$150 MILLION ASSIGNED…TO NOTHING?!
That's not a typo. That's Putnam County government today.
Every county should keep a rainy day fund. That's normal. That's responsible. For Putnam, a healthy reserve is somewhere around $22 to $33 million, maybe $40 million.
Right now, Putnam County is sitting on nearly $150 million that isn't reserved for anything at all.
This isn't campaign talk. The chairman of the legislature confirmed it.
Dan Birmingham (R-Southeast) said it himself, on the record, at a public Audit Committee meeting. He confirmed the county has $71 million "assigned for subsequent years expenditures, which isn't in ANY budget," on top of another $78 million unassigned. In his words, that's "almost $150,000,000 in non-reserved" fund balance.
Read that again. The chairman of the legislature stood up in public and confirmed it.
"Non-reserved." What does that actually mean?
Government accounting isn't built for regular people to follow, so let's make it simple.
Counties have to sort every dollar they hold into one of five buckets, under rules set by an independent standards board called GASB. Three of those buckets are money the county doesn't get to touch freely.
Nonspendable. Money that isn't actually cash on hand, like the value of a prepaid contract.
Restricted. Money locked to one purpose by an outside authority, a state grant or a court order. The county has no say in how it's used.
Committed. Money the legislature has formally voted to set aside for something specific.
Then there are the two buckets that matter here.
Assigned. Earmarked for a purpose, but only informally. No law requires it. No formal vote locks it in.
Unassigned. No label, no purpose, nothing. This is supposed to be the small rainy day cushion.
Restricted and committed money is spoken for. Someone outside the county, or the full legislature by formal vote, decided exactly what it's for.
Assigned and unassigned money isn't. Nobody outside the county controls it. No vote locks it down. That's what "non-reserved" means. It's money the county is choosing to hold onto, not money it's required to hold onto.
The $150 million Birmingham confirmed is assigned and unassigned money. Not restricted. Not committed. Just sitting there, year after year, because the county keeps choosing to let it sit instead of spending it or handing it back to you.
How did your money end up there?
Two ways.
One. The county collects sales tax from all of us, then shares back only a few cents on the dollar to your town and village. The rest goes straight into the hoard.
Two. The county budgets for new hires every year. When those jobs sit unfilled, the salary money doesn't disappear. It lapses straight into the hoard too.
So next time you hear "we can't afford it," remember this.
Too expensive to build a community college and a trade school for our kids.
Too expensive to give our seniors more rides to the grocery store.
Too expensive to pay our sheriff's deputies and county employees competitive wages.
Too expensive to give our young people a reason to build their lives here in Putnam.
We know that isn't true. You already paid for it. The county has the money sitting in the bank right now, sorted into a bucket labeled "assigned" that nobody is required to honor. What it doesn't have is a leader willing to spend it on you.
Putnam is possible. We just need someone willing to build it.
I'm Brett Yarris, and I'm running for Putnam County Executive to put your money to work for you.
— Brett
Watch the full video: [link]Learn more about the Putnam Possible Project: yarrisforputnam.com