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WARREN -- Trumbull County has earned nearly $750,000 more in interest so far this year than during the same period in 2025, Treasurer Agostino Ragozzino told the Trumbull County Commissioners during their quarterly investment advisory committee meeting Tuesday.
Jim McCourt, a certified financial accountant with Meeder Public Funds, told commissioners that the current rise in interest earnings are due, in part, to investment decisions being made for the county and the expectation that interest rates will continue to rise because of the war in Iran and rising inflation rates.
Meeder Public Funds was hired by the county in October to invest available funds so the county could earn money from its multimillion dollar portfolio.
"At the beginning of the year, there was an expectation that the Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rates," McCourt told the commissioners. "We saw a spike in energy prices several months ago, which contributed to a resumption of inflation pressures in the marketplace."
He noted that the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of managing price stability and maximizing employment.
"It is really the inflation that they are concerned about," he said.
He noted that at the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve was projecting two to three rate cuts before the end of 2026, but now it is projecting one or two short-term rate increases before the end of the year.
Interest rates at the end of last year were in the 3.5% range, McCourt noted. Now rates are in the 4.2% and 4.4% range.
"That's advantageous for our portfolio," Ragozzino added.
McCourt said the county has invested in such a way that its investments mature at different times.
"The security portion of these investments are about $148 million," he said.
The securities are held in third party custody at U.S. Bank.
Some bonds are maturing every month and others are invested for five-and-a-half years.
"We are reinvesting in a surprisingly higher rate market," he said. "I would expect between now and next quarter, we will see an even bigger move up."
The majority of the county's investments have been in U.S. Treasury bonds, but the county also has investments with other U.S. government agencies, corporate bonds and others.
During the first six months of this year, the county received nearly $2.2 million in cash from the securities held in U.S. Bank, McCourt said. Over the next six months, the county is projected to receive approximately $2.6 million from the county's security portfolio, which will put it in the approximate $4.8 million range for the year
Going into 2027 and 2028, the county will continue to build up future annual buckets over the next three years, he continued.
Ragozzino said he is looking at the end of the year being very good for Trumbull County.
"In the first quarter, I had $92,965 in interest from STAR Ohio," he said. "When we were collecting, I made sure we moved money around, so we didn't just keep it in our regular checking account."
The county also has money at Farmers Bank, which is where the county has a checking account. Total interest is projected to be nearly $2.8 million in investment income for the year in the Farmers, Star Ohio, Meeder and Huntington Bank accounts.
"If you compare that with 2025, where we were about $2.5 million at the same time, we are a little over $264,000 in extra investment incomes," Ragozzino said. "We should be able to add another $500,000 to that, so we should be able to net three-quarters of a million more investment income than we did last year."
Ragozzinno notes he moves money when he feels it is convenient.
"Last year, I did invest money after collections," he said.