Growing the cash stash — Investment styles vary between government entities in Weston County
Government entities across Wyoming and the nation have varied approaches in investing funds and local governments in Weston County differ considerably in how they handle their extra cash.. As the NLJ has already reported, Weston County boasts nearly $12.5 million in investment accounts, and according to information provided by their respective city clerks, Newcastle has over $3.7 million in investments and Upton has $300,000 in three different CD’s.
Interestingly enough, while local municipalities and Weston County invest heavily and hold various amounts in reserves, Weston County School District No. 1 has no investment accounts or reserves, according to business manager Angela Holliday.
Newcastle
Following the News Letter Journal’s request for investment information, City Clerk-Treasurer Stacy Haggerty, presented the information to the council prior to the June 2 meeting. At this time, she told the council that the investment information “had not been talked about since I worked here.”
The city of Newcastle has $3,762,148.91 in investment accounts earmarked for various line items, according Haggerty.
In a May 29 email, Haggerty broke down city investments, as follows:
First Northern Bank money market account $924,638.35, designated to the General Fund and Garbage Fund
First Northern Bank Bonds $92,111.03 designated to Water Fund
First Northern Bank CDs $227,625.23 designated to the Fire Department for its new truck fund
First Northern Bank CD $555,081.51 designated to Sewer Fund
Pinnacle Bank Savings (ICS account) $991,313.65 designated to the General Fund
Pinnacle Bank CDs $433,092.22 designated to the General Fund
Haggerty told the News Letter Journal on June 3 that the CD’s have various dates and timeframes in which they mature.
She said that each of the Pinnacle Bank CD’s mature at different times — one is 12 months and matures in November and the other is a 30 month maturing in August 2027.
“The Fire Dept. has 5 CD’s which are all 12 month CD’s – two mature in July 2025, two mature in March 2026, and one will mature in April 2026,” Haggerty said in the email. “The First Northern Bank CD for the Sewer Fund is a 18 month CD and will mature August of 2026.”
As for when and how these funds are spent, she said that is up to the council and what the funds are earmarked for.
As for interest rates, Haggerty said that the money market account is at 4.07%, the Pinnacle Bank CD’s are at 3.05% and 3.45%, the First Northern Bank firetruck CD’s have three at 3.5% and two at 4.25% and that the First Northern Bank sewer fund CD is at 3.25%.
“In general our investment fund can be used as the Council chooses within the approved budget,” Haggerty said. “Some of the funds within the Water Fund are to be used for debt services and some of the funds within the Sewer Fund are to be used for the lagoon.”
According to Haggerty, these funds are both investments and reserves but “some would be considered restricted,” such as the sewer lagoon funds and the debt services in the water fund.”
At the June 2 meeting, Councilman Tom Voss proclaimed that the funds held in investments are “spoken for” and therefore not money that is floating around for use.
Mayor Tyrel Owens also inquired about the council’s interest in learning more about city investments and investment strategies. He said he would work on scheduling some training.
Upton
In Upton, Town Clerk Kelley Millar told the News Letter Journal that the town has three different PEAKS investments of $100,000 each.
According to her email dated June 9, the first $100,000 is a CD with Capital One Bank USA with a 3.1% interest rate and maturity date of June 15, 2025
The second, she said, is with Capital One NA McLean with an interest rate of 4.9% and a maturity date of Nov. 11, 2025.
The third, Millar said, is with Toyota Financial Savings Bank with an interest rate of 4.05% and a maturity date of April 5, 2025.
“These are General Funds we consider reserves that are not earmarked specifically. We prefer to keep our CDs laddered in maturity over a three to four year period, but we took advantage of some great interest rates with some shorter terms in the last few years,” Millar said in her email. “The corpus of $100,000 each stays intact, unless we need it for something in particular, and the interest is deposited to a Cash account with PEAKS. The Cash account is transferred to our General Fund account with Wyoming Class periodically. We do cure the book value to market value in June each year so it’s reflected on our balance sheet as per accounting standards. Our investment policy looks for safety, then liquidity and then yield for our funds.”
As of May 31, Upton’s accounts with Wyoming Class had various amounts of monies including $166,326.99 in the general fund account with no specific earmark; $59,852 in PD Reserve earmarked for vehicle reserve; $59,154.90 in FD reserve earmarked for equipment reserve; $16,456.30 in streets reserve earmarked for matching funds for projects and repairs; $44,33.91 in parks and rec reserve earmarked for matching funds for projects and repairs; $313.15 in the airport fund earmarked for matching funds for projects and repairs; $475,984.57 in the capital improvement fund earmarked for matching funds for capital improvements (all funds); $1,626.02 in the rodeo arena fund earmarked for improvements; $46,727.93 in FD savings reserve earmarked for equipment, unexpected repairs or financial needs; $6,995.28 in the PD programs fund earmarked for the youth program facilitated by Upton PD; $1.83 in the CCL 19001 debt reserve earmarked for debt service — general (from a street project); $161,025.11 in the water fund for repairs and maintenance; $19,132.19 in the JPA 17589 deb reserve earmarked for debt service — water; $24,712.16 in the DWSRF 256 debt reserve earmarked for debt service — water; $6,117.51 in the DWSRF 257 reserve earmarked for debt services — water; $3,427.63 in the emergency water repairs fund earmarked for emergency repairs; $16,923.18 in the water well replacement and maintenance fund earmarked for well and tank replacement, repairs and maintenance; $25,731.80 in the sewer fund earmarked for repairs and maintenance; $28,347.80 in the CWSRF 203 debt reserve earmarked for debt services — sewer; $4,018.54 in the CWSRF 204 debt reserve earmarked for debt services — sewer; $178,195.84 in the landfil fund earmarked for repairs and maintenance; and $112,333.79 in the landfill closure reserve earmarked for matching funds for closure for a total of $1,467,738.60.
