Issue of the Month: Waste Management in Kent County

Kent County’s Waste to Energy (WTE) Facility recently processed its 4 millionth ton of trash. This is a significant milestone for our community because the WTE Facility has reduced trash needing to be disposed of in the land fill, and also helps produce electricity for some parts of our community. It is estimated the WTE plant has extended the useful life of the South Kent Landfill by approximately 20 years since it was opened in the 1970’s. This primary solid waste disposal facility for Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kentwood, Walker, Grandville, and East Grand Rapids trash received more than 190,000 tons of trash from residents and businesses in the past year. This trash is incinerated under strictly monitored environmental standards. The WTE Facility produces and sells approximately 100,000 MWhs of renewable electricity each year. The WTE was recently honored for its environmental ethic and stewardship by gaining a 2 year renewal of its designation as a Clean Corporate Citizen. This designation was given because the WTE facility exhibits excellence in (1) the development and implementation of an environmental management system, (2) practice of pollution prevention, and (3) a strong environmental compliance record. The County also has a good recycling program and citizens can find where/how to dispose of recyclables at www.recyclekent.org.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Health Needs Assessment

Over the past several months, The Kent County Health Department has been working with more than 60 community partners, including the area’s major hospitals and mental health providers, to collect data for a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). The results from the CHNA will be used to formulate a Community Health Improvement Plan which will address the issues identified in the CHNA. Community input for the CHNA included 12 focus groups with nearly 120 participants. The Health Department made sure to receive input from a racially and ethnically diverse group of individuals throughout Kent County having a broad range of life experiences and economic backgrounds. The CHNA identified more than 40 Strategic Issues that community stakeholders would like addressed. I participated in a process to rank these 40 Strategic Issues in early November. The top three issues identified through this process were: (1) Ensure all community members, including the uninsured and working poor, have access to affordable healthcare, including preventive care and a “medical home” , (2) Reduce the racial disparity in infant mortality prevention services, and (3) Ensure access to quality dental care for all citizens. The CHNA Steering Committee will immediately begin engaging the community in developing strategies to address these three high ranking issues. These will be outlined in the Community Health Improvement Plan. I will let you know information as the Plan becomes available.

Issue of the Month: Kent County Prevention Initiative and Evaluation

Ever since 2002 the County Commission has allocated funds for a “Prevention Initiative” for our county. The Commission in that year directed the Administrator to “develop a plan to fund” three priority service needs: (1) primary prevention family support services (2) services to families who have had reported child abuse or neglect interventions, (3) substance abuse prevention activities. Since 2003 the Commission has allocated up to $1.7 million annually from the county General Fund to help local non-profit agencies address these three areas. The County has used the Kent County Family and Children’s Coordinating Council (KCFCCC) to oversee the distribution of these Prevention Initiative funds. The KCFCCC has provided reports of how the monies have been used, and the Commission has felt assured the funds are proving effective in addressing needs in the priority areas. The KCFCCC recently adopted a process of evaluating effectiveness of human service dollars in our county—including the Prevention Initiative—called the “Collective Impact Strategy”. The County Commission embraced this strategy, and is encouraging participation by all organizations involved with addressing social issues in our community. This includes businesses, governments, non-profit agencies, and philanthropic agencies. The Commission will be getting periodic reports of the KCFCCC’s implementation, and I will pass these reports on to my readers. I will work hard to assure our county’s commitment to the Prevention Initiative continues and we play a continuing role in addressing social needs in our community.

Kent County Budgeting in Times of Fiscal Stress

The Commission passed our county operating budget for 2012 in mid-November. This budget is for $160.6 million in General Fund expenditures against expected tax revenue of $160.5 million. Only $158,000 is being taken from the General Fund surplus from previous years. We are pleased to be able to adopt a “structurally” balanced budget which means we are spending no more than the revenue we are taking in. Since our revenue has dropped approximately $5 million over last year, this meant a decrease of that same amount in expenditures. This necessitated eliminating 21 FTE positions—most of which are currently vacant—and cutting services in many areas. The county has done a good job of limiting increases in health care and pension costs and is complying with the recently passed state legislation in regards to employees paying 20% of the cost of health care premiums. Like all local governments, the county is experiencing less revenue sharing dollars from the state and less local property tax revenue flowing into its coffers. Our county is similar to more than half of the nation’s counties in the nation who report they are experiencing declining revenues from their state and the federal government to perform mandated services, as well as lessening local tax revenues. Most counties—like Kent—are adopting a “new normal” of less revenues, less staffing, and lowered service levels than in previous years. I will continue to work hard on balancing the needs of my constituents against the need to maintain a conservative approach to using our tax payer’s funds in the most efficient manner possible.

Issue of the Month—Airport Board and Future Airport Operation

The County Commission recently approved three recommendations from the Aeronautics Board Governance Subcommittee. This subcommittee had been appointed by Chair Parrish in January 2011 to review the governance structure of the airport and make recommendations regarding the composition of the airport Board and it’s future operations. The committee reviewed national and other state airport data as well as reviewing current state statutes dealing with governance structure for airport boards.

After spending nine months looking at the data and conducting interviews and visits to other airports, the committee made recommendations as follows: (1) Change the name of the Board from Kent County Aeronautics Board to Gerald R. Ford International Airport Board. This will make it consistent with the name of the airport. (2) In order to reflect the regional nature of passengers and freight using the Gerald Ford airport increase the size of the airport Board from its current six members to seven members. This seventh member will be someone from other counties within the West Michigan Statistical Area—Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, and Ottawa. (3) In order to strengthen the regional nature of its services, the Board is directed to work with the WMSA counties to develop a plan to grow the regional nature of the Airport, and to coordinate the development of complementary services with airports in the surrounding WMSA cities.

Issue of the Month—State Health Insurance Act (Senate Bill 7)

There has been a lot of interest and discussion about the effects of the recently passed Senate Bill 7 that establishes requirements for public sector employee cost sharing of health insurance premiums. The new law either caps the amount to be paid by an employee, or limits the employer contributions at no more than 80% of the health care premium cost. The new law takes effect on January 1, 2012.

It is good to know our county management has been doing an excellent job of aggressively bargaining with employee unions during the past several years regarding costs of health insurance premiums. Our current level of employer contributions averages about 85% of the cost—and employees are paying about 15%. This would seem to indicate we would have to re-negotiate a small amount within some of the contracts to get within the prescribed employer/employee contribution ratio. However, even better news is that the union contracts of the past several years actually have enabled us to fall within the “capped” amount of employee contributions for the 2012 budget year. Our management is currently in negotiation with five bargaining units and will have to discuss how the costs of health care premiums get paid for subsequent years. But for now it appears the new law won’t seriously affect our county budget figures for health insurance costs. Unfortunately some other public employers—schools, other counties, cities—may have a more difficult time.

Issue of the Month—County Cash Reserves and AAA Credit Rating

County Fiscal Services Director, Steve Duarte, recently reported the county has 53 days of cash reserves on hand with which to pay bills without having to buy “tax anticipation” notes to pay bills until such time as tax receipts come in to pay the bills. While the County has always had a cash reserve, it is alarming to note the number of days our county can operate has declined by 14% the past five years. This means we need to be careful how we budget for the next several years, and strive to maintain a healthy ‘unassigned’ cash balance. An additional reason to carry a healthy balance is it’s impact on the cost of money needed by the county to implement capital improvement projects. Since 1999 the County has been able to carry a triple-A financial rating—a distinction that only one other Michigan county carries. Standard & Poor—which recently downgraded the US credit rating—has said one of the main reasons they give us this rating is because of our healthy cash balance of nearly $68 million. This triple A rating enables the county—and many other local municipalities who use the county’s triple A rating to aid in their borrowing—over $1 million per year for capital projects over what it would be if we were only double A rated. The debate of how much we should continue to dip into the ‘’unassigned’ fund balance versus reducing level of services to live within current tax revenue becomes more relevant and difficult each year. I would be interested in hearing feedback from readers about how I should approach this issue.