rapids. The fact it didn’t create any more damage than it did is a credit to Drain Commissioner Byl’s expertise. Although the Drain Commissioner is an elected official, it is important to have someone in that position that has experience and education to handle the responsibilities. Commissioner Byl has that experience and education.