What can counties do with budget stabilization fund?
During the
April 1 webinar
,
a commissioner asked what restrictions a county faced in using its budget stabilization fund for COVID-19 response. We posed that question to Eric Lupher of the Citizens Research Council.
He replied:
“
Public Act 30 (1978)
applies to counties and municipal governments. It defines how money can be put into reserve, a limit on reserves relative to the size of the county budget, and what money can be used for (Sec. 4 below).
“The law creates a rainy day fund and it’s raining."
Sec. 4.
(1) Money in the budget stabilization fund may be appropriated by an ordinance or resolution adopted by a 2/3 vote of the members elected and serving of the governing body of the municipality which created the fund for the following purposes:
(a) To cover a general fund deficit, when the municipality's annual audit reveals such a deficit.
(b) To prevent a reduction in the level of public services or in the number of employees at any time in a fiscal year when the municipality's budgeted revenue is not being collected in an amount sufficient to cover budgeted expenses.
(c) To prevent a reduction in the level of public services or in the number of employees when in preparing the budget for the next fiscal year the municipality's estimated revenue does not appear sufficient to cover estimated expenses.
(d) To cover expenses arising because of a natural disaster, including a flood, fire, or tornado. However, if federal or state funds are received to offset the appropriations from the fund, that money shall be returned to the fund.
(2) In determining whether a municipality's revenue is not sufficient to cover its expenses, a reduction in the amount of money received for the fiscal year from any source in comparison to the amount of money received for the previous fiscal year, including a reduction in the allocation of state tax money, shall be considered.
ME office shares extensive guidance on issues related to COVID-19 fatalities
Among the county-based services necessary to respond to the corona crisis is the office of the Medical Examiner. Counties must prepare to handle the influx of cases and deaths, and ensure on-site staff is trained and prepared.
Protocols from the Mid-Michigan Medical Examiner Office
are a tool for other counties to use as they implement strategies and preparedness for the ME offices. Additionally, MAC is working with partners in public health to secure additional swab testing kits for medical examiner investigators that may need to test post-mortem to ensure accurate data and reporting.
MAC adds ‘heat map’ to website for county-by-county data
Munetrix has offered to share the embed code for this map with our county members for their websites. If you wish to receive the code, send the request to
melot@micounties.org.
Latest posts to MAC Resources Page
As always, be sure to check our ongoing resource pages that we update daily:
