A Deep Dive Into Peninsula Township Finances

Editor’s Note: Paula Kelley takes a deep dive into Peninsula Township’s finances, including how to read your property taxes, where the money goes, and some thoughts on the Township newsletter. Read on for details. -jb

Dear Readers,

In the last 20 years, I have rescued and rehabilitated dogs and spent more than 30 years working in the budgeting and accounting arena in a variety of industries (private, government, and non-profit). As a result, I tend to get a lot of questions from friends and neighbors. “How can I make my dog pay attention to me and, by the way … what DOES our township spend our money on?”

Many folks have urged me to write an article for the Gazette to supply quick answers to commonly asked questions, as well as how to read your property tax bill — and where those dollars go.

This article is NOT delving into how to pay the winery lawsuit, for or against becoming a charter township or remaining a general law township, nor is it intended to be a total analysis of the Township budgeting.

Most importantly, the intention is not to be disrespectful to our hard-working township employees, nor to criticize their decisions. There is no animosity towards people or organizations that may be listed here. I do not speak for the Township, but will just be presenting information based upon budgets that were obtained through FOIA requests.

I do realize that not everyone on the planet gets excited about numbers (WHAT?!), but because I also love to teach about numbers, I hope I have made things easy to read with lots of fun colors and pictures. You won’t even have to do any math – I’ve already done that!

If you need to fall asleep, then there are pages of supplemental data in the Appendices. If you don’t care to have your eyes glaze over, then just read up to the start of Appendix A and stop there.

Grab a beverage and some snacks, settle into your easy chair, and let’s go have FUN!

How to Read Your Property Tax Bill

Looking at your personal property tax bill, you will see charges for the following:

The Peninsula Operating Funds and Admin fees on your property tax bill go into what is called the General Fund. The General Fund also gains revenue from other sources as shown below:

In only 3 out of the last 7 years did the Enterprise Funds need to kick in some extra cash to the General Fund, mainly during the Covid years.

Now let’s look at expenses and how the township government is spending our tax dollars. The following list shows all the different departments that the General Fund supports:

Here is a summary of expenses for the General Fund departments listed above:

Adding revenues and expenses together, our consolidated summary for the General Fund now looks like this:

Revenue and Expense details by department for the General Fund can be viewed in Appendices A and B below.

Common Questions About Township Spending

Question: The Lighthouse Manager is a volunteer position, right?

Answer: No, initially the manager position was part-time, and in 2020 was made a full-time position. Here are the costs for that position:

Question: Do my tax dollars (on the property tax bill) pay for our parks?

Answer: No. Parks are funded in part through the Enterprise Funds – see List #4. Monies withdrawn from the Enterprise Funds for other uses are no longer available to supplement the General Fund.

Peninsula Township parks are a wonderful asset, but they also come with a big job description and a hefty price tag. From budget data received from FOIA requests to the Township, in the last 6 years the Enterprise Funds have contributed additional funding to the following parks:

• Archie/Bowers Harbor/Haserot – almost $687,000
• Dougherty House and Log Church – almost $46,000
• Hessler Log Home used $8,000 in 2021-2022

See Appendix C below for a summary of expenses related to our parks.

Our Parks Committee is the hardest working bunch of people EVER! They might do well to spend some strategic planning brainstorming on how to lessen the burden of supporting the parks through the Enterprise Funds and plan alternative ways to gain revenues. Parking fees, donation boxes, or fundraising for specific projects might be some starting points.

While right now is certainly not the time to ask the voters for a dedicated parks millage, this idea would have been appropriate in the past and will be appropriate again in the future.

Question: What is the Township Newsletter?   

Answer: Conversations with neighbors revealed that many are confused as to what the Township newsletter is vs. all the other local magazines that come in the mail. This is the cover page for the Township newsletter, and it comes in the mail twice a year. A scanned in version can also be found at the Township website here.

Some folks I talked to leave this newsletter on their coffee table, while some walk it from their mailbox to the recycling bin. Regardless of whether we like it or not, the reality is this newsletter is costing the taxpayers lots of money, in addition to potentially setting the township up for problems with the types of articles that are being written.

