News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Ryan Frost, a deputy for the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office, talks into the radio in his squad car while at work on Thursday. The Alpena County Board of Commissioners is considering a property tax request next year to help over the cost of the Sheriff’s Office and the county jail.

ALPENA — Taxpayers in Alpena County could be asked next year to approve a large bump in their tax bill if the county Board of Commissioners moves forward with a property tax proposal to support the county Sheriff’s Office and county jail operations.

The Sheriff’s Office and jail are the county’s largest expenses each year.

Now, it appears, the county will ask residents to support a new property tax to fund county police operations. The additional revenue would relieve pressure on the county’s general fund budget and allow commissioners to use money for other county needs.

At a Budget Committee meeting this week, commissioners discussed the possible tax increase, which would likely amount to a 2.5-mill to 3-mill increase on a property owner’s tax bill. That would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $125 to $150 a year in new taxes.

The commissioners could also elect to push for a smaller millage that could ease pressure on the budget each year and help fund the Sheriff’s Office.

The commissioners decided to wait to make a decision on whether or not to seek a tax increase to develop a proposal and determine the best way to promote it to the public.

The three commissioners on the committee did agree a millage proposal wouldn’t be presented to voters until sometime next year.

The committee decided to wait until 2025 because they didn’t want to put the item on a ballot this year because a property tax that funds countywide ambulance service is up for renewal. Commissioners fear that asking for the public safety tax at the same time could diminish support for the ambulance renewal.

The committee also did not support combining the ambulance tax and a new public safety tax because doing so may become too confusing to residents and the cost may seem overwhelming at one time.

County Treasurer Kim Ludlow told the committee she projects a general fund deficit of about $1.6 million by the end of this year, but added that the county has a history of cutting large deficits and has been able to make up ground as the year progresses, often ending the fiscal year in the black or near break-even.

The county has been able to do that in part because it used large sums of money from the $5.5 million it received from the American Rescue Plan Act, a stimulus package from the federal government in 2021.

The county has used about $2.4 million of that federal money to shrink its deficit but has little left to do so again. Ludlow said that, for this fiscal year, which runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, the county has budgeted expenses of about $1.4 million for the Sheriff’s Office and $1.8 million for the jail. To collect that $3.2 million in new tax revenue from a millage, a tax of about 3 mills would be needed. A tax of that amount would rake in about $3.5 million.

Commissioner Bill Peterson said the county’s financial strife has made it so people who want the level of services they receive now will have to pony up more money to ensure them in the future.

“I don’t see another way around it,” Peterson said. “Unless we do a bunch of layoffs.”

Peterson and the other commissioners on the committee said the reality of current finances and future cuts that may need to be made are not a scare tactic to motivate voters to approve a new millage. They also said employees should not panic, yet, because job cuts are not in the works now and everything that can be done to avoid any in the future will be explored.

At the beginning of the year, the county had an unaudited amount of $3.6 million in savings, but it would have to use some of that to cover the deficit, leaving $2 million. That amount creeps close to the amount at which county policy mandates temporary and seasonal workers to get laid off.

When savings fall below 24.97% of the budgeted expenses, policy dictates pink slips are issued.

Commissioner Burt Francisco said that, if the county continues to utilize its savings to make up for budget shortfalls, the commissioners will have to take action they don’t want to.

“That means we are only about $300,000 away from hitting that mark in our own policy,” he said. “That requires certain action. However, we can always pass an exception to policy if it comes to that.”

Ludlow said that, if the county reels in spending, there is a chance, by the end of the year, the deficit could shrink by $725,000, but that would still require more than $800,000 from savings to make up the difference and would reduce the savings to $2.8 million, which could save some jobs.

She said the budgeted expenses for 2025 will determine the size of the blow to the county’s fund balance because that will spell out how large the deficit will be next year and how much more will be needed from savings.

The commissioners agreed that the county can’t sit back and assume a public safety millage will pass. Commissioner John Kozlowski said a plan B must be created before the millage is voted on.

“I know we aren’t going to be able to fix this by spending what we’re spending,” he said. “We need to have a plan, because I’m concerned one or more of the millages failing, and it might be hard to get this through.”