Michelle Balais, CPA
Senior Consultant

Michelle Balais, CPA

Education

Master of Business Administration – University of Phoenix (2002); Bachelor of Business Administration – University of Colorado (1999)

Certifications

Certified Public Accountant

Email

mbalais@raftelis.com

About Michelle

Michelle has been a certified public accountant since 2005 and worked most of her career in public accounting as a financial statement auditor and forensic accounting. In 2014, Michelle joined the Manatee County Utilities Department as a Senior Fiscal Services Manager. Her primary role was the management of the $100M operating expense budget and $300M 5-year capital improvement project plan. A necessary component of managing Utility budgets is maintaining rates to ensure adequate resources are available to meet the needs of the system as well as the issuance of debt to support the capital needs of the utilities system. While with Manatee County, Michelle took the lead role and was responsible for managing the revenue sufficiency/rate study projects for water, wastewater and solid waste. This role also entailed preparing and presenting to the County Commission for the approval of the rate adjustments as well as implementing the new rates. Michelle also served as the primary Utilities manager for the issuance of bonds that were necessary to complete the capital infrastructure projects. The primary goal of the Utilities to balance the needs of the system with the affordability for the customer.