COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Board of Commissioners formally adopted what was called a balanced 2024 General Fund budget during their final regular meeting of the year on Tuesday.
The total Expenditure/Revenue budget for fiscal year 2024 will be over $17-point-3 million after the 2023 general fund budget came in at over $14-point-8 million.
The 2024 budget includes the addition of six Sheriff’s Department Road Patrol deputies approved by Commissioners in August which will make the department a 24 hour operation for the first time in 12 years.
To fund the new deputies, ARPA funds be used for the next three years, Opioid settlement funds be used for the next 10 years and the balance will come from a cost allocation plan which would affect 911, the Commission on Aging, the Department of Public Works, the Public Defenders Office, Building Inspection and the Branch County Road Commission. The county will also increase charges for services, look at efficiencies and make reductions with the Sheriff’s Department on overtime.
After butting heads with the Board of Commissioners over additional deputies for years, Branch County Sheriff John Pollack was grateful on Tuesday.
The budget also includes an approval by Commissioners to fill a vacant Assistant Prosecuting Attorney position. It has not been filled since it was cut in 2012 as money was never reallocated.
Prosecutor Zach Stempien told Commissioners in September that the additional person was needed because the increase of Sheriff’s Department road deputies will increase his office’s workload further.
He also noted that statistically, Branch County handles the second highest number of felonies per attorney in comparison to other Michigan counties of equal or greater size.
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