In 2024, Kosciusko County earned over $600,000 more in interest than it did in 2023.
At Tuesday’s county commissioners’ meeting, County Treasurer Michelle Puckett said the Board of Finance is required to annually present to the commissioners multiple things, including a review of the county’s investments and interests.
“The amount of interest that we earned in calendar year 2024 was $5,853,804.34. That is an increase of $618,228.56 over 2023,” she reported. “We, as a Board of Finance, did not hold any traditional investments in calendar year 2024. We had the Federal Funds Plus Rate with Lake City Bank, which we earned 40 basis points higher than the average federal interest rate. So, at the year of the end, Dec. 31, the interest we were earning is 5.06%. So that has allowed us to receive that amount of interest.”
Looking at the past three to four years with those interest rates continuing to increase and the county utilizing that plan, Puckett said in 2021 the interest that the county earned countywide was $368,000. In 2022, it jumped to $1.9 million; 2023, $5.2 million; and in 2024 it was $5.8 million.
“So that was great. We really have appreciated and enjoyed that income’s income because of those interest rates, but just know looking into calendar year 2025, everything that is happening right now, we all know that interest rates are high. We all know that a focus, I think, going forward is looking at the inflation in the country and possibly decreasing that. A decrease in inflation comes with a decrease in interest rates, as well,” she continued.
So even though a decrease in inflation will be great for the community, that will affect the interest that the county earns on its county funds.
“That’s something that we’ll look at. If those interest rates drop dramatically, or we can see - because we are anticipating that decreasing - it may be time to start looking at traditional investments once again. But for now, with interest rates as high as they are, the Federal Plus Rate is serving us well,” she stated.
Commissioner Cary Groninger asked if that interest will stay in the county’s general fund.
Puckett said a majority of it does.
“We actually have 11 different funds throughout the county that we separate their interest individually on,” she said. “The KCCRVC (Kosciusko County Convention and Recreation Visitors Commission), as they are, is a separate tax base. They collect the interest on their dollars. We have highway funds, surveyor general drain funds and then some federal mandated funds that we have to put the interest back into their funds - prosecutor and the clerk and the county incentive funds. So we do have those 11 different funds, but the majority of that interest does go back into county general.”
The Board of Finance then reviewed the investment policy, which Puckett said was the same as previous years.
“I’ve made no changes to that at this point, but it does have to be approved on an annual basis,” she said.
Since the county’s investment policy worked out well last year, Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell made the motion to approve it for this year. The motion passed 3-0.
Also, Commissioner Bob Conley was re-elected to serve as the president of the Board of Finance for 2025, with Puckett serving as the secretary.
With the Board of Finance concluded, Puckett presented the cancellation of warrants to the commissioners.
“Each year, the treasurer reviews the warrants that have not been cashed. So if they are outstanding and unpaid for two years, prior to Dec. 31, we can cancel those warrants - void those - and move those dollars back into the funds where those checks were originally written,” she explained.
All the checks in review were written Dec. 31, 2022, and prior. There are 67 total checks totaling $11,973.91.
The commissioners approved the checks’ cancellation.