Bernalillo County board approves quarterly investment strategy; treasurer seeks help filling six vacancies

Bernalillo County Board of Finance on May 27 approved the county's quarterly investment strategy and heard the county treasurer outline staffing needs in the treasurer's office.

County Treasurer Eichenberg told the board his office collects roughly 484,000 property tax payments totaling about $907,000,000 and that the county's investment program is the third-largest general-fund revenue source; the treasurer said the office expects about $31,800,000 in investment income for the fiscal year, roughly $19 million to $20 million of which will revert to the general fund.

The board's action matters because those investment returns are a material revenue source for county operations and because recent drawdowns of one-time American Rescue Plan Act funds have reduced investable cash, affecting portfolio sizing and liquidity.

Deputy Treasurer Ryan Travalstead reviewed the office's guiding principles of "safety, liquidity and yield," reporting that portfolio par value was about $719,800,000 as of March and that, after stripping out property-tax distributions for other entities,…