CARMEL – Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne has signed a measure shifting control of the county’s fund balance from the Executive Branch’s finance commissioner to the county legislature, but the chairman “gently pushed back” on Byrne’s assertions of inaccuracy.
The nine-member governing body became concerned at how large the fund balance had grown in the past few years, to a combined $191 million, according to the county’s audited 2024 financial report.
In his message to the legislature, Byrne noted, “The Legislature is well within its right to restore its authority to assign fund balance. However, it should not present inaccurate or incomplete financial information to create misleading narratives that the county’s own audited financial statements do not support. We can have respectful disagreements and discussions over who should have the authority to assign fund balance, but it should not mislead the public about what the numbers actually are and mean.”
Byrne added that only $78.3 million of the fund balance was unassigned and available to spend; the rest was restricted.
On Tuesday, Legislature Chair Dan Birmingham responded to Byrne by thanking him for signing the bill. “I believe I can speak for all of my colleagues in stating that we are pleased that you have approved this resolution and that, going forward, the assignment of fund balance has returned to its original purview of legislative supervision and approval.”
But Birmingham criticized his Republican colleague. “I would like to gently push back against your assertion that statements in the resolution were somehow misleading, incomplete or inaccurate or worse yet have been made in bad faith. Your chief complaint seems to center around the undeniable fact that there exists over $163 million of unrestricted fund balance. Your memo claims that such fact is untrue and that Resolution #238 is ‘selectively presenting numbers and representations made therein are ‘incredibly misleading’. Your memo provides a winding conversation and a collection of random thoughts that are so disconnected they unintentionally disprove your own argument. I’m saddened to acknowledge that your memo reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the terms ‘restricted’ and ‘unrestricted’ as they relate to official definitions of fund balance. The County’s $163 million of fund balance is irrefutably unrestricted.”
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