On average, 33 percent of every issue is devoted to articles that are not related to the role of the Township government. Here are some very quick examples – see Appendix D below for a complete breakdown.

• Winter 2023 photo of Local Yokels farmstand. Does this mean ALL farmstands will get the same type of free advertising?
• Solicitation for fundraising for Old Mission Women’s Club barn sale (Winter 2022), new roof for Old Mission School/Education Foundation (Summer 2022), and a new roof for the American Legion Post (Summer 2022). Following this precedent, could all organizations on the peninsula now expect free advertising in the township newsletter?
• Summer 2022 article on Traverse City Boy Scout Troop who made bird boxes for a private individual’s farm. Are all youth groups who do projects for individuals or organizations not related to the government unit allowed to submit articles and pictures for publication in the Township newsletter?
• Repeated articles from Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy about Pyatt Lake. Pyatt Lake is NOT a township government owned park.

In 2016, Michigan Townships Association (MTA) wrote a very good article on what Township governments are and are not allowed to spend public funds (taxpayer money) on. The link to the article can be found here: Lawful Expenditures: Three Steps to Spending Township Money. In essence, townships can only spend public monies on public purposes (i.e. government related) and not private interests.

Even if it were permissible to spend public monies on such articles, these community-oriented articles have already been made public in such places as Old Mission Gazette, the organizations’ own websites, social media, or other newspapers. In fact, many articles have appeared in more than one place.
 
Let’s take a look at the costs the Township allocates to producing the newsletter. First, here are the costs of the newsletter itself.

As with many things related to budgeting, there is also a TIME cost as well as a MONETARY cost associated with publishing this newsletter. Currently, the Township Clerk is undertaking this task. In previous years, the newsletter project was completed by one or more trustees.

I don’t know how much time the clerk spends creating the two newsletters per year, but a conservative estimate would be one hour per week for 20 weeks. Further, in the past, the clerk has received a stipend on top of her salary for working on the newsletter. The cost table from above now looks like this:

Suggestions for future newsletters might be:

• Eliminate all non-governmental articles;
• Let the Trustees or a committee oversee this. The clerk’s office has a very complex job to begin with. Eliminating time and money spent on the newsletter could potentially have further savings in the clerk’s office by reducing the need for temporary or part-time employees;
• Make the newsletter web based. Lots of township time and money has been spent on a campaign to save the hemlock trees at Pelizzari park – why is the township not setting a good environmental example by continuing to waste glossy paper and colored ink on a paper format newsletter?
• Web based newsletters also allow for links to related materials to be “clickable.”

Question: What are the biggest expenses in the General Fund Departments?

Answer: Legal Fees and Salaries and salary related expenses.

Here is a snapshot of salaries and related info for the General Fund departments. A detailed breakdown can be found in Appendix E below.

That’s it – you made it to the end! I hope some of this information was helpful and will help readers become more curious about township finances.

Continue below if you want the mind-numbing details on revenues and expenses for the General Fund, Parks Expenses, breakdown of the Township Newsletter, and details on salaries.

Appendix A – Summary of General Fund Revenues

Here is a breakdown of the General Fund revenues for the last 7 fiscal years. “Appropriations IN” reflect funding from the Enterprise Funds.

Appendix B – Summary of General Fund Expenses by Department Totals

Data derived from budget info supplied by the Township from a FOIA request.

Appendix C – Selected Parks Data

Appendix D – Articles in Peninsula Township Newsletters Not Related to the Township Governing Unit

The following is a list of articles that have appeared in the township newsletter since 2020 which do not pertain to the Township governmental scope of business – i.e. the organizations listed are either private or non-profit businesses.

These articles can be found in other places such as the organizations’ own websites, Old Mission Gazette, the organizations’ own newsletters, The Ticker, the organizations’ social media sites, or have been included in a town board meeting packet or verbal update to the board. A great many of the articles have even been available to the public from multiple sources before even being printed in the Township newsletter.

