Included in the proposed new $223 million budget for the Town of Normal is the hiring of six new positions that Mayor Chris Koos said all relate to services delivered by the town.
"Some new police officers, and police staff. We're hiring an inspections person because we're seeing a lot more activity in the construction market. We're hiring an information management and technology person to bolster the services we're doing there," said Koos, speaking on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
The Town of Normal has had a very good year for sales tax collection. It’s up 15% so far this fiscal year and rose by 22% in the prior year. Staff expects any increases next budget year to be smaller. Yet, Koos said the sound economic conditions this year and last allows the town to strike while the iron is hot in the next budget.
The proposed budget includes a spending increase of $7.9 million from town reserves. The surplus was created by higher-than-expected revenues. Most of that increase will go to infrastructure.
“We're increasing our road investment and our investment in parks. We're increasing our dollars being spent on water main replacement sewer work. We see an opportunity, things are pretty good right now,” said Koos. "We can play catchup on some projects that we stretched out during the COVID years, during the recession years, and accelerate other things. A lot of that has to do with basic day-to-day infrastructure and capital improvements."
The town also plans to increase contributions to fire and police pensions by $3 million. Koos said that will help the town meet its goal of full pension funding by 2040.
“As we fund those pensions to that model, those dollars are earning interest, which helped bolster the pension. It really gets us to a point that if we can get to 100%, the pressure on our property taxes, which we use to fund pensions, could go down significantly,” said Koos.
The state will require municipalities to reach 90% of full funding by that date.
And the town will set aside some money for potential new economic development projects.
Koos said there is nothing specific in the works, but the town would like to have flexibility when the Uptown South development may begin to develop, or if some other opportunity arises.
Koos said the town expects inflation to continue to moderate, though it has increased costs for the municipality.
"The cost of heavy equipment, the cost of chemicals for water treatment, the cost of materials for street repair, things like that, those go up, too. We have to be able to address those increases in costs,” said Koos.
In a recent budget work session, town staff singled out a significant ramp-up in vehicle replacement costs as one example of inflationary pressure.
