The Berrien County Board of Commissioners started work on the next county budget this week, and one thing it’s going to be considering is a possible loss of revenue due to changes in the taxable value of the Cook nuclear power plant.

In 2022, the Cook plant appealed its tax bill to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, seeking a lower rate. That would have hit the coffers of Berrien County, Lake Michigan College, Berrien RESA, Lake Township, and Bridgman Public Schools. A settlement was later reached that resulted in a lesser reduction in revenue for those entities, but Berrien County Board of Commissioners Chair Mac Elliott tells us that’s not going to last forever.

“And at some point, they are going to come back and they’re going to seek to transfer certain of their assets from the real property classification to personal property,” Elliott said. “You know, office furniture, things of that sort.”

Elliott said that could greatly change the amount of taxes the Cook plant has to pay, easily affecting the county by seven figures. He’s telling county department heads to look at personnel funding.

“At some point, we have to look at how can we save some money. And one of the things that seems logical is to look across the board at positions that exist, but they’re not being filled.”

Elliott says 70% of the county’s expenses are for payroll, and if there are unfilled jobs on the books, that’s an obvious place to do some trimming.

Elliott  warned commissioners this week that if a large cut in Cook plant taxes were to happen, the county would need to dip into its reserves, and it can’t do that forever. He told commissioners, “Planning now avoids crisis management later.”

Commissioners will hold a three-hour budget session next Thursday.