McLean County Board chair Elizabeth Johnston said the priorities in next year’s $144.5 million budget approved this week remain similar to the current year spending plan.
“This budget really looks at maintaining the quality of services for McLean County, but what we're also looking at doing is the investments in our buildings, that deferred maintenance. We are looking at HVAC upgrades across the buildings. We've got lighting upgrades moving to LED ballasts in many of our facilities to increase energy efficiencies," Johnston said on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
The design approval for the contract for the Fairview building also passed. It includes tuckpointing, soffits, roof, and shoring up the outside of the building as the county begins to plan what the internal restructuring will look like.
“We've seen an increase in need for space for staffing. There could be some departments that move out there," said Johnston. “We will open up some meeting room space with the City of Bloomington and the county in the government center. Oftentimes, we are competing for the meeting room spaces. We're hoping to open up some of that for continued group work.”
The budget is nearly 5% more than the current year plan, but smaller than the 2024 budget. It grew by about $7 million.
Some of that spending is through shared sales tax money from the Town of Normal and City of Bloomington that will go toward new information management systems.
Fiscal hawks over the years have looked closely at the property tax rate. That’s down slightly, even though the taxes raised on that are up because housing values continue to appreciate, and new property continues to come online in the county. The raw tax levy is $49 million, up $750,000.
“Which equates to about a 1.5% dollar value increase. When you look at 12-month lagging inflation rate, It's about 3%. We're very proud of being able to keep our budget within, and half of inflation while we are still maintaining services,” said Johnston.
She noted the owner of a $210,000 home last year would have paid $618.60 for the McLean County portion of their tax bill. The average increase in property value throughout the county was 7.5% she said. The county tax rate went down slightly, minimizing the absolute increase in the county portion of the bill.
“It comes out to about $11.68 difference,” said Johnston, adding that, typically, the McLean County portion of the total tax pie is 10%-11% of the full bill for homeowners.
Shared sales tax dispute
The county sent its response letter to the town and city late last month after those municipalities asserted the county is in violation of an intergovernmental agreement on how shared sales tax revenue is used for mental health, behavioral health in the jail, jail construction and renovation debt, and information technology for public safety entities.
The county also made an offer for a potential way through the dispute, but Johnston said there have been no talks since on that topic.
“I think that they are taking time to weigh the offer,” said Johnston. “We've continued to have talks about governance for different pieces. We have had our follow-up meeting on the audit.”
Behavioral health spending
Johnston said she is enthusiastic about the prospect for new behavioral health initiatives in the coming year using the sales tax revenue. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council has specific programs already built that will continue, she said.
The Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, however, will focus on developing needs in the community that need a response. There will be requests for proposals put out to address needs using a different framework.
“The new mental health action plan is from a structure of SMART goals. That's something that I advocated for throughout the last rewrite," said Johnston. "A SMART goal is one that is going to be specific and measurable. We also wanted to be responsive and timely. The new mental health action plan really supplies the R and the T of the SMART goal. Is it relatable to what our focus in the community needs to be and is it going to be a timely intervention?”
She said they want agencies to provide specifics, measurability and attainability.
This year’s spending from the sales tax money on behavioral health will actually fall slightly, she said, noting that is expected because the current year allocation includes money for non-congregate shelters for the unhoused, The Bridge project, with Home Sweet Home Ministries in downtown Bloomington.
