Township budget for next fiscal year approved

By Dana Casadei

The Bloomfield Township budget for the fiscal year that ends on March 31, 2027 was approved by the board of trustees at their meeting on Monday, March 23. 

Before approval was granted though, Jason Theis, finance director, went before the board to recommend approval for budget amendments within the general gund. Those amendments – which passed 6-1 were to add $1 million to general fund revenues and take out $1 million from the general fund expenditures. 

Adding that money to the general fund is directly related to the township’s investments. The value of investments being held in bonds is in positive territory, and if it stays there until March 31, Theis said they should expect to record a significant positive change in value.

Once Theis was done with his presentation, trustee Mark Antakli brought up the water and sewer funds, which Theis shut down quickly. 

“I’m not here to talk about the water and sewer fund. I’m asking to amend the general fund,” Theis said. 

From there, it was almost smooth sailing when finalizing the budget until right after a motion was made to pass it. Antakli said that he thought that the way the budget is done was inappropriate and noted that MCL 41.77 only states where the money is being deposited and does not identify the funds.   

While he did not think his mind would change, he did want to highlight it during their meeting.

He even went so far as to make a motion that the investment income should follow government accounting standards board (GASB) 34 and GASB 31, and the investment income for pooled investments should be allocated based on the fund that provided the principal.

Antakli received no support from his fellow board members and the motion failed. 

“Regarding MCL 41.77 – which was approved in 1846 – what the trustee neglects to mention is that it has been amended over 20 times, including as recently as 1997,” said treasurer Michael Schostak. “So it’s perfectly applicable and appropriate to what we’re doing, and disingenuous to say otherwise.”

As far as the budget itself goes, the discussion was relatively short. Theis shared that most could be found in the digital budget book on the township’s website. The digital budget book has been revamped this year, and multiple people – including trustee Valerie Murray – spoke highly of the change. Theis mentioned that a lot more visuals were added to this year’s digital budget book, including graphics. 

“I encourage you, if you haven’t yet, to spend some time looking at that,” Theis said.

Regarding the township’s revenues for 2027, the projected taxable value is $5.684 billion, a 5.2 percent increase from 2026’s $5.37 billion and an even higher increase from $5.2 billion in 2025.

State revenue sharing and investment earnings are both expected to go down for the next fiscal year. And while there are no federal grants, Bloomfield Township was awarded a state grant of up to $1.5 million for police equipment and will use the remaining $100,000 from the American Plan Rescue Act (ARPA) funds in 2027.

There are also plans to receive transfers from other funds that total $6,265,000 into the general fund. Those funds are for a central service fee based on the most recent costs allocation study. That central service fee will be provided by a transfer from the general fund’s expenditures. 

Other expenditures in the proposed budget include the $1.25 million in OPEB contributions, a $4.84 million required contribution to the defined benefit pension plan, and all associated costs from the completed contract negotiations for eight separate unions were incorporated into the 2027 fiscal year budget. 

A few other highlights from the budget include the changes made after the budget study session earlier this year. Those changes, which were made, included taxable value increased another $58 million, adding tax revenue of over $500,000; state revenue sharing increased by $200,000; investment earnings increased by $400,000; and costs were added to the road fund to allow for $250,000 to be spent on contracted pothole patching. 

While a public hearing was held for the budget, there were no public comments.

The budget passed 6-1, with Antakli being the lone “no” vote.