|
County Board moves draft budget
out of committee
[November 06, 2026]
The Finance Committee of the
Logan County Board met on Thursday night for a special meeting. This
special meeting was called after the full board voted to send a
draft fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget back to committee at a special
regular meeting earlier this week. Per the Illinois Counties Code,
the budget must be on display for public consumption for at least 15
days before it can be voted on, and the deadline for approval is
November 30th.
The committee held this meeting in the first floor courtroom of the
Logan County Courthouse starting at 6:00 p.m. Five of the six
committee members were present. This included Chairman Joseph
Kuhlman, Vice Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan,
and Andrea Hinton. Keenan Leesman was the only member absent.
Additionally, fellow board members Kevin Knauer, and board members
elect Mary Conrady and Cindy Gleason were present, though not on the
committee. There were also many department heads in attendance.
The only item on the agenda was the discussion of the budget.
Kuhlman started by informing the committee that they would be able
to call Justin Harmon of Bellwether, the company that has been
helping the board put together the budget, until 6:30. Kuhlman said
that Harmon would also be able to explain why he suggested setting
the county’s tax levy increase to its maximum amount.
Some increases to the budget for the Coroner’s department and
probation were discussed first. Probation was nearly a $900 increase
that Kuhlman explained was to “have breathing room.” Nelson spoke
up, stating that he did not support this. He suggested either
reducing it from $8,116 down to $8,000 if the goal was to make it a
round number, or to leave it alone. The committee decided to leave
the amount alone. A few changes to the Animal Control budget were
discussed as well.
Kuhlman then got Harmon on the
phone. Harmon explained that, due to the county becoming a Property
Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTEL) county, they would only be able
to increase their levy by a maximum of five percent per year. He
additionally said that, should the county not make any changes to
their budget and continue their spending at their current pace, the
county would be “broke in five to six years.”
Nelson challenged this and said that if they cut down on the new
vehicles they were planning on purchasing. At a previous meeting,
Sheriff-elect Joshua Pharis stated that they were looking to get ten
vehicles, but the county board got him down to five and paying for
it out of the Sheriff's Department’s budget. The county agreed to
buy one vehicle for the department in addition to the five. Harmon
recommended taking the amount out of the county’s reserve funds, as
it would be a one time purchase. Nelson argued that it would be a
yearly purchase considering how often the Sheriff’s Department needs
new vehicles, and Pharis himself said it would be more like every
two or three years. Harmon and Nelson agreed on one thing: the
county needs to find a new revenue stream in the next few years.
Nelson then asked County Engineer Bret Aukamp about some increases
to his budget. Aukamp explained that they are looking to hire an
architect to build an additional building for some of their
equipment that has to be left outside at the moment. Aukamp said
that the building they do have has not had many upgrades since it
was built, and there are some additional funds allocated for that
purpose as well. Nelson also asked about the possibility of laying
asphalt on some of the county roads rather than oil and chip, to
which Aukamp explained that was not in their budget due to the cost
of asphalt.
Conahan brought increasing the county board office’s budget for
supplies from $10,000 to $12,740. All the committee members agreed
except Nelson. The committee discussed the audit they are going to
need to have done, and newly appointed and elected Treasurer Rendi
Ray stated that you usually want to have a new company perform the
audit every five to seven years. This being the case, and the county
not knowing how much a new company would cost, they increased the
budget for the audit from $150,000 to $175,000.
[to top of second column] |
Aukamp brought up
a concern that he had. He stated that, of his nine employees,
three of them are not union members. These employees are the
assistant engineer, the operations manager, and the secretary.
Due to them not being a part of the Teamsters union, he said
that their salaries have been falling behind those of the union
employees. Not wanting to lose any of the employees, Aukamp
stated that he wanted to see if the committee would entertain
increasing his budget to give those three employees a pay raise.
There was a long discussion
that followed. Former Clerk and Recorder Theresa Moore stated
that, if Aukamp’s non-union employees were going to get a raise,
all courthouse employees who are non-union should be getting the
same. Aukamp argued that, since he is appointed and not elected,
he cannot allocate funds for employee pay raises without express
board approval. He expressed the “disparity” between the union
and non-union salaries, and Moore stated that there is a
disparity between their union and non-union employees as well.
The committee decided to vote on each employee individually.
They voted to give the assistant engineer a pay raise with a
vote of 4-1, with Nelson being the only no vote. Both the other
two employees did not get a raise. The operation manager’s vote
failed 2-3, with Conahan, Schmidt, and Nelson voting ‘no.’ The
secretary’s vote also failed by a vote of 2-3, with Scmidt,
Nelson, and Kuhlman voting ‘no.’
Next, Conahan brought up the fact that the Logan Building had
gone over its budget for utilities this year and requested the
line item be increased from $12,000 to $15,000. The committee
then discussed whether or not to budget for a new roof for that
same building. This was something that was budgeted for in this
year’s budget, but the amount budgeted was for below what the
bid came in at. That being the case, the committee never moved
the roof project out of committee. Nelson suggested not
budgeting for it. Rather, he stated that a budget amendment
could be made in the spring and the amount pulled from the
reserve fund. The committee members agreed to this and moved on
to the next item.
After a brief discussion over whether or not to increase the
revenue item on permit fees from wind and solar projects or not,
Nelson made some comments about finding a new revenue source for
the county. He stated that, while he knows it is not popular, a
data center would bring in potentially several million dollars
annually for the county and could help fix their issue of
running out of revenue. He asked what the county would do in
five to six years outside of raising taxes.
The committee then discussed having a special regular meeting
this coming Monday to vote on posting the budget. They also
stated that they would likely need to have another short meeting
on the day before Thanksgiving to approve the budget to make
sure they meet their November 30th deadline.
Before adjournment, Conahan gave one update. He stated that
Sheriff Mark Landers will be retiring early, with his final day
being November 15th. Since Pharis won his race for sheriff,
Conahan is planning to officially appoint him as sheriff next
Monday at the regular meeting. With no public comments, the
meeting came to an end.
[Matt Boutcher]
 |