“Wyoming Class funds are liquid and earn interest at about 4.25% (today’s 30 day yield). We just made some substantial debt payoffs in our water and sewer funds, so those account balances reflect that at the moment,” Millar said. “Debt reserves are part of our rate structure in our enterprise funds. Debt in our General Fund is paid for through property tax collections at this time.”
As for reserves, Millar estimated that as of May 31 Upton’s general fund reserve has a balance of $502,709.98, water fund reserve is sitting at $417,458.10, the sewer fund reserves account has $254,301.86 and the sanitation/landfill fund reserve has $390,794.48.
Guiding Investments
According to Ashley Harpstreith, the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, there are several different sets of investment guidelines depending on the type of investments being made by municipal governments. She provided information regarding municipal-finance direction, rules for direct investment in equities established by the Wyoming Legislature in 2025, current SLIB policies and the current statute on the investment of public funds.
“For both depreciation funds and other reserves municipalities have options for where to keep the money. It is important for the money to be very safe but it is also important to secure a reasonable rate of return. Municipalities cannot invest in the stock of corporations, but there are several options that are allowed,” the municipal-finance book states. “Municipalities are required to adopt a “Statement of Investment Policy.” The investment policy should be clear about the types of investments permitted, maturity limits, liquidity requirements, internal controls, reporting requirements and portfolio diversity requirements. It should also be very clear on who has the authority to make purchases.”
Harpstreith did note that the association is in the process of updating the municipal-finance book.
When it comes to reserves, she said that WAM does not “offer specific guidance on how much each community should hold in reserves, or how much of that reserve should be invested.”
“During our Bootcamp for Newly Elected Officials and in other resources, we do offer the following strategies for communities to best establish a reserve level and investment policy that best fits their specific needs,” Harpstreith said.
Approaches to establishing proper reserves include — a fixed number of months of operating expenses; a percentage of annual operating expenditures; a percentage of annual operating revenues; a fixed amount, such as $2 million; and a per capita amount, such as $150 per capita.
To establish reserves, she said municipalities should consider cash flow needs, revenue volatility, vulnerability to lawsuits, insurance coverage, natural disaster preparedness, other natural events — snowstorms, floods, and grant revenue source dependency.
When looking at reserves, Harpstreith said it is important to “consider and take into account that many times the “reserve” amount in a community may have a story.” She added that Wyoming communities are “forced to save funds for years ahead of time and to complete expensive repair or replacement projects.”
“Savings effort(s) might come across on a balance sheet without context as excessive reserves, but it’s actually good and prudent fiscal governance,” Harpstreith said. “Investing of these types of funds that are being built over time can be an effective way to lessen the burden on local tax and fee payers by generating additional revenue from interest and investment returns.”
“With Wyoming’s exaggerated economic boom and bust cycles, and more acute recent experience like the sudden revenue downturn at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, our communities understand the vital necessity of reserves and the safety net they provide to keep our communities whole in times of uncertainty and responsibly saving for the future,” she said.
County Investing
As previously reported, Weston County has $12,418,724.63 in several different investment accounts and banks across the county.
These investments include: $3,290,994.78 in a time deposit-open account, $7,994,157.72 in money markets, $219,808.59 in Wyoming Class Investments and $5,344.47 in the General Fund warrant account at First Northern Bank (formerly First State Bank).
At First Tier Bank in Upton, Weston County has $579,284.31 in a certificate of deposit account. At Pinnacle Bank, the county has $219,489.20 in savings and $109,645.56 in a certificate of deposit account.
According to Jerimiah Rieman, executive director of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, the association does not maintain guidance for counties regarding investments/savings.
“That’s an incredibly complex topic which generally requires different strategies depending on the purpose of the investment/savings. To illustrate, maintaining park infrastructure might require one investment approach, while hospital operations might require another (probably more complex) strategy,” he said. “One final note here, while the WCCA doesn’t maintain guidance, every county with investments is required to establish an investment policy (see W.S. 9-4-831(h)).”
As for the amount that Wyoming counties across the state have in investments, Rieman said that the association does not have information concerning the amounts each county has.