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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 8/14/2007 2:51:08 PM
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Post ID: 96439
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11/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
Let's discuss 'County officials mark more than $3 million for projects'.
It was a pricey day at Monday's meeting of the Elkhart County Board of Commissioners. They appropriated more than $3 million for a range of departments, operations and projects. Here are some highlights.
-from
the Truth
Click here to view the story
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Supreme Being
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Last Login: 8/30/2007 10:41:22 AM
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| I would like to see a Major Moves funding (budget cheat sheet) published in detail from day one... Total monies received from the Toll Road deal, investments, monies appropiated to other accounts (Six Span), etc., interest earned, amount paid back so far to the account... Is this actually monies repaid to the fund, and NOT interest monies, or is it "intrest monies" paid by the county to the account?
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Forum Guru
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Last Login: 8/28/2007 7:09:22 AM
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| Barry -- I will get that info and post it here. The policy for this fund is money is borrowed for projects and then repaid - with interest. For bridge projects, the money borrowed will be repaid with Major Bridge funds. On other road projects it will be repaid with EDIT funds. A portion of the interest earned in our MM account can be used to supplement highway department expenses. This will be an increasingly important function unless the state comes up with new sources of funding to replace the now constantly decreasing gas tax revenues.
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Contributor
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Does this include the project to move the entrance to Ox Bow park, at the tune of 1.3 million?
vandy
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 8/2/2007 7:35:31 AM
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| Let's look at the Landfill Category - $598,472 to purchase new equipment to aid in the handling of trash! Why was it necessary to get this money and use it for the County Landfill? According to our elite Commissioners, the Landfill is self-sustaining. So why did you give VIM a free ride and not pay tipping fees? This $600,000 could have been designated to someplace that would not have had an income to cover this expense. Of course, our Elkhart County Council, being sidekicks with the Commissioners, will no doubt go ahead and approve this expenditure.
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Master Contributor
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Plans call for some $1.5 million in improvements to the county's courts building in Elkhart and the main administration building, county courthouse, public services building and work-release center, all in Goshen. The proposed improvements would lead to savings of perhaps $150,000 per year, according to an earlier estimate, and Byers now suspects the savings would be greater
Ten year payback? Waist of taxpayer money. Never get any savings.
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Forum Guru
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sasset (11/3/2009)
Does this include the project to move the entrance to Ox Bow park, at the tune of 1.3 million?
No -- that is a separate project, part of which is funded with federal dollars. Next year.
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Forum Guru
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Paul1104 (11/3/2009)
Let's look at the Landfill Category - $598,472 to purchase new equipment to aid in the handling of trash! Why was it necessary to get this money and use it for the County Landfill? According to our elite Commissioners, the Landfill is self-sustaining. So why did you give VIM a free ride and not pay tipping fees? This $600,000 could have been designated to someplace that would not have had an income to cover this expense. Of course, our Elkhart County Council, being sidekicks with the Commissioners, will no doubt go ahead and approve this expenditure.
The landfill is self sustaining - these funds for needed equipment replacement are being allocated from the landfill account.
Unlike our home or business budgets where money from a variety of sources can be used to pay expenses wherever needed, government financial regulations to not allow this type of money movement.
Landfill funds cannot be used for General Fund obligations, neither can bridge or road funds. We can borrow from the landfill account - but the funds must be returned to the account within 12 months. So - using money from accounts that have a surplus balance to balance other budgetary shortfalls is usually not an option.
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Forum Guru
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truthuser (11/3/2009)
Plans call for some $1.5 million in improvements to the county's courts building in Elkhart and the main administration building, county courthouse, public services building and work-release center, all in Goshen. The proposed improvements would lead to savings of perhaps $150,000 per year, according to an earlier estimate, and Byers now suspects the savings would be greater
Ten year payback? Waist of taxpayer money. Never get any savings.
The savings represent a very conservative estimate. There is a payback - 10 years. BUT -- about half of the money is federal tax dollars -- which means either (1) money collected from taxpayers elsewhere in the US is helping us pay for this or (2) they just printed some more dollars. Either way, the actual payback on local tax dollars is quicker than 10 years.
Not endorsing the program - just playing by the rules handed us.
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Forum Guru
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Barry -- MM fund
I did not bother the Auditor or Treasurer office this week because they are busy with property tax bill collections and answering related questions. These numbers are from the Highway department's budget, but I think they satisfy what the question is here. Again the exact numbers are available at the Auditors office - these numbers show the balances at a particular time and how the money flows into and out of the fund.
The initial MM Fund balance was $24,800,000 (the county's share of the $40 mill)
No monies were used from the fund until this year. Local government funds are invested in very safe investment areas - like CD's. Balance in the fund at the beginning of this year was $25,428,394
This year we borrowed $19,000,000 for the bridge projects - if this fund had not been available we would have had to go into the bond market and borrow from there.
Regular payments are scheduled in the 10 year highway plan to pay back these borrowed funds including an interest rate approximately equal to the rate we earn on our investments.
The first payment was already made this year. It was $1,800,000. $1,378,800 was principle. These funds came from this year's Major Bridge revenues.
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