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.