Published: July 07, 2009 08:54 pm      

County begins budget time

DANVILLE — Exciting is not a word most local officials would use to describe budget time for the county. But for Vermilion County Board Chairman Jim McMahon, the description couldn’t be more apt.

It’s because McMahon is entering his third budget year with an interesting quandary — budget stresses that can’t be blamed on the county.

“Our county is pretty solid and pretty consistent on where we’re going — the problems ride with the state of Illinois,” he said. “If it was just county business — the courthouse, the annex, the Public Safety Building, the nursing home, the animal shelter, this would be a piece of cake.”

The Vermilion County Health Department is among the agencies expected to be hit by budget cuts out of Springfield as Gov. Pat Quinn and state legislators work through a budget standoff. The state already owes the health department several hundred thousand dollars in expected grants and Medicare funds.

County budget business began Tuesday night with members of the tax and elections committee hearing the budget proposal for the Danville Election Commission and the Board of Elections.

As in past years, county offices and agencies will make budget proposals to their parent county board committees. The budgets, once finalized, will be combined and presented for approval to the finance committee. It will then move on to the full county board.

McMahon said he is working for a final vote in October from the full board. The county budget must be provided for public display one month prior to the final vote.

With a similar problem in recent years under the Blagojevich administration, the budget standoff in Springfield is nothing new to county officials. McMahon said the problem should not hold up the county’s budget business.

If the stalemate reaches into August, McMahon said the county will call upon officials such as county auditor Linda Lucas Anstey, financial resources director Nikki Bogart, and finance committee chairman John Dreher, to determine solid potential numbers to insert into the budget. Also, the county will examine the fill-in-the-blank figures other counties across the state are using.

“Usually the state taxes are pretty predictable based on trends,” he said.

If no figures are available from Springfield by the October county board meeting, McMahon said the budget can be passed using the estimated figures and then amended when the exact totals are available.

As in previous years, McMahon said he is going into the budget season with the intent on not seeing taxes raised by the county.

“My feeling is this is not the year to raise taxes,” he said. “Our community can’t handle any more taxes.”