A new way that Grand Traverse County, Mich., began doing its books this year put pension and retirement costs on the balance sheet, which brought the county's nearly $59 million of pension and retiree health care debt to light and is now a huge budget problem, UpNorthLive.com reported yesterday. County Administrator Tom Menzel said that he believes the problem can be resolved and hopes to start talking about the debt issue with commissioners in April, and then start doing internal audits of departments in May. While Menzel said that there is still time to solve the problem, if things get worse and the county is unable to fund its mandated services, the state will bring in an emergency manager. He added that the county has only funded 48 percent of the pension liability and has funded zero percent of retiree health care obligations.
