Boone County treasurer reports midyear software transition, $1.8M liquidity draw and health-insurance cost pressures

Boone County Treasurer Newport told the Committee of the Whole — Finance on Feb. 13 that the county’s January finances reflected an expected seasonal drawdown and one large annual insurance payment.

Newport said the county is down “a couple million in total from a month ago, or 1.8” million, and attributed most of that decline to liquidity being used to pay a property/liability insurance premium of more than $1 million. “If you ever wanted to add some excitement to your life, I recommend what you do is you switch accounting software, payroll software, and auditors all in the same year,” Newport said, describing extra workload from a midyear software transition.

The nut of the report: county cash was lower than a month earlier but the county’s timed investments and certificates of deposit remain in place and are being rolled over at market rates. Newport also reported the county’s pooled investments earned about $329,000 in interest in the first two months of the fiscal year.

Administration staff presented a separate fiscal report updated through January. The administration said revenues are slightly behind last year’s pace and highlighted a technical change in how “local use tax” receipts are collected and recorded following recent state rules changes; some receipts will now appear as sales tax in different account lines. The administration estimated local use tax is “about 2.7 under trend,” and said countywide sales-tax lines are trending high because of the reclassification.

Officials also flagged a payroll-accounting concern. Newport said the payroll account on a bank report showed a negative $577,000 balance that he does not believe is accurate; he said staff members Karen (his deputy) and Aaron were investigating possible duplicated or erroneous automatic postings.

Health-insurance costs drew particular attention. Administration staff said health-insurance premiums are expected to rise significantly and cited a 16% increase presented to the county, which the administration estimated would amount to about a half-million dollars in general-fund cost. The administration noted that part of recent claim-cost growth stems from a rise in spending on newly approved weight-loss drugs across government plan participants and said the county’s intergovernmental benefits consortium (IPBC) planned a March 20 meeting to discuss options.

The administration also reported all American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds had been allocated as required by a prior deadline. The report listed remaining ARPA balances “a little over 6,100,000” and said ARPA funds had earned “over 600,000 in interest.” The administration named two projects that received the remaining ARPA funds: the Ringling Johnson contract for McKinley and the Scandroli contract for the courthouse.

No formal action was taken on the financial reports. Newport and administration staff answered members’ questions about the payroll-accounting discrepancy, the planned March IPBC meeting, and the county’s plan to monitor tax-classification changes.

Ending: Staff said they will report back after March meetings of IPBC and as the payroll-accounting issue is resolved.