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Clinton Township's emergency police calls last week began being dispatched from the Macomb County Sheriff's Office, a move township officials hope will save about $400,000.
The move to contract the county for dispatch services was one of the measures the township board implemented in late 2012 to save the police department money since it is spending more money than it has available for operations.
'Some of our dispatchers went to the county, some retired, one went to work in our ordinance enforcement department and two stayed on with the police department in other capacities,' township Supervisor Bob Cannon said.
Under the new dispatch arrangement, Clinton Township will pay the county about $1.2 million a year for three years to provide dispatching services for the police and, eventually, the fire department. The township was paying $2 million for dispatching, including salaries and overhead costs for 13 full-time and two part-time dispatchers in the police department, and four full-time positions in the fire department.
The projected savings are reflected in the $14.7 million general fund budget recently adopted by the township board.
Due to falling property values, the township's tax revenues have declined in recent years, forcing officials to take steps to consolidate operations to make ends meet. Since 2008-09, tax revenue drops have resulted in the losses of $10 million for police and $7.5 million to the fire department.
Like the police, the fire department is spending more than it has available and will begin using the county for dispatching later this year.
For this year's budget, the police department had to take $900,000 out of its reserve account to balance the budget, while the fire department used $1.3 million from its reserves, said Assistant Finance Director Mary Hein.
In the fire department, the township was unsuccessful in gaining another SAFER grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would have paid for salaries of 12 firefighters for three years. The township previously received a grant that prevented the layoffs of the fire officers. The grant expires this year.
Cannon said he doesn't plan on laying off any firefighters as the township looks to explore new revenue sources in the form of a possible tax increase later this year. He is in the process of forming a study committee to review the public safety finance options. Once assembled, the committee is expected to make a recommendation on whether to ask taxpayers for additional help in funding the departments.
Five fire officers recently retired from the department and will not be replaced this year. Among those was Deputy Chief Ron Glashauser, who stepped down after 25.5 years of service. His duties will be split between Fire Chief Jack Shea and Deputy Chief of Administration Michael Phy.
'We will be able to fulfill our manpower requirements, but it might cost us a little more in overtime,' Phy said. 'Our current SAFER grant runs out this year, so everything is kind of up in the air as to where we go from there.'
Finance projections of the town's taxable values show the first signs of property tax recovery may happen in the 2014-15 fiscal year. However, due to limitations mandated in Proposal A, which limits taxable value increases to the rate of inflation, it will take between 15 and 20 years for property values to return to 2008 levels.
Over the past decade, the township has reduced full-time staff by 110 positions, or 25 percent of the workforce and combined several departments.
'We're hoping things have bottomed out from that perspective,' Cannon said.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has published an economic report warning that the aging of the baby boom generation will likely create a slowdown in the stock market as boomers retire and shift from buying stocks to selling them.
In an economic letter dated Aug. 22, "Boomer Retirement: Headwinds for U.S. Equity Markets?" San Francisco Fed researchers Zheng Liu and Mark Spiegel write that a strong relationship exists between the age distribution of the U.S. population and stock market performance. Both historical data and statistical models suggest boomers' shift to selling their stock holdings could be a factor holding down equity valuations over the next two decades, the researchers warn.
"The baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 has had a large impact on the U.S. economy and will continue to do so as baby boomers gradually phase from work into retirement over the next two decades," Liu and Spiegel write. "To finance retirement, they are likely to sell off acquired assets, especially risky equities. A looming concern is that this massive sell-off might depress equity values."
The researchers argue that the sustained asset market booms in the 1980s and 1990s can be attributed to the fact that baby boomers were entering middle age, the prime period for accumulating financial assets. Now, they say, boomers are entering the de-accumulation period.
But, they acknowledge, some older investors will remain in the stock market.
"Retired individuals may continue to hold equities to leave to their heirs and as a source of wealth to finance consumption in case they live longer than expected," Liu and Spiegel write.
In addition, they say, foreign demand for U.S. equities might reduce the downward pressure on asset prices, though the foreign effect is probably limited. First, they point to research showing that other developed nations have populations that are aging even more rapidly than the U.S. population.
Second, there is substantial evidence of "home bias" in equity holdings, the Fed researchers write. "Individual investors typically hold disproportionate shares of domestic assets in their portfolios. For example, in 2009, the foreign equity holdings of U.S. investors were only 27.2% of the share of foreign equities in global market capitalization."
To be sure, many boomers since the financial crisis and the recession hit have reported that they can't retire. And reports vary over whether boomers are prepared to retire.
For example, a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Rand Corp. finds that seven in 10 Americans between the ages of 66 and 69 are "adequately prepared" for the consumption levels required for a successful retirement.
However, another new study from Bankers Life and Casualty Co, Center reports that one-third of boomers with between $25,000 and $75,000 have not seen any rebound in their retirement accounts, and that their retirement dreams are fading.