Wexford board to finalize calendar, start 2025 budget process
CADILLAC — With the calendar 2024 year half over, the Wexford County Board of Commissioners is looking to start the budget process for the fiscal year 2025 on Wednesday.
The budget process started on June 26 when the finance committee reviewed the draft budget calendar. That calendar is scheduled to be discussed and possibly adopted on Wednesday by the full board.
If that happens, Wexford County Administrator Joe Porterfield will open the budgeting process to all county departments/offices on July 8. By Aug. 2, county departments/offices will submit completed budget requests, according to the proposed budget calendar.
From Aug. 5 to Aug. 23, Porterfield will work with county departments/offices regarding budget requests. The finance committee also will be updated during this time. On Aug. 23, the proposed budgets will be provided to the finance committee for discussion and review at its next meeting on Aug. 28.
At that Aug. 28 meeting, the finance committee will also determine which departments it will want to present at upcoming meetings. They also will provide direction to Porterfield, according to the proposed budget calendar. On Sept. 12, the finance committee will hear from those selected departments and continue to provide direction to Porterfield.
On Sept. 25, the finance committee would hear from selected departments again, review the revised budget and reach a consensus regarding any additional revisions. It also would be scheduled to recommend the budget for consideration to the full board.
On Oct. 2, the proposed budget would be presented to the full board and desired revisions would given to the administrator. On Oct. 4, a public hearing notice would be published. On Oct. 16, the public hearing would be held and the full board would consider adopting the proposed budget and the General Appropriations Act.
While it can vary from year to year, the county’s goal is to always have the budget completed and voted in by the board at the end of October. The point of that is to make sure everything that needs to be implemented can be in place during November. It also is possible that other meeting dates could be added as needed during the budget process to review budget strategies.
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the board is scheduled to discuss a request from Networks Northwest for $4,695 for operations. It is the same appropriation that has been requested and granted dating back to 2000.
The request is for part of the required local match for the federal Economic Development Administration grant, which is what makes Wexford County’s communities eligible for federal infrastructure funds. It also helps provide the required match for other federal and state-funded programs.
The return on this $55,000 total investment by our ten counties is at least 20:1 in any given year, according to information in the agenda packet.
The commissioners are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the commissioners’ room on the third floor of the Wexford County Courthouse, 437 E. Division St. The meeting also can be watched after its conclusion via YouTube and can be found by searching “Wexford County Board of Commissioners” on YouTube.
