Finance & Administration Committee

           

 

Minutes of a regular meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee of the City of O’Fallon, held at the Public Safety Building, 285 N. Seven Hills Road, O’Fallon, Illinois on March 28, 2016.

 

CALL TO ORDER: 5:00 pm

 

ROLL CALL: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Bennett, Chairman, Albrecht, Drolet McCoskey, Smallheer, Roach, Kueker

NON-COMMITTEE ALDERMEN: Holden, Meile, Hagarty, Mouser

STAFF: Evans, Funk, Randall, Litteken, Brueggeman, Shekell

GUESTS/RESIDENTS: Malare, Zelms, Smith

      

Approval Minutes: - February 22, 2016 Motion Albrecht, Second Smallheer

 All Ayes. Motion carried.

     

 

Item A: Motion to approve Resolution to Declare a Surplus of Funds in the Special Tax Allocation Fund for the City’s Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Project Area- TIF District #3- Central Park:  Director of Finance explained that this resolution is required by the Illinois Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act.  The pass-through amount of $118,379.63 is sent to the County Collector who distributes this amount to the respective taxing districts in the same manner and proportion as the most recent distribution by the county collector to the affected districts of real property taxes from real property in the redevelopment project area. (Copy of which was included in the packet) Director also stated that the City already sent the developers portion directly to them on the last warrant. All Ayes.  Motion carried.

 

 

Item A: Tax Levy- Final Rate Setting EAV: Director of Finance presented the final tax computation report from the county for the 2015 tax levy.   Staff projected the final EAV to be $643,195,456 with $18M in VA exemptions based on the new legislation that passed giving 100% exemption to veterans with 70% or more disability.  Per the county, the final rate setting EAV for the 2015 tax year is $640,935,365, $2.2 million less than what staff had projected.  Director of Finance said that the VA exemption actually amounted to $22.8M, not the $18M originally estimated, which in turn lowered the EAV.   Therefore, staff’s combined (city and library) projected rate of 1.0224 will actually increase to 1.0265.  This rate represents a 3% increase over last year’s rate, resulting in a $150K homeowner paying approximately $14 more this year.  Director of Finance mentioned that had there not been a legislative change, the EAV would have increased from last year and the tax rate would have been lower, thus lowering the property tax for the City portion. 

 

Item B: FY 2017 Budget Summary/Questions – Director of Finance commented that the current proposed budget of $67,712,710 would be presented for 1^st reading on Monday, April 4, with a public hearing and second reading on April 18^th.   Director included in the packet a list of questions that were asked by the Aldermen during the budget process, and asked if any of them needed further discussion.  Alderman Hagarty asked that the video gaming revenue be split between police and streets.  He said he would like to see the money used for the lighted stop signs and crosswalks. Director of Finance explained that gaming revenue was already in the General Fund, and that the Police and Streets budgets were already in the General fund.  Since Alderman Hagarty is not on the finance committee, Alderman Roach made the motion to bring to Council that the budget be adjusted to reflect 25% of the gaming revenue be reallocated to police and 75% reallocated to streets and reduce the transfer to Strategic Plan Fund by the $50,000 (amount budgeted for gaming revenue).   Alderman McCoskey commented that he felt by requesting this reallocation, the Alderman were micro-managing the staff and for that reason he would vote, no.    Ayes- Roach, Kueker, Smallheer Drolet, No’s- McCoskey, Bennett, Albrecht.   Motion moved to bring to full council. 

 

Chairman Bennett asked if there were any other questions and Alderman Roach asked for details regarding the fee in lieu of taxes that are transferred from the water/sewer accounts to administration.  Director of Finance explained that this amount was based on those administrative salaries that were budgeted under the enterprise funds.  When the Aldermen requested several years ago that all administrative salaries should be reflected under administration in the general fund, a fee in lieu of taxes was created so that the enterprise fund still paid for a portion of administrative salaries.   The amount budgeted each year is based on the initial amount plus the annual wage increase percentage.  Alderman Roach asked to see the details of the calculations.  Director of Finance will provide at a later time, as it was not readily available.

 

Motion to Adjourn: Smallheer, Second Albrecht  All Ayes. Motion carried.                                                       

Next Meeting:   April 25, 2016  5:30pm