KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Kalamazoo County board has given final approval to their 2027 budget.
Sort of.
They were making amendments right up to the final vote on the spending plan, and plan to make more changes at their next meeting.
The vote on the $353-million financial plan had already been delayed because staff and commissioners were still making adjustments when the original public hearing was set.
Last night, they re-opened the hearing after tweaking the final numbers on recommendation from their Standing Budget Committee.
Vice chair John Taylor says he still wants to find enough money in the budget to increase a now approved 1% cost of living increase for employees to 2%.
“Even though we’re done with the budget, we’re not quite done with the budget. We’re going to have a couple of adjustments to make, and I really want to get to 2% for employees. We’ve got inflation of 3.7%, and we’ve got to try our best to make them whole,” says Taylor. “So I pledge to all those employees, that I am going to do what I can, to try to make sure that we’ve got an effective cost of living increase, that will make you close to whole.”
Vice chair pro tem Jeff Heppler says budget approval only comes once a year but adjustments are really business as usual.
“This is the most important thing we do. It’s a living document that we have to work on all year long.”
The spending plan includes a tax increase, one approved by voters this summer when they voted to tax themselves an additional half mill to fund early childcare.
Commissioners still must decide if they will collect that new money on winter or summer tax bills, a decision they also plan to make at their next meeting.
The new budget won’t take effect until January 1st, but early approval will give staff the opportunity to make a smooth transition from one budget to the next.
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