ABOVE: Danville City Council Public Works Committee meeting.
With the usual December Danville City Council votes on the new tax levy and budget a week away, an adjustment was announced during Tuesday (Dec 9th) evening’s Council Public Works Committee meeting. Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr had been calling for a tax levy reduction to the Danville Public Library, suggesting possible consolidation or reduction of library positions. But some aldermen had stated a desire to allow new library director Christopher Leggins to be able to get situated before any such changes are made.
But now, the tax levy amount for the library for the new year had been restored to its previous amount of about $2.1 million. Alderman Doug Ahrens was in attendance at Tuesday’s committee meeting, and told CIMG afterwards he was happy with the decision.
AUDIO: I think the library won. And I appreciate the mayor’s consideration, and rethinking that. It’s what should happen in a government body where everybody’s getting together and talking about the items; and trying to put forth the best solutions for the communities.
Mayor Williams says this was able to be done due to insurance savings, and that payments to pension funds will not be affected.
AUDIO: So we have not taken away any of the funding from the pensions. With the insurance savings, we were looking at a surplus budget of around $300,000. So with the surplus we were able to return the funding to the library.
The new tax levy takes effect in January, and the new budget next May. In recent years, the Danville City Council has passed both in December. The votes are scheduled for the Tuesday, December 16th City Council meeting.
