Isabella County officials to look into absorbing financial, administrative road commission tasks
Isabella County officials have begun to consider the feasibility of absorbing road commission responsibilities since state lawmakers adopted legislation allowing them to last month.
Toward the end of last year, a bill made headway in Lansing that aimed to give county governments the option to take on local road commissions’ financial and administrative tasks. Gov. Rick Snyder gave his stamp of approval Feb. 21.
Now under law, a county in which officials appoint road commissioners can establish itself as the authority overseeing maintenance and construction of county roads. However, in counties like Isabella, where road commissioners are elected, county governments can only decide whether to put the decision before voters.
Isabella County Administrator Tim Dolehanty has said officials will have to consider capital costs as well as the road commission’s management structure. He said that includes evaluation of pension plans, employee benefits, equipment maintenance and cost and how many roads and bridges are in need of repair.
“The real question then becomes, 'Will that savings be enough to make up for this going in?'” Dolehanty said.
So far, he said the preliminary answer seems to be “No.” Still, county officials have already begun to reflect on the matter — most recently in the establishing of a five-person task force.
As discussion of merging continues, county board Chairman George Green, who was responsible for appointing members to the task force, said officials will try to make any information, budgetary and otherwise available for the public on the county and road commission websites.
He pegged it as one of the most important points of the process, because some county residents have the misconception that the road commission is “rich.”
“Roads are the biggest thing in the out-county that we have that people see,” Green said. “What I’d like to do in this endeavor is explain to people. Whether the road commission has hidden money or not, I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
The road commission’s fund balance at a glance could be misleading to the public, said Tony Casali, manager of the Isabella County Road Commission. But he said the entity has faced several cuts over the past few years, including a near-$800,000 budget decrease and a reduction in staff from 51 to 37.
Even if the road commission does merge with Isabella County, he said, it still might not take care of the real problem — a lack of revenue.
Casali compared the decision to purchasing a business.
“You need to know all the liabilities and assets,” he said. “Part of it is looking at if we have any outstanding debts, the condition of the roads and what it’s going to take to get them into a good condition.”
The soonest voters could potentially see the issue at the polls is August, which Dolehanty said could be beneficial to Isabella County’s fiscal start date in October.
But officials say it’s too soon to know where the discussion will go. Green said he just wants to “make sure we have our ducks in a row.”
“Otherwise, I’m wasting people’s money; people’s time,” he said.
