Washtenaw County Administrator’s Secret Memo Advocates For Major Millage Increase

By The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team Last updated Aug 3, 2024

by Ann Arbor Independent staff

Read the memo:

Greg-Dills-Washtenaw-County-Revenue-White-Paper-Recommending-Millage-Increases-10-18-2023 Download

The Ann Arbor Independent obtained from a tipster a copy of a secret memo written by Washtenaw County Administrator Gregory Dill to the County Commissioners that recommends the Commissioners authorize a Headlee Override Millage Ballot proposal. This would raise $24.1 million in additional property taxes from Washtenaw County residents. This proposed tax hike would likely be placed on the ballot in 2025 or 2026. Other scenarios outlined in the memo include allowing some special millages that expire in 2025 to expire and not be renewed. Under these alternatives, new taxes of up to $15.9 million or even a decrease in overall taxes of as much as $8.6 million could occur.

The memo raises the alarm that revenues are not rising fast enough to cover expenses and that tax increases are required. Since 2017, property taxes, the main source of revenue to support Washtenaw County’s operations, have risen from $69.3 million to $91.3 million, an increase of 31.7 percent. Over that same time frame, according to the memo, inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 19.3 percent.

Total expenditures, which were $109.9 million in 2017, will be $146.8 million in 2024 per the adopted 2024 budget, an increase of 33.6 percent. These amounts exclude federal and state government pass-through grants in separate fund accounts.

It is the rapid rise of expenses that is causing the County Administration to seek to convince County Commissioners to raise taxes.

Where is this money going? Analysis by the A2Indy indicates that the largest expense in Washtenaw County Government is the Sheriff’s budget. Since 2009 the Sheriff’s budget is up 85 percent to $65 million per year, yet the number of deputies is down 38 percent to 89 deputies.

Three of these deputies are paid for by taxpayers yet appear to work full-time for Sheriff Jerry Clayton’s private business, Cardinal Group II. Sheriff Candidate Derrick Jackson also worked part-time for Cardinal Group and was one of the featured executives on its website until the Internet archive, Wayback Machine reveals.

Another key focus for Washtenaw County Government spending is on Community Mental Health. County payroll records show that in 2017, the year the Public Safety and Community Mental Health Preservation Millage was passed, CMH employed 43 mental health professionals, including five psychiatrists.

Six years and $18 million in millage funding later, CMH still employs 43 mental health professionals and five psychiatrists, yet the salaries of non-clinical administrative staff has soared.

There is a psychiatrist supervisor who now earns $220,000 per year and a psychiatric services administrator who earns $231,958.

Since County Administrator Greg Dill was hired in 2016, his salary has doubled to $300,000 plus perks and generous pension benefits. Since 2016, County Commissioners have hiked their own annual pay by 115 percent.

In addition, Washtenaw County executives and Commissioners engage in luxury travel paid for by taxpayers. Within just one six month period, one senior administrator supervised by the County Administrator traveled to Germany. She charged taxpayers to travel to a wellness resort in the Caribbean. She also took three trips to Mackinac Island and booked three stays at the Grand Hotel on the island costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.

In addition to property tax revenue from county residents, Washtenaw County also was given a $72 million ARPA grant by the Federal Government. However, rather than investing this money in ways to permanently lower the county’s costs, it was blown on grants, some of them highly questionable.

For example, $1.2 million was gifted to a group of felons to counsel youth. The group, Supreme Felons, Inc. was originally headed by a convicted pedophile. The group included two other pedophiles. Other grants were made to non-profits managed by Washtenaw Administrator Greg Dill’s wife and County Commission Chair Justin Hodge’s wife.

Other municipal governments were wiser with these one-time ARPA grants.

For example, a school district in Batesville, Arkansas made headlines a few years ago when it announced that it would raise teacher salaries 30 percent, because of electricity bill savings from its investment in a large solar array. After seeing Batesville’s success, thirty other school districts in Arkansas made heavy investments in solar power.

Not mentioned in the County Administrator’s secret memo to the County Commissioners is the fact that Washtenaw County Government is still prosperous despite the rapidly rising expenditures. According to the most recent audited annual report available to the public (the December 31, 2022 audited financial statement), in 2022 Washtenaw County Government ran a surplus (profit) of $35.8 million in 2022 and ended the year with a $233 million of net position (accumulated surplus), and just $28.9 million in debt.

The best practice in the private sector is to produce and publish audited financial statements 90 to 120 days after the end of the fiscal year. Why the December 31, 2023 audited financial statements have not been published as of July 2024 has not been explained.