ABOVE: Vermilion County Board Chairman Steve Miller and Finance Committee Chairman Jerry Hawker preside over Monday evening’s Finance Committee meeting in County Board Chambers.
The Vermilion County Board Finance Committee has passed both the proposed 26-27 fiscal year tax levy and 26-27 fiscal year budget, sending them on to the full County Board. Chairman Steve Miller says the budget and levy will likely be placed on display at the October 13th meeting, with votes coming at the November 10th meeting. The new Vermilion County Fiscal Year begins on December 1st.
Prior to Monday (Oct 5th) evening’s County Board Finance Committee meeting, Chairman Miller said a major factor in the proposed roughly $43 million dollar budget is how much things have changed for Vermilion County Animal Control, under the new leadership of Ryan Goodner. Miller says the shelter has gone over the last two years from using $1.3 million out of the budget’s general fund to right around half of that, at $650,000.
AUDIO: So we are substantially below what we just were a few years ago, in the amount of money being called upon from the General Fund, to keep the Animal Control Department sound financially. It’s a combination of increased revenue, from our municipalities that we do business with, primarily Danville; and a reduction in our expenses, operating expenses.
On the topic of the Animal Shelter, the next step is going to be putting the $2.5 million donation for animal shelter improvements from the Julius W. Hegeler II Foundation to good use. At the end of Monday’s committee meeting, Miller said the latest proposal from consultant Performance Services did not quite meet the county’s needs. Miller said right now it’s a matter of needing more square footage and not having enough cash. But as he said to CIMG prior to the meeting, the efforts to put the Hegeler Foundation grant to good logical use will continue.
AUDIO: They’ve agreed to contribute two-and-a-half million dollars to us in the calendar years 2026, 2027, and 2028. We have roughly $168,000 in this year’s budget, that is available to us from the Hegeler Foundation. And we’re in the midst of getting prices on certain improvements. So a substantial increase of our budget is the construction costs that we’re going to be incurring, using primarily the funds from the Hegeler Foundation.
Miller mentioned during the meeting that if you are a Vermilion County property owner, and your EAV (equalized assessed valuation) did not go up this year, then there should not be an increase in the VERMILION COUNTY PORTION of your tax bill. Miller also mentioned that this is the first Vermilion County budget in quite awhile with no ARPA COVID relief money in the equation.