Winter 2020

• Watershed Center and Shoreline booklet created by private individuals, 1/2 page
• US Census, 1/2 page
• Acentek fiber optics, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Women’s Club, 3/4 page
• Old Mission Historical Society, 3/4 page
• American Legion Hall, 1/4 page
• Peninsula Community Library, 1 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Foundation, 1/2 page

Summer 2021

• American Legion Hall dinners, front page, 1/2 page
• Secretary of State article on walking/cycling/driving safety, full page
• Old Mission Women’s Club, full page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation (for the school), 1 1/2 pages
• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, 1/2 page on Pyatt Lake (not a township park)
• Old Mission Historical Society, full page
• Peninsula Community Library, 3/4 page
• Bayshore Marathon and TC Track Club, 3/4 page
• Grand Traverse County Road Commission, 1/4 page

Winter 2021

• Old Mission Women’s Club, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Historical Society, 1 page
• Peninsula Community Library, 1 page

Summer 2022

• American Legion Hall –solicitation for funds for new roof, front page, 1/4 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation – including solicitation for new roof, 2 pages
• Obituary, 1/4 page
• Ad for Grand Traverse County 2021 Annual Report, 1/4 page
• Interviews for Grand Traverse County Commissioners running for election, full page
• Old Mission Women’s Club, full page
• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy article on Pyatt Lake (not a township park), 1 1/2 pages
• Peninsula Community Library, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society, 1/2 page
• Boy Scout troop article on bird boxes made for a private farm on the peninsula, 1/2 page

Winter 2022

• American Legion Hall, front page, 1/4 page
• Consumer’s Energy on power outages, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Women’s Club, 1 page, includes advertising for barn sale fundraiser event
• Watershed Center, 2 pages
• Peninsula Community Library, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Historical Society, 1/2 page
• Grand Traverse County Recycling and Resource Center, 1/2 page
• Bayshore Marathon, 1/2 page

Summer 2023

• Old Mission Women’s Club, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 2 pages
• Update from Grand Traverse County Commissioner, 1 page
• Peninsula Community Library, 2 pages
• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, 1 1/2 Pyatt Lake w/picture (not a township government owned park)
• Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society, 1 page

Winter 2023 – 24 pages

• Old Mission Women’s Club, 1 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 2 pages
• Picture advertising for Local Yokels farm stand, 1/4 page
• GT County Commissioner Update, 1/2 page
• Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network, 1/4 page
• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, Pyatt Lake 1/4 page (not a township government owned park)
• Peninsula Community Library, 2 pages

Summer 2024

• Grand Traverse County Commissioner, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Women’s Club, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 2 pages
• American Legion Post, 3/4 page
• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, 3/4 page Pyatt Lake (not a township government owned park)
• Peninsula Community Library, 2 pages
• Old Mission Historical Society, 2 pages

Winter 2024 – 28 total pages

• Old Mission Women’s Club, 3/4 page
• retirement of UPS driver, 1/2 page
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 2 pages
• Peninsula Community Library, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Historical Society, 1 1/2 page

Winter 2025 – 28 total pages

• Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy – 1 1/2 pages Pyatt Lake (not a township government owned park)
• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 2 1/4 pages
• Update from County Commissioner, 1 1/2 pages
• Peninsula Community Library, 2 pages
• Old Mission Historical Society, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Women’s Club, 3/4 page
• American Legion Post, 1/2 page
• Birthday announcement for resident, 1/4 page
• Obituary for resident, 1/4 page

Summer 2025 – 32 pages total

• Old Mission Peninsula School and Education Foundation, 1 3/4 pages
• Peninsula Community Library, 2 pages
• Update from County Commissioner, 1 1/2 pages
• Old Mission Historical Society, approx. 3/4 pages not related to township government activities or assets
• Old Mission Women Club, 3/4 page
• Hydrogeology of OMP by GT Drain Commissioner, 2 pages
• Watershed Center article, 1 page
• Smart 911 article, 1/2 page
• Code Red, Rural Hazards guidebook, United Way articles/ad – 1 page
• Peter Dougherty Society, 1/2 page

Appendix E – Breakdown of General Fund Salaries and Related Info

Data derived from budget info supplied by the Township from a FOIA request.

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