County Hospital Principal Investment Foundation

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

Porter County Council and Porter County Commissioners have made history in the formation of a Foundation that the County could control. Using the 150 million from the sale of the Porter Memorial Hospital with 10 Million dollars put aside for emergencies and only using interest money. Porter County is the only county in the State of Indiana to have forged this new ground using Legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly this year House Bill 1281. This allows counties with Fifty Million dollars or more for the sale of an asset to be invested in a Non-Profit Charitable Foundation. This Foundation was created to get the maximum interest on the funds received from the sale of the Hospital. At present time interest rates were running around 1% or less. With the formation of the Foundation this will enable them to invest this to get 5% with a possibility of 7 or 8%. With the effect of the State imposed tax caps the County Council has already been using interest generated by the sale fund to offset budget expenses that were formerly paid out of the General Fund. The Council voted 7 to 0 to pass this, establishing an Ordinance while the Commissioners adopted a similar Ordinance voting 3 to 0. Capital Cities LLC of Indianapolis was selected to work with the newly formed Foundation as required to be Investment Advisor according to House Bill 1281 that went into law on July 1st, 2015. Members of the Council and the Commissioners shall serve as trustees of the foundation as the Ordinance states along with three non-voting advisors; 1st Source Bank of Valparaiso, Peoples Bank of Munster and Horizon Bank of Michigan City including 10 non-voting Advisory Board members. With the Foundation in place and advisor, the 10 (7 and 3) board members to oversee the funds only the interest on the principal can be utilized and then only with a unanimous vote from both the County Council Members and the County Commissioner Members. The Council and the Commissioners deserve credit for the thought and preparation that has been put into investing the Hospital Funds to achieve the highest return possible to keep Porter County prosperous as this money is for everyone in Porter County.