Allegan County officials are at work crafting the next millage to fund services for senior citizens, as the current countywide levy expires this year.
Sherry Owens directs the Senior Services department and said March 8 that the advisory committee that oversees the millage funds was recommending increasing the millage request.
If passed by voters, and levied at the full amount, it would take effect next year and provide 47 percent more revenue for services. The millage currently provides nearly $2 million annually to help seniors remain independent in their homes including in-home support, home-delivered meals, adult day care, transportation, and personal emergency response.
Owens said the advisory committee, the Allegan County Commission on Aging, believes the boosted millage will allow for expanding services to those currently on waiting lists, expanding as need in the county grows and also safely spending down what the department has kept in reserve.
The numbers
If county commissioners approve the ballot language, the senior millage is slated to go before voters in August. The recommendation is a four-year 0.6392-mill tax.
That’s an increase of 0.2025 mill.
In terms of what that does to tax bills countywide, the calculation is made using the taxable value of a home (though there are exceptions, the taxable value is generally half the state equalized value of the home). For a home with a taxable value of $100,000, the newly increased tax would cost a total of $63.92 per year. That would be an increase of $20.32 over the bill this year. (Calculate your own by dividing the taxable value by 1,000 and then multiplying that by the millage rate.)
If passed, the increase would be the second increase in the millage, now eight years old.
In 2014, voters passed a slightly smaller increase, when it went from 0.24 mill to 0.436 mill, an increase of 0.196.
The millage has passed with wide voter support both initially and for that increase. The initial vote in 2010 passed 13,734 to 6,329. In 2014, it passed 10,061 to 4,804.
Why the increase?
Commission Chair Dean Kapenga said, “How did you come up with a 47-percent increase (in the millage), when we know how tight money is, when we (have) other services that need it?”
Owens said, “It accounts for the average percentage of growth (that is projected) and also covers the wait list we’ve seen.”
Two other millage rates considered by the Commission on Aging were a simple renewal at the current rate along with a more modest increase. The first option would deplete the department’s reserves by the end of its fourth year, keeping service levels static while need is projected to rise. The second option would similarly spend down the fund balance but keep pace with the projected growth in need.
The waiting lists addressed by the third option vary throughout the year but have grown, Owens said.
“And they vary from program to program,” she said, noting that since contracting with Meals on Wheels of West Michigan, there was no waiting list due to the fundraising that organization does. “There is a waiting list of about 25 for in-home services... For adult day care, it’s about 12.”
One of the biggest client needs was transportation; since bringing the volunteer driver program in-house last October, the department has been able to put all of its transportation money directly to drivers. Previously, the money hadn’t gone as far since nearly half had gone to cover the administrative costs of the contract with the agency organizing the drivers (then Community Action of Allegan County).
“There’s always a need,” Owens said. “We’re trying to expand the program.”
Cash in the bank
Several commissioners, however, said the case for increasing the millage was undercut by the department’s sizable fund balance.
Currently sitting at more than $600,000, the fund balance represents several segments of money.
Approximately $200,000 is the portion that the county, by policy, directs each department to keep in reserve; it represents 10 percent of annual expenses.
Another $110,000 was an unplanned influx of money from the state.
Owens said, “(Another) $222,651 we plan to use in 2018; it’s a planned part of the 2018 budget.”
She explained that after voters approved the increase for four years, portions of the first two years of the revenue were held back to be added to the latter two years.
“It was so that we could use the same amount collected over the four years but make it spend at a higher level towards the end of the millage and not the beginning,” Owens said.
Commissioner Max Thiele said, “I understand that, but it doesn’t make sense. The waiting lists were supposed to be eliminated.”
That references the last round of senior millage talks in 2014, when the department agreed to spend down savings it had built up in anticipation of needing to construct a building.
“I was at the last (Commission on Aging) meeting,” Thiele said. “It seemed to me... there was little justification for (the recommendation), other than an emotional perspective.”
Commissioner Gale Dugan said there was a demonstrated need for the services but pointed out that cash on hand wouldn’t look good to the public.
“When running that high a fund balance, the public has a sense of mismanagement, and then they vote ‘no’,” Dugan said.
Commissioner Tom Jessup, who is also on the Commission on Aging, said, “That committee as a whole likes to hold on to that fund balance. I think it should be spent down, with no waiting list, and I have to tell you that I’m in the minority on that committee. It’s just not good to ask for revenues when you sit on that money.
“If you run low on money, maybe you say you have to stop serving new clients. Or get rid of one of the services.”
Owens said that strategy had drawbacks.
“For example, if we use all of it this year and at end of 2018 we have nothing left, now (we) have to take meals from somebody,” she said. “To me that’s even more cruel. Because people build our services into (their plan). It’s like Jenga; take one block out and the whole house could come tumbling down...
“We try not to raise our level to one we cannot sustain.”
Despite differing on financial strategies, Jessup said the increase was large by percentage but not large in actual dollars.
“I think for most people the second option is, what, $10 a year more? That’s not significant,” Jessup said. “In fact, I don’t see the next one (the recommended third option) as significant either.”
Owens said the Commission on Aging hopes this increase will be the last of its kind, so that revenue going forward would be enough to merely renew in the future.
Ballot language is due to the county clerk’s office by May 15 at 4 p.m.
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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