Vermilion County Board members were told last night (Tuesday, August 8, 2023) that eight months into the fiscal year the county continues to be in very good financial shape. Bill Pickett has more….
Audio PlayerSteve Miller, chairman of the Board’s Finance and Personnel Committee, says revenues received from real estate taxes so far represent 60-percent of what the county is expecting to receive this fiscal year. He also described revenues from Illinois State Income Taxes as ‘’fairly robust and encouraging,’’ and said the Corporate Replacement Tax revenues have been ‘’very good to the County’’. County investments are up from $24-million dollars a year ago to $57-million dollars according to an audit report presented during the meeting. Board members were told that year-to-year change was triggered primarily by the receipt of the second payment of federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds distributed to help in the recovery from the pandemic.
Finance Committee Chairman Miller noted that one cloud on the horizon is the substantial change that will come with the approval of the Safe-T-Act. Currently 10-percent of bond money that is posted stays with the county. But Miller says he is not sure how that’s going to settle out when the Safe-T-Act goes into effect on September 18th. It makes Illinois the first state in the nation to abolish cash bail as the standard of pretrial detention.
Also during their meeting County Board members approved a resolution to help Middle Fork Township replace a truss bridge located just south of Armstrong. And they approved resolutions changing two polling places. One is in Carroll Township where voting will now occur at the Carroll Township fire station. The other is in Catlin where voting will occur at the United Methodist Church. Both changes were made because the new locations are accessible for people with disabilities.
