That was the message received loud and clearly at Tuesday night’s Carmi City Council Truth in Taxation Hearing. Nearly two dozen folks were in the gallery, and ¼ of them got up and addressed council over 40 minutes of what was supposed to be a 15 minute hearing. The city had proposed a 12% increase. That would’ve equated to $85,543.66 with increases of $5,998.38 to corporate expenses, $49,489.32 to liability insurance, and a hike of $8,800 for the library. There was a decrease in the police pension cost of $24,244.04, but a new levy for fire protection in the amount of $45,500 which became a central focus throughout the hearing.
Before getting to folks speaking, city attorney Greg Stewart laid out ground rules and accountant Keith Botsch provided some scope saying that of the taxing authorities, the school makes up more than 40% of your taxes, while the City of Carmi only represents 10-12% of property taxes prompting Stewart, YooHoo in hand, to provide some numerical insight.
I’m gonna use 10% because it’s easy for me to do the math. You know what 10% of $2,000 is? It’s $200. If your taxes go up by the City of Carmi 6%, do you know what 6% of $2,000 is; it’s $12. I’m just trying to give you some numbers to think about. Now, if you’ve got a higher tax bill; if it’s $5,000 or if it’s a business that has a higher assessed valuation, those numbers are going to go up. But here’s my concern and here’s what I don’t want you all to think. If somebody comes in and says Carmi’s getting ready to raise your taxes by 6% or 12% or some other number, that’s true, but that’s not gonna raise your total tax bill 10 or 6 or 12%. It’s a smaller number; you follow what I’m saying?
Two of the folks that spoke out, Brian Kingery and Kenny Hargrave are business owners. Kingery, who had a prepared statement said if the tax had passed, it would affect his future plans for Little Giant and Kingery & Associates.
We want to remain a permanent fixture in this community because we love the people here and we think of Carmi as home. But, I can say with all sincerity, we don’t stay here because it’s tax or business friendly. In the grocery business, the average return is very minimal. When you increase my taxes, how do I maintain those margins to keep my doors open. Either prices must go up or payroll must go down and in the end, we all suffer because of it. Look how many people in our community already live paycheck to paycheck as it is. And from a business standpoint, I can promise you this is not encouraging growth by doing this. I know for a fact, if this goes through, it will cost this town jobs. Our company had a plan in motion for next year to do something that only two other companies in our entire line of work do. It would’ve created jobs, helped the community. But if this proposal goes through, I cannot go through with my plan. It’s impossible to reinvest in a town that continues to take from our bottom line. I need to have confidence in you guys before I can take a risk like this. And not constantly have to worry about tax increases. There must be a better way that will work for all of us. Maybe it’s being more efficient with what you already bring in or maybe it’s making better decisions along the way, but simply increasing taxes only burdens those of us who already feel like we give enough of our hard earned money.
Hargrave, who owns businesses and is also on the school board echoed those statements turning it around on the council saying they need
to look in their budget for the money.
My question to you guys…is there a place anywhere where we can cut $1,000 here, or $500, or $5,000? Is the money…I mean, the city has a humongous budget. Is there a possibility that money can be cut out of the budget?
Botsch says the city already runs on budget.
The city budget normally just about breaks even. So like if it’s gonna pull in X number of dollars, it’s gonna spend X number of dollars. It’s pretty well, you know we might have a $500 excess.
Other residents spoke up as well from Bill Passmore to Casey Coale, Richard Cook, and Sharon Pollard who said she has to cut expenses to stay in her budget and the city needs to do the same. Botsch responded most of the budget was salaries.
Pollard: You have a budget and what the budget is is basically what you spend…you may have a $500 excess. Well as I have less and less money coming in, I have to cut things. So what’s the difference?
Botsch: The majority of the city’s budget will go to salaries. You have to have X number of people to operate the city and you’re under a union contract. It’s not like you can just cut employees.
Cook brought up marijuana dispensaries and potential revenue asking how much Harrisburg and Grayville were bringing in from those establishments with no response. A check with Grayville reveals about $45,777 per month plus the regular 1% sales tax yields an additional $10k – $15k.
Ultimately, council took to heart the concerns of citizens and during regular session decided to not levy and assess the new property tax. It will force them to reconvene on Monday, December 23rd at 9am to pass a tax levy under 5% before the end of month deadline.
Council Tuesday also approved a mobile home permit for 717 Maple Street, adopted a Wholesale Connection Agreement with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and Ameren, and closed the checking account specifically dealing with the Hillsdale project.
We also learned Carmi Police Officer Josh Howard who has been on the force for about a year and a half according to Chief Jason Carter is leaving prompting council to approve him hiring a new officer.
Attorney Greg Stewart also notified media following the meeting that Mayor Pollard has officially filed his withdrawal paperwork from the April 1, 2025 Election with City Clerk Cynthia Attebury which will leave only candidate Bill Stendeback on the ballot.
