Attempts to discuss the county investment funds at the last two BOC meetings proved problematic so I imposed upon Randy Sanne this weekend to provide a brief overview for the public. Randy has extensive experience working with government accounting and managed a $60 million annual budget during his tenure with the United States Air Force. Based upon information available from the county website he has prepared an eleven month spreadsheet analysis of the county’s cash position showing a minimum balance in the general and forest funds of $15 million along with the average $640K per month cash needs.
Presently, these funds are all too often sitting idle in low interest bearing accounts rather than being invested in infrastructure or revenue producing capital assets. Many regions have found a way to invest in community owned forests, fisheries, agriculture and energy production as a way of developing a sustainable local economy and creating local jobs.
Instead, this commission would rather get the federal government to give them more assets NOT to manage.
You’re right, if there is no plan to manage the county’s assets the county may as well not have any assets