News File Photo Alpena County Commissioners Dan Ludlow, left, and John Kozlowski, center, meet with Alpena County Administrator Jesse Osmer in June.

ALPENA — Despite facing a $1.4 million budget deficit to kick off 2024, Alpena County was able to end the fiscal year in the black and add to its savings account.

County Administrator Jesse Osmer said to do so, however, the county was forced to nearly drain the money out of several other funds and the county will need to keep a close eye on finance for the balance of this year, as well as for the next five to 10 years.

At Tuesday’s Alpena County Finance Committee meeting, CPA Chelsea Meeder, of Straley, Lamp & Kraenzlein, provided a financial recap of 2024 and told the committee that at the end of last year, the county had a surplus of $478,236, which was added to its savings.

The extra money bumped the county’s fund balance to about $4.3 million and that amount equates to about 36.3% of general fund expenses.

In order to eat into the deficit, the county was forced to move money from other county funds into the general fund, which will leave little wiggle room if other large deficits occur.

Osmer said about $1.396 million was withdrawn from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, the county’s tax revolving fund, money from the opioid lawsuit settlement, funds remaining in the base security fund to help balance the budget and help erase the shortfall.

Osmer, who was hired after the large deficit had been amassed, said reeling in the deficit is a big deal and he complimented the commissions and staff for helping to make it happen. He said the county’s goal needs to be to continue to increase revenues and spend responsibly.

Osmer went on to say although the county is operating under a balanced budget this fiscal year, the county is not out of the woods yet and the budget needs to continue to be placed under a microscope. Still, he said, if there aren’t any large and expected expenses, he believes future budgets will be balanced, or have a minimal shortfall.

“Putting the ARPA fund and money from the other funds bought us the time we needed to reevaluate how to handle the budget going forward,” he said. “The good news is, some of the drastic cuts we anticipated to make for 2025, we don’t anticipate we will. We will keep the cuts that we did make and I don’t expect us to have to cut too much else. The goal is always to present a budget that shows us in the black or perfectly balanced, but I’m projecting that future budgets will be more in line with what we are seeing now.”

County policy mandates that when the county’s savings dip to about 25% of operating costs before layoffs begin to occur. Osmer said if fund balance remains well above the 25% benchmark, the county needs to use some of it to help improve services for residents. But, he said, the current level of savings is not to the point where people should expect large projects.

“We need to make sure when we tap into that money, to continue to provide services and continue functioning,” Osmer said. “The fund balance is not meant to be a savings account. The taxpayers pay that money in order to get services they expect and we want to make sure we are providing those.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@TheAlpenaNews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.