Township board continues budget discussion

By Dana Casadei

Another fiscal year is almost in the books for Bloomfield Township, and with its 2025 fiscal ear coming near an end, the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees took one of many steps towards getting their budget for the 2026 fiscal year settled on Monday, February 10.

But before finance director Jason Theis could discuss the budget at the meeting the board talked for nearly half an hour about two issues that trustee Mark Antakli had brought up at prior meetings.

The issues included Antaki’s position that the township’s quarterly reports were insufficient and that the interest allocation from an enterprise fund should go back into that fund and not into the township’s general fund. An example of this would be having the interest earned from the water and sewer fund go back into that fund, and not the general fund.

Due to Antaki's opposition, supervisor Mike McCready had township attorney Derk Beckerleg provide more information on both these concerns from Antakli.

“I appreciate the questions that he raised. They were good questions, but I would respectfully say that what the township is doing with respect to the quarterly reports, as well as the income from their enterprise funds, is perfectly legal and appropriate," Beckerleg said.

This then led to another 20 minutes of discussion with Antakli, causing clear frustration from his fellow trustees, a theme that seemed to continue throughout the meeting, especially when Antakli tried to bring the points back up again later in their discussion.

Once finally able to get back on track, Theis gave a high-level summary of revenues and expenditures for the 2026 proposed budget. He noted that the proposed budget is balanced individually and when combining the township’s general fund, road fund and public safety fund.

“I know our directors are here and our deputy directors who help work on the budget are here… thank you for all your work on this and all you’re doing for the township,” McCready said. “I know it’s long and tedious… so thank you for being here and thank you for all your work, and thank you, Jason, this was very good work.”

Theis started by discussing township’s revenues for 2026, which have the projected taxable value of $5.37 billion – up slightly from 2025’s $5.2 billion – equating to a 3.6 percent net increase to tax revenues after the Headlee Tax Limitation rollback. Similar to the current fiscal year, Theis expects state revenue sharing to be about $5 million for 2026.

The township will see decreases in investment earnings from the most recent two fiscal years due to lower interest rates., Theis said.

In the proposed budget, 72 percent of the township’s revenue will come from taxes, followed by revenue sharing at seven percent, and interest at four percent.

Another large aspect of the proposed budget that Theis discussed was expenditures for fiscal year 2026, including the defined benefit pension ADC payment of almost $5.3 million, and $1.25 million OPEB contribution.

Breaking it down even further, labor is 47 percent of the township’s expenditures for the 2026 fiscal year, followed by pension and OPEB.

Theis brought up some of the most costly projected projects for the general fund, road fund and public safety fund. A few items of note included the $1 million storm water costs from the general fund and the document management system costs; and the road fund needing over $900,000 for two swap loader plow trucks, which have already been approved by the board.

Highlighted expenditures for the public safety fund were split into two groups, police/dispatch and fire, with each having items of need that range from building updates and improvements to vehicle and technology replacements. 

Other departments were brought up as well during Theis’ presentation, such as the $1 million from American Plan Rescue Act (ARPA) for the senior services fund that will focus on their parking lot and will begin construction on this spring; the public safety fund; and the cable fund. The later of which are seeing a significant decline in franchise fees in fiscal years 2025 and 2026, as is their revenue source.

Even in spite of all of their fiscal troubles, the township does have two new rooftop units on the buildings, costing $80,000 to be replaced, as part of the upcoming budget, and a few hundred thousands of dollars to make building and office improvements. 

In 2026 the township will be providing 100 percent of the franchise fees to the Cable Fund. In the current year, they provided 85 percent.

“It’s been ramping up year after year as they face more declining revenues,” Theis said.

Lastly, Theis wanted to remind the board of the state opioid settlement fund, which has received approximately $240,000 so far. Projections are estimating this fund to receive approximately $50,000 a year until 2032, then smaller amounts through 2038.

Looking at those who are employed at the township, the 2026 budget has a proposal for the creation of a human resources department with two new employees, a human resource director and generalist, a need that came about from the board’s strategic planning.

“It’s in the early stages but we’ve put room in there,” he said.

In total, there are five new positions being proposed, including the two in human resources, being budgeted for in 2026. The other three positions include an associate planner and two additional dispatchers for the Bloomfield Township Police Department.

There will be no contractual wage increases to the 2026 budget year as they were adjusted this past January. They also had another successful healthcare renewal, keeping their illustrative rates and fees lower than trend. There was also an increase in their share of prescription rebates from Cigna to 100 percent. Theis noted that at one point those rebates were at zero percent.

The township is also looking to be close to spending all of the $4.4 million in ARPA funds they received, with the projections showing that they’ll have spent $4.2 million by the end of the fiscal year for 2026. They will need to spend all of it by the end of next December to comply with the federal ARPA deadline.

They are currently expected to spend $1.8 million of the $4.4 million given to the township from the ARPA by the end of this fiscal year. This will pay for the Fire Tower Truck.

Outside of the budget discussion for 2026, Theis discussed with the board their options for where to put the projected $3.2 million surplus from the fiscal year ending in March, where revenues may exceed expenditures for the township’s general fund, road fund, and public safety fund combined.

The $3.2 million is primarily being driven by a reduction in expenditures rather than an increase in revenues, and is mainly from position vacancies. There are currently 16 open vacancies across the general fund, road fund and public safety fund. There was also a significant amount of grant revenues that the township received which were not budgeted for during the fiscal year.

Theis gave multiple suggestions that were similar to last year, such as using it for an extra contribution to the Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trust, which Theis did not recommend, or contributing to the Retiree Healthcare Trust.

His ultimate recommendation though was that they put it in the equipment and replacement fund. Many on the board agreed with this suggestion, and much like Theis noted that this option is the most flexible for relieving pressure on future years’ budgets. The approved budget already included a $1.35 million transfer, this $3.2 million would be added to that amount and will help contribute to the $14 million of capital purchases projected for the next five years.

“Certainly, the equipment and replacement fund has been very substantial, it’s been very helpful in getting us through some of these capital improvement purchases… I would go with your recommendation,” said trustee Neal Barnett.

Treasurer Michael Schostak and clerk Martin Brook also spoke in favor of the decision to put the surplus in the equipment and replacement fund.

Theis will return in May for the official resolution to approve committing the surplus to the equipment and replacement fund, and in March to further finalize the budget for 2026.