MANSFIELD — Richland County Treasurer Bart Hamilton said the county is in a “great position” for at least the next two to three years with its investments.
When the Richland County Board of Commissioners approved a $46 million balanced budget for 2025 in December 2024, the three-member board budgeted around $3.8 million in total investments revenue.
With four months remaining in the year, Hamilton is confident the county will reach that number.
“We’re well on track,” Hamilton told commissioners.
Hamilton and Jim McCourt, an advisory services director with Meeder Public Funds, met with commissioners Tuesday for a quarterly Investment Advisory Board meeting.
As of Aug. 31, Hamilton reported a total of $3,671,059.54 has been paid into the general fund. The county’s rate of return on its investments is 3.61 percent, with an average maturity of 2.5 years, according to the treasurer.
Commissioner Tony Vero said the county’s interest earnings from its investments are up about 2.21 percent from this time last year.
Where are county investments?
Richland County’s current investments consist of: United States Treasury notes and bonds, negotiable certificates of deposit, municipal bonds, money market funds, corporate bonds, foreign government bonds, commercial paper, agency bonds and Star Ohio, according to Hamilton.
The county’s public depositories are: Park National Bank, Mechanics Bank, STAR Ohio, U.S. Bank and Civista Bank.
Potential impacts on short-term investments expected
Much of the county’s short-term investments are located in the State Treasury Asset Reserve of Ohio. Meeder is the investment advisor and administrator for STAR Ohio.
McCourt said the Federal Reserve recently cut rates for the first time in 2025 — cutting its target federal funds interest rate by 0.25 percent to a range of 4 to 4.25 percent, according to US Bank.
He said this first cut was no surprise to the market and expects two more cuts to be likely this year.
For the county, these cuts impact is short-term investments like STAR Ohio.
“If the Fed(eral Reserve) does continue to cut rates, which is still an if, but if they do, STAR Ohio and other short-term rates like that will go down pretty much in lockstep with where the Fed does go,” McCourt said.
However, McCourt told commissioners that the county does have several ” very nice” yields locked into its portfolio from the past few years — providing financial insulation and protection.
“The market goes down a lot quicker than it goes up. Let’s just always keep that one in mind,” Hamilton said.
The county began preparing for cuts from the Fed back in 2023.
In order to lock in high interest rates, the county needed to shift more of its funds to longer-term securities, most likely three- to five-year investments. By doing so, McCourt said in December 2023 that the county can continue to expect high interest revenues even if the Fed cuts rates and yields from STAR Ohio decrease.
“Within the last couple of days, Bart (Hamilton) moved $12 million from that STAR Ohio balance into the portfolio to be invested in securities for longer-term investments,” McCourt said in 2023.
Interest earnings marked second highest revenue in 2024
Being in a solid position with investments revenue affords the county several benefits.
“When your income is a few million dollars higher, that covers a lot of salaries and things like that which the county has to pay on an on-going basis. That frees up other money to do other things with,” McCourt said.
Vero added that treasurer earnings on the revenue side of things accounted for almost 10 percent of the county’s revenue.
“Clearly sales tax is the driver, around 52, 53, 54 percent,” he said. “But interest earnings was our second highest revenue last year, which was important because we’re no different than private employers.
“Governments are competing and we’re trying to retain. Our salary expenses have gone up substantially in the past three years.”