There was some noise from the gallery at the December 17th Carmi City Council meeting. The loudest thing at the 9am special council meeting Monday morning was accountant Keith Botsch’s outfit as he prepared for a company Christmas party. It took all of 4 minutes for council to pass the property tax levy/assessment after the public expressed concern over a proposed 12% tax increase. Botsch explains…
After our public hearing the other night, we went back and deleted the fire department levy and we’ve gone up about 4.95% which is the normal under 5% without a public hearing. We’re levying $150,000 for the general fund. We’re levying $467,958 for police pension. We’re levying $91,500 for the library. And we’re levying $36,500 for the insurance fund. That’s a total of $745,958, which is basically 4.95%, what most all governments do every year.
More at No New Taxes; Live Within Your Means – WRUL-FM
Those numbers do keep the city under the 5% that triggers the truth in taxation hearing. Taking out the fire department levy ($45,500) did allow leaders to make changes to the general fund/corporate expense amounts and they upped the insurance levy as well. While the police pension and library levy amounts stayed the same, the corporate expense/general fund appropriations to be paid from taxation went from $126,000 to $150,000 and insurance to be paid through taxation went from $36,500 to $65,500.
Councilwoman Sheila Headlee said she has looked over the budget and sees some potential savings.
I’ve kind of been going over the budget trying to figure out where we can save here or there…talked to the insurance agent for the medical and the liability, did open up about 3% so we were thankful there. I think there’s some cuts into insurance that we can make as far as what coverages, what things we cover and what we don’t that can maybe alleviate some costs on the medical side of it.
Council members Tracy Nelson and Mike Knight were absent. Council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance and the meeting adjourned at 9:04am.
