 TIF districtThe creation of a tax increment financing
district in Lincoln was one subject discussed by the board members.
Chuck Ruben will represent the county board at a city meeting when
city officials discuss the district. Sally Litterly, the Logan
County clerk and recorder, will also attend.
Litterly told the board members that the county would not receive
any of the resulting tax dollars generated by the TIF district. Only
the area that is included in the district would receive any of that
money. Any new money generated would be used by the city to improve
older buildings in Lincoln.
Ruben brought up the connection between the TIF district and the
property tax extension law limit, known as PTELL. "If remodeling
does not affect the PTELL, then this won't affect county at all
unless there is actual new construction," said Ruben.
The district would stay in operation for 23 years and encompass a
large portion of the downtown area beyond just the city square.
"This will be our first TIF district within an enterprise zone,"
said Litterly.
Asked what impact the district might have on county tax revenue,
Litterly said the base value of properties would increase, but
during the time the TIF district is in effect, any increase in tax
revenues would return to the TIF.
Both Jan Schumacher and Litterly noted that the intended benefit
of the TIF would be to improve property values and business in the
downtown area, which would lead to a greater benefit and tax
revenues in the future. It was also noted that tax revenues for that
area are in a state of decline currently.
Board member Kevin Bateman said: "Even if the county doesn't see
a dime, something's got to be done about the downtown area, so I'm
willing to give up whatever revenue we're looking at to vitalize
downtown."
United Counties Council of Illinois conference
Ruben told the other board members that he recently attended a
conference of the UCCI, and he found it to be very educational.
Ruben also said that he learned the county board has a little more
control over budgets for personnel, materials and services, and
equipment than was previously thought.
While the board can manage such funds in the various
organizations that report to the county, Ruben believes there is
really no need to change from how the money is handled currently.
"In my own opinion, I still think, unless we would see a problem
developing, I think it's better to let the individual offices manage
their money as best they see fit," said Ruben.
He also said it might be worth voting on such issues as budget
amendments in the future. "It comes up so rarely," he added.
Schumacher said she was also at the conference, and she believes
that the board will be able to use the information learned at the
conference to make revisiting board policies easier in the future.
Schumacher cited another example of what other counties are doing in
which a new personnel manual would be easier to create by working
with elected officials to make sure everyone is satisfied with the
result, rather than just dictated by the board members.
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Votes
Items voted on that night included:
-
The appointment of
Bills Sahs and Roger Bock to the Logan County Board of Health.
-
The appointment of
Julie Parker as animal control administrator warden, with
Maurice Tierney as assistant animal control warden.
-
A budget amendment
of $33,500 for salary of the solid-waste administrator.
-
A second budget
amendment to change the total revenue in the communications
equipment replacement fund to $16,607 and the fund balance to
$35,310.
-
A change in
broker-dealer for the deferred compensation plan to LPL
Financial.
-
A resolution to submit to the voters a
referendum to increase the property tax extension limitation for
ambulance services.
After the board voted to pass the last resolution, Steve Siltman
made a quick comment to the board. He wanted to correct some figures
he had mentioned at the board of whole meeting the previous
Thursday.
Siltman said the number of calls for 2012 in which the caller did
not want to go to the hospital was 620, not 1,000. The total call
volume for 2012 was 4,200.
"I know that really didn't have any bearing on this quorum
tonight. I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood that I
didn't mean to give erroneous information," said Siltman.
Meeting times and dates
Because of the holidays in February, the finance committee will
meet on Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. The insurance committee will meet on Feb.
13 at 5:30. The board will meet Feb. 20.
Board members present for the meeting were Robert Farmer,
chairman; David Hepler, vice chairman; Andy Anderson; Kevin Bateman;
Pat O'Neill; Gene Rohlfs; Chuck Ruben; Terry Carlton; and Jan
Schumacher. Guests included Jonathan Wright, Logan County state's
attorney; Blair Hoerbert; Steve Siltman; and Sally Gosda.
[By DEREK HURLEY]
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