An audit of the executed and planned expenditures of a shared tax fund under scrutiny gives a long-term perspective on how that money will be spent over the next decade.
The Mental Health and Public Safety Fund [MHPSF] was established in 2016 through a 20-year intergovernmental agreement with the Town of Normal, the City of Bloomington and McLean County. Under the agreement, Bloomington and Normal share a portion of their sales tax with the county for the fund.
Generally, the money is spent in four areas: paying off building construction debts for the McLean County Law and Justice Center; spending for criminal justice; spending for behavioral health services; and an integrated justice information system.
The fund came under scrutiny in 2024 when town and city elected officials learned of the fund's $20 million balance. Calls for an audit were launched as a result, and Normal and Bloomington temporarily paused sharing the tax revenue from April 2026 through June 2026.
Three months of Bloomington withholding that sales tax revenue totaled about $800,000. Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said that money will stay there until the city council votes on what to do with it.
A summary report of the audit from CliftonLarsenAllen LLP states "no transactions" were discovered that had "a lack of authoritative guidance or response."
"We identified no significant unusual interactions," the report states later. The report was presented Monday at a meeting of the county board's executive committee.
The audit looked into the fund's spending from its inception through Dec. 31, 2024, and the schedule of planned expenditures, also through Dec. 31, 2024. It only looked into the money as it related to the intergovernmental agreement.
The audit did not look into how the fund ended up with a $20 million balance.
McLean County Board member Lea Cline said that was never intended to be the audit's purpose.
"That is not the scope of the work," said Cline. "There's a lot circulated about what this audit was going to do, primarily by people who don't seem to understand what audits are and how they work."
"That was not your job to find out how the money got accumulated, but rather to investigate the veracity and health of the procedures within the fund," she clarified with the auditor.
Not a surplus
Brian Mateas of CliftonLarsenAllen LLP said the audit was not a comprehensive review of the fund's balances and activities, but rather focused specifically on the intergovernmental agreement and how the funds are used.
According to Mateas, the $20 million fund balance is not a surplus, but rather money that is earmarked for use down the line.
A schedule of financial obligations for the fund through 2036, when the intergovernmental agreement expires, indicates the county will pay out $66 million for McLean County jail debt service, criminal justice services, behavioral health initiatives and to fund integrated case management systems.
Accounting for those future, contractually obligated expenses, the fund is technically in a deficit. However, that doesn't mean the county is in the red. Much of the "deficit" will be covered as shared sales tax comes in.
According to council documents, $1.1 million is budgeted from the fund toward jail construction debts until 2034. McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston said refinancing the bonds prevented the county from having to make payments in 2035 and 2036. Other contractual obligations are budgeted out, such as salaries and expenses for jail employees and costs related to the electronic jail information system.
Many line items related to mental and behavioral health are not budgeted out all the way through 2036, partly because the county contracts community initiatives on a yearly basis with the city. Johnston said the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund Advisory Council [FAC] would draft up a budget to be included with the county budget that could include some of those expenses. However, she noted the fund is operating on a planned future deficit.
"As much as we would like to continue doing those projects, that would mean even more substantial obligations to the community moving forward for the reminder of this contract," she said.
Another table provided in the audit shows expenditures and transfers out from 2017 through 2024.
Each year, $1.1 million came out of the fund for McLean County debt payments. Over those eight fiscal years, $3.38 million was transferred out for criminal justice services, and $761,000 was transferred out for behavioral health initiatives. Spending on integrated case management systems did not begin until 2020, resulting in just more than $500,000 transferred out between then and 2024.
From 2019 to 2024, just over $6 million was spent directly from the MHPSF on behavioral health initiatives. From 2021 through 2024, around $128,000 was spent for integrated case management systems. Expenditures differ from transfers out in that expenditures are direct payments from the fund. Transfer out are sent to other agencies.
All together, $19.6 million was paid out of the MHPSF from 2017 through 2024.
Emergent needs
Prior to the audit presentation, Behavioral Health Coordination Council Director Kelly Amigioni shared a list of emergent need fund requests that have been approved as grants from the fund for the first and second quarters of fiscal year 2027.
Amigioni said the grant requests are reviewed by an independent pool of community members. Before they review the grant applications, the members must fill out forms indicating any conflicts of interest. Those members review the applications and assign them a score. Amigioni said staff tally up the results and disperse the funds according to the scores.
Some of the money allocated for emergent needs include over $170,000 to the Center for Human Services to continue construction of Sue's Landing, a permanent supportive housing facility for people with severe mental illness. As another example, Home Sweet Home Ministries was awarded more than $269,000 to support The Bridge, the non-congregate shelter village in Bloomington.
Grant awards from the MPHSF are posted on the county's website, with updates on how much of the money has been spent so far and the intended purposes.
Applications for Q4 will open on Aug. 31. The application window for Q3 emergent need funding opportunities closed on July 31.
