Bay County Interest Income Expected to Nearly Triple This Year
|
||||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
County Treasurer Rick Brzezinski is using his banking and treasurer's office experience to smooth county financial operations.
Bay County Treasurer Rick Brzezinski has good news for county officials who have been struggling with tight budgets.
There's going to be a little more on the bottom line this year because of rising interest rates on investments.
%cp% |
He also has a pleasant surprise for local governmental units: they will get most of their money from delinquent taxes up front, at the end of June, instead of having to wait for it to dribble in as paid later on in the year.
"We will be disbursing funds to local units soon," he said. "The $5.5 million in delinquent taxes going to 18 cities and township will help balance budgets. Before the taxing units had to wait. We used to disburse the money each month and now we give it to them on the front end."
The county gets reimbursed, with up to 12-18 percent interest a year, when the delinquent taxes are paid. There are few property forfeitures in Bay County, only about a dozen a year, said Mr. Brzezinski. That is a drop in the bucket especially as compared to Genesee County that has about 5,000 tax reverted properties annually.
While interest income was about $127,000 last year generated by about a 1 percent rate, he expect the three percent rates this year to hike the bottom line to about $400,000.
"I'm pleased and surprised that revenue is going up rather than down," said Mr. Brzezinski. "It's an important part of the budget."
Robert E. Harvey, certified financial planner with A. G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., reports that a one year certificate of deposit is paying 3.7 percent as opposed to 1.2 percent a year ago. That would improve the county's investment income by a factor of more than three times.
Mr. Brzezinski is building on his17 years of banking experience with Michigan National Bank (now Standard Federal), and First of America Bank, now National City Bank. He is a graduate of Northwood University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
He joined the County Treasurer's office shortly after Proposal A went into effect in 1994. Proposal A added duties to the county treasurer's office and Mr. Brzezinski managed several hundred adjustments for individual taxpayers and the accounting between the state, county, local units and school districts.
He instituted a new cash management process by combining excess cash from 20 county funds that allowed for longer term investments, from typically 30 day terms to up to one year. Longer term investments provide higher interest rates than shorter term investments.
He also worked to institute a new computer system to streamline the billing and collecting of delinquent taxes.
A lifelong resident of Bay County, Mr. Brzezinski is married tothe former Kay Maciejewski, who is a Registered Nurse at Bay Regional Medical Center. They have three sons, Nick, Matt and Jason. He has been a coach of several youth sports and active in the St. Stanislaus Athletic Club and Ushers Club.###
| Printer Friendly Story View |
|
|
Dave Rogers |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-21-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm