By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
For the first time since 2011, Orion Township has a balanced budget.
After several budget workshops and two public hearings, the township board of trustees adopted the resolution to establish the 2015 fiscal year budget, levy and millage rates which included a two percent pay raise for all township employees.
At the beginning of 2014, Supervisor Chris Barnett and the budget committee predicted an $804,000 deficit in the general fund than budgeted, and instead the township is putting an estimate closer to $600,000 back into the budget, he said at the’Monday’night board meeting.
‘On paper, it’s almost a $1.4 million swing.?
Here are the numbers: the general fund budget expenditures were projected to be $7,063,704 in 2014. The township board passed the 2015 budget’Monday’night totaling $6,282,600, with total expenditures for 2015 set at the same price, $6,282,600.
All it took was hard work, some department and capital improvement cuts, and hearty savings from a creative health insurance policy to make the near $1 million in savings.
The main department that saw the most cuts was the Community Programs department operated out of the Orion Center.
In 2014 Community Programs spent about $705,000 on different activities for both the Community Programs and Senior Activities departments as one combined budget. In 2015, however, the budget will be split again as it was before 2009, affording Community Programs about $350,000 for expenditures and Senior Activities about $250,000, or about $100,000 in cuts from the 2014 budget.??
‘It’s really important for this board to provide services for our seniors, so we aren’t really scaling back on our senior services with the exception of cutting some of our trips with low attendance,? Barnett said.
In return, the township is increasing sports league expenditures for softball, baseball and soccer where the demand is higher, he continued, but cutting funding for low attended programming, such as pilates or yoga.
The budget committee’s message to the community programs staff’which has been a hard discussion for both parties’is to focus on the programming that is in high demand and that which brings revenue.
‘We’ve seen the expenses go up every year since we’ve opened the Orion Center, and as far as community programs goes. If it were a business we would be out of business,? Barnett said, adding that the department is keeping the same level of staffing.
Apart from cuts to Community Programming, the township elected to eliminate some capital improvement projects scheduled for 2015, including cutting a project to build restrooms at the Wildwood Amphitheatre this summer.??
One of the major capital outlays this year was purchasing Camp Agawam, the Boy Scout camp off Clarkston Rd., which cost the township $1 million. Barnett said there would be no projects as large as this one in next year’s budget.
One of the major expenditure reductions to the township’s 2015 budget is the savings the township is seeing in their health care.
‘The great news is our health care costs are significantly less than last year. We saw less than a two percent increase in our healthcare costs because we have a unique creative program that literally is saving us almost $400,000.?
Last year the township switched from Priority Health to a hybrid plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield where the township pays a high deductible for a low premium, which has been well received by employees.
Apart from department cuts, other departments are seeing growth.
The township is adding a full time code enforcer to the Building Department to help sort through the surplus of building permits the township has received over the past year. On top of that, the Buildings and Grounds crew is getting another employee in 2015 to help maintain Camp Agawam.
‘When we started this process we were budgeting to pull out of our reserves,? Trustee John Steimel said. ‘But now we have a true, balanced budget.?
Trustee Neil Porter reminded board members that a lot of the balancing act came from the aid of the community.
‘Keep in mind we put four millages out of there, and about three years ago, we raised the levy to .9322 mills, so keep that in mind too,? he said.