By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of economic disruption this year, from people’s personal finances to governmental budgets. Area governments and schools have been eye witnesses to the latter problem over the last several months.
Juggling funds to keep everything going isn’t necessarily anything new for most of us, but it’s taken on a new meaning this year for governments and schools. The shutdown of businesses has led to less revenue going into state coffers which in turn means threats of reduced state shared revenue and state aid for schools.
This week, Berrien County officials’ focus has been the 2021 budget. Budget hearings were scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on three mornings this week, Monday through Wednesday. Meetings continue to be virtual and can be seen on the county’s YouTube Channel.
The new 2021 budget is expected to be discussed at Thursday’s Board of 
Commissioners meeting as well. That meeting is also set for 10:30 a.m. and can be seen on the county’s YouTube Channel. The county’s 2020 budget called for general fund revenues of $59.8 million, of which $4.5 million came from state shared revenue.
The budget and finances were among the topics of discussion at last week’s county board and finance committee meetings. County commissioners will continue to work on the budget in the next several weeks before adopting it later this fall. The county’s fiscal year begins Jan. 1.
How COVID-19 will impact the budget was a major focus at the meetings last week. Finance Services Director Douglas James and County Administrator Brian Dissette said that while the county will be getting extra money from the state to cover COVID-19 expenses, the state is also reducing how much state shared revenue the county will get.
The state informed the county at the end of August that they weren’t going to get $890,000 in state shared revenue the county would normally receive then. Instead, the county is getting $1.3 million for COVID related expenses.
“This is the way the state is trying to balance things out,” James said. “We had plans to spend the revenue sharing funds for other things but we have to deal with the cards handed to us.”
“Our goal today is to get the finance committee updated on how complicated the funding is,” Dissette said. “We didn’t want you walking
into first round of budget talks and see it on the fly. We’re losing revenue sharing monies but we’re receiving a significant payment from the state of Michigan with the CARES Act funding.”
He and James asked for and received tacit committee approval to set up a CARES Act fund separate from the county’s general fund. They said doing so will help them track COVID related revenue and expenses as well as reimburse the general fund for those expenditures. The county has spent over $490,000 on COVID related matters since March.
“By setting up the CARES Act fund line item, we can reimburse ourselves for payroll expenses going back to March for first responders, the health department, the emergency operations center and for personal protective equipment,” Dissette said.
“The biggest thing is that we can reimburse the contingency fund line item we had been using,” he added. “That was like death by a thousand cuts. Since this was an unplanned event. Everything was billed to contingency and by reimbursing the contingency fund you’re essentially making yourself whole. It’s less than ideal but far from a bad situation.”
They reported that the state is giving the county over $1.3 million from their Coronavirus Relief Local Government Grants Fund which is funded from the federal CARES Act. The county is also likely to get other COVID related block grant funding in the future to cover hazard pay and other items, they said.
Commissioners weren’t too happy with the funding change from the state but said they knew they couldn’t do much about it. “They’re basically throwing us a bone, that doesn’t seem fair or right,” Commissioner Ezra Scott said. “I’m not saying don’t take the money, but they’re giving us the shaft on what we have to spend the money on.”
State officials reported last month that state budget revenue estimates had recovered some from earlier in the year due to the influx of federal CARES Act funds. They still expect to have to face tough budget decisions in what to fund and what to cut in coming months and years.
In May, the general fund revenue shortfall for the current 2019-20 year was estimated to be $2.5 billion and it’s now expected to be $926 million less. The 2020-21 revenue levels are expected to decline by $2.5 billion rather than $3.1 billion statewide.
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