County chooses triennial budget for better long-range planning
Oakland County, which is part of the Detroit metropolitan area, has decided to move from a two- to a three-year budgeting cycle, in hopes of sparing county residents from emergency spending cuts that disrupt services.
“I’m pleased to announce that Oakland will be the first county in Michigan – and we believe in the United States – to move to a triennial budget,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announced during his annual state-of-the-county address recently. “We will project line-item detail out three fiscal years – the current fiscal year, plus 2010 and 2011, as an example.”
Patterson said going from a biennial to a triennial budget will provide more advanced notice, better long-term planning and more opportunities to react before a crisis arises.
Oakland County has been preparing biennial budgets for a number of years. Patterson opted to implement a triennial budget process due to the financial crisis facing all of the United States. Another factor in his decision: Projections show Oakland County will face reduced revenues from its property taxes for a number of years going forward.
Property-tax revenues account for 59 percent of the Oakland County budget. If, as is expected, the revenue trend is sharply down, Patterson can make smaller cuts now to save money and avoid more drastic cuts later.
The switch to a triennial budget will have little impact on the county’s purchasing operations, Jack Sato Smith, purchasing manager for Oakland County, told GovPro.com.
“County departments currently project what their future needs will be and work with the Purchasing Division to solicit bids for those products or services. The Purchasing Division commonly issues one-year contracts with an option to extend the contract up to two additional years,” Sato Smith said. “Switching from a biennial budget process to a triennial budget from the procurement perspective will not change our bid-solicitation process or contract management and review.”