Collinsville Township Budget Hearing June 24

By Stephanie Malench

smalench@timestribunenews.com

Collinsville Township will be holding a public hearing on June 24 at 6 p.m. with a meeting to answer questions from the public about the proposed 2021-2022 budgets for the Township and Road Districts for the Fiscal Year beginning April 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2022. A special meeting will be held at 7p.m. to vote on the budgets.

The budget is available on the Collinsville Township website, at the township office, Collinsville City Hall and Maryville Village Hall.

The Town Budget has appropriations totaling $2,202,760 and expenditures totaling $1,897,910 for a surplus of $304,850 for the next fiscal year.

For the Road and Bridge Budget, Appropriations (money taken in through various sources) totals $3,859,600 and the total expenditures are expected to total $1,290,600, leaving a surplus for the next fiscal year of $2,569,000.

With the new board in place and new Township Supervisor Derrick Cox promising major spending cuts and transparency, the following budget items should be of concern to township residents.

At the June 8 meeting available on the website (1:26:49), Supervisor Cox talked a little about the upcoming budget. “I’m making a lot of cuts but because of the bills, a lot of past bills are coming due, that was another problem with the audit. I don’t know why the bills are coming a year later, COVID of course was the excuse” Cox explained.

Cox concluded his explanation “I’m still confident we’ll still be able to save a few hundred thousand dollars in the town budget from last year. The budget will decrease in this office. I challenge each department to go through their budget line by line and see where they can actually save the taxpayers”.

Key Items in the Township Budget

• The beginning balance as of April 1 was $1,267,030.
• Property taxes remain stable.
• Office salaries go down to $232,500 from $240,531 and elected salaries go down from $257,172 to $235,000, but health insurance goes up to $100,000 from $79,891.
• Capital outlay for the administration building nearly tripples to $121,500 from $34,616.
• IT Services under contractual services is increasing to $16,000 from $3,900.
• Administration expenditures increase from $748,900 in 2020-2021 (2019-2020 was $956,450) to $1,412,500.
• The building maintenance service increases to $15,000 over $7,006.
• Senior Center Capital Outlay increases more than tenfold to $256,000 from $23,380.
• There is no budget for expenditures from the pauper account.
• Contingencies is set at $200,000 after being budgeted at $0 last year and $100,000 in 2019-2020.
• Assessor expenditures decreased slightly over last year from $487,092 to $485,410, but increased over 2019-2020’s $428,876.
• Administration and Assessor Worker’s Compensation, Social Security Contribution, Medicare Contribution, Retirement Contribution are listed at $0 in all three budgets.
• Administration office supplies increased from $1,793 to $4,000.
• Assessor personnel salaries decrease to $349,560 from $376,436 in 2020-2021 but increased from $312,123 in 2019-2020.
• Assessor office supplies increased to $3,500 from $1,195 last year and $3,335 the previous year.
• The Audit fund began the year at a negative $915 on April 1 and will end at a negative $13,963 after budgeting $15,000 this year. The budget for last year was $0 and $6,450 in 2019-2020.
• IMRF and Social Security/Medicare paid by the town fund is listed as $0 for 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 after a budget of $10,258 and $13,161 respectively in 2019-2020.
• The General Assistance Fund had a beginning balance on April 1 of $101,022 with an ending balance for the year budgeted at a negative $38,251.
• Property tax revenues will go into the general assistance fund for the first time this year totaling $36,327.
• Administration for the General Assistance Fund is up to $75,350 from $59,478 last year but down from $99,010 in 2019-2020.
• The Home Relief Contractual Services line item for funeral and burial service is set for $7,000 this year and Shelter is up to $60,500 from $24,618 last year and $34,997 the previous year.
• Under Home Relief Commodities, food is budgeted at $3,000, personal incidentals $700, clothing $1,050, transportation $1,000 and $300 for fuel. Food was the only item previously accounted for at $341 in the 2019-2020 budget.

Key Items in the Road and Bridge Budget

• The beginning balance as of April 1 was $1,021,298.
• Net property tax revenues are up to $498,301 from $426,689 last year and down from $510,028 in 2019-2020.
• Administrative expenditures increase from $74,763 to $105,600.
• Administration personnel salaries will increase from $64,412 to $74,000 in the 2021-2022 budget.

• Administration unemployment insurance increased from $191 to $2,500.
• Accounting services account for $5,000 of the new budget, up from $0 last year and $768 in 2019-2020.
• Capital Outlay for the garage expansion is $700,000 ($500,000 building and $200,000 equipment).

The public is encouraged to attend the public hearing and meeting to ask questions.