The Leighton Township Board
is projecting a relatively healthy fiscal year ahead with a budget of nearly $2 million.
The board anticipates revenue of $1,979,750 and expenditures at $1,916,460, thereby increasing the all-important fund balance, or rainy-day fund from $1.016,402 as of March 31 of this year to $1,079,692 on March 31, 2016. The fiscal year runs annually from April 1 to March 31.
The greatest expenses for the township will be $721,50 in public safety, which includes police and fire protection, and public works, pegged at $530,000, which includes roads.
Planning and zoning will cost $202,200 and administration, which includes elected and appointed public officials, is pegged at $137,581. All other categories come in at less than $100,000.
Though ranked fourth in expenditures, administration will see a somewhat higher than anticipated cost for salaries. This is because the board Thursday night approved 1% cost of living increases for all employees other than board members and officials and fire officials. It’s also because the board approved a more than 20% salary increase for Laura Stob, the assessor.
Stob appeared before the board Thursday in the pre-meeting workshop top plead her case. She told board members she is responsible now for 2,765 parcels and that number continues to grow because Leighton has the highest residential growth among the 24 townships in Allegan County. The population was just under 5,000 in the 2010 census, but there are indications of even more growth in the last five years.
Trustee John Hooker was much in favor of giving Stob a significant pay hike, saying, “After Laura came, Board of Review complaints went down to about nil.”
Clerk Mary Lou Nieuwenhuis also said she doesn’t have a problem with a nice raise, but she’d like to see Stob be accessibe to the public in a consistent manner, on Tuesdays and Friday mornings every week.
“The public has to have a time when they can expect her to be here,” she explained.
Stob, who also is assessor for Caledonia Township, was making $24,686 a year, but the board agreed to bump that salary up to $30,000, for just a little more than a 25% raise.
Stob, who was hired for the position 10 years ago at a salary of $22,000, brought with her figures for what assessors in other communities were making and noted she’s on the low end of the pay scale.
“We’ve gotten a bargain with her over the last 10 years,” Hooker commented.
The salaries of Supervisor Steve Deer, who makes around $17,000 annually, and Clerk Niewenhuis and Treasurer Char Troost, who around $30,000, were approved earlier.
