Virtually all of the functions and services performed in the County Treasurer's Office are State mandated. Other duties and powers are authorized by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.
The two main roles of the Treasurer's Office are:
The custodian of all County funds
The collector of delinquent taxes
As the custodian of all County funds, the County Treasurer receives money from several sources. The principal source of funds is from property taxes. Other funds are received from interest income, various service, license fees and Federal/State grants.
Many County departments, such as the County Clerk, Parks and Recreation and Drain Commissioner, collect money in the course of their daily business. This money is deposited with the Treasurer's Office, which makes the County Treasurer the County's banker. Besides being responsible for the County's funds, the Treasurer is also responsible for large amounts of money in various trust and agency funds.
The County Treasurer maintains approximately $1 billion in daily cash and investment balances for the County.
The Treasurer seeks to maximize interest earnings through investing in short-term securities. Safety of all County funds is of the utmost concern to the County Treasurer. In order to maximum earnings, the County Treasurer seeks the best combination of interest rates, investments and maturities. The lengths of investment, maturities are determined by cash disbursements requirements.
Through prudent investment practices, the County's short-term portfolio has consistency exceeded the short term Treasury benchmark by five to ten percent.
All disbursements of County money, such as payroll and payments to vendors, are made by the County Treasurer as approved by the County Executive.
As the collector of delinquent taxes, the County Treasurer manages a system of policies and procedures related to property tax collections. All County city, village and township treasurers send out tax bills for current taxes related to both real and personal property. As the local treasurers collect the current taxes, they forward their collections to the County Treasurer's Office, where an accounting is made by the County Treasurer. At the end of the collection period (last day in February) all local treasurers return as delinquent any uncollected current County, school, State and local property taxes. From this point, all delinquent real property tax collections are the responsibility of the County Treasurer.
As part of the delinquent tax settlement process with local units, the County Treasurer purchases all real property tax delinquencies from the County's more than 100 taxing authorities (cities, villages, townships, school districts, community colleges and the State of Michigan) thus making those units fully collected on their real property tax billings. The purchase of the delinquent real property tax is done through the County's Delinquent Tax Revolving Fund. As the County Treasurer collects delinquent real property taxes the Delinquent Fund is reimbursed. Any costs associated with the purchase and later collection of delinquent taxes is offset by interest and penalties related to the delinquent real property tax. Under new legislation, taxes not paid within a specified period are sold at a County Treasurer land sale.
In addition to collecting delinquent real property taxes, the Oakland County Treasurer is one of only three County Treasurers in the State of Michigan that allows local taxing units (Cities, Villages and Townships) to contract with the Treasurer for the collection of delinquent personal property taxes (taxes on furniture, fixtures, and equipment of businesses). The County Treasurer reimburses local units for their delinquent personal property taxes as they are collected.
