2015/10/12 - Walter's Blog: Budget Benchmarks

How do you know how we are doing? Unlike private businesses, city governments do not have accurate measures of success like profit and stock market price. For several years, we have been collecting performance measures and publishing them in a semi-annual Performance Report. While the reports are valuable for comparing data from one year to the next, we have struggled to find performance measures that would show how well we are doing compared with other cities. Then this year the Illinois Municipal League published a series of reports that established statewide averages for municipal revenues and expenses.

In general, O’Fallon is below the statewide average. The Mayor and City Council have efficiently provided high quality services to O’Fallon residents. Here is a breakdown of how the City of O’Fallon compares to the statewide averages.

Revenue

The City of O’Fallon is below the state average in all revenue categories except for sales tax. It has long been policy of the City Council to fund the budget from sales tax and other revenue sources rather than the property tax. The following table shows how O’Fallon compares to the state average:

Not only is O’Fallon’s property tax revenues lower than the state average per capita, but O’Fallon’s ratio compared to the state average also decreased. In 2002, O’Fallon’s property tax revenue as a percentage of the average was 68% and by 2012 was only 53%. This means that over the years, O’Fallon is increasingly funding City operations by revenue sources other than property tax.

Another trend to note is how much state revenue has increased as a revenue source for the City of O’Fallon. While still below the state average, O’Fallon’s state revenue increased from 6% of the IML average in 2002 to 39% of the average in 2012. This is largely due to the increase revenue from the state income tax and Motor Fuel Tax, which are both allocated to cities according to population. As O’Fallon’s population has increased, it makes sense that our revenue in these areas would increase as well.

Expenses

Once again, O’Fallon was below the state average in total expenditures per capita, but specific departments are more varied.

Three areas that stand out in this table are the increases in Capital, Parks, and Debt. As O’Fallon grew between 2002 and 2012, the City embarked on a number of large projects including the Public Safety Facility, Family Sports Park, and Regency Conference Center.

Police expenses tracked close to the state average and Fire remained far below the average due to our volunteers. Parks expenses increased per capita as we expanded our park facilities, including Rock Springs Park, Family Sports Park, and Bluffs at Ogles Creek Park. In addition to the new parks, the O’Fallon Parks & Recreation Department greatly increased its recreation program offerings well as began providing recreational services for the Village of Shiloh through an intergovernmental agreement. Debt increased with the construction of new facilities but still stayed within the state average.

It is important that the City officials are good stewards of taxpayer funds. These reports indicate that Mayor Graham and the City Council have a done a good job managing resources and staying below statewide averages in revenue to provide outstanding services.