Brown previews tentative Mahomet budget

As of April 21, the Village of Mahomet’s treasurer’s report showed that the Village was 91.7-percent through the fiscal year, and that 91.66-percent of revenues had been collected with 72.41 of projected expenditures paid for.

Finance/HR Director Robert Kouzmanoff said, though, that the Village should anticipate delayed or reduced revenues to finish out the rest of the fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We know that income tax will be delayed due to the extension to file taxes,” Kouzmanoff said. “We are also predicting less sales tax and MFT (Motor Fuel Tax) due to reduced consumption during the lockdown. Local use tax, which includes sales tax from online and out of state purchases, is anticipated to remain the same.

“Staff is also being directed to track and account for all COVID-19 related expenses. There is a possibility that we may be able to recover up to 75-percent of all expenses related to it, with the exception of, at this time, wages and payroll.”

The Illinois Comptroller’s Office website says that they will continue to pay healthcare, debt service, K-12 funding, state payrolls, and required pension payments at this time.

At the Tuesday, April 21 study session, Village Administrator Patrick Brown previewed the tentative FY 2020-21 budget, which will be presented to the Board of Trustees on April 28. The board will not vote on the budget until May 26. FY 2020-21 begins on May 1.

Brown said next Tuesday he will go over Village EAV and taxable assessed value, which the Village has already received. 

Brown said that property taxes are the one revenue the Village can rely on. According to Kouzmanoff, property tax accounts for 32.5-percent of the Village revenues. 

The Champaign County Board was expected to discuss property tax delays at tonight’s board meeting, but, according to The News-Gazette, bills will be mailed at the end of the week with June 1 and Sept. 1 due dates for the first and second installments, respectively.

Brown said that he is expecting certain parts of the Village revenue, especially some of the revenue that comes from the state, to not be available in FY 2020-21. 

While Brown said he does not trust the state, he doesn’t believe that they will take all of the state income tax money. 

“I think we have too many supporters in the legislature for that to happen,” he said.

“But we will certainly budget for being off quite a bit on that.”

Brown also said utility tax income projections are down due to decreased energy prices.

Brown said that early in the week, staff slashed at least $200,000 in projects, and he anticipates that they are not done yet. 

He does not anticipate that any employees will need to be furloughed, saying that he believes the Village staff is already “resource constrained.” 

“I don’t believe we have anyone that works for us that we can get rid of,” he said. 

The Village will start FY 2020-21 on a hiring freeze, even though they want to hit some of their goals on hiring new employees throughout the year. 

“We hope to have them in the budget, at least for part of the year, but there will not be any hiring until we see what’s happening,” Brown said.

The Village planned to hire a new police officer and to take two part-time positions to create a full-time position. 

“We will also likely see some projects in the budget that will not be started until the springtime of next year, or at least delayed until springtime, just because we really can’t take any chances until we know what comes out of Springfield in the summer.”

Brown believes that the hit to sales tax will not be as big as some believe it might be.

“It’s obviously bad out there, but if you think about the larger categories of sales tax for the village, the larger retail outlets in town are by far our greatest sales taxes; and most of them are not suffering right now,” he said.

“So, we’ll show a reduction in sales tax. It just will not be as dramatic as I think anyone out there probably thinks it will be in the least.”

Brown also said that the Village should expect to see less MFT, especially from decreased travel during Illinois’ stay-at-home order and decreased gas prices. 

His tentative budget might include as much as a $100,000 decrease, a 25-percent drop, in infrastructure projects during FY 202-21.

After listening to other Village leaders across the state, Brown said a consistent projection is 30 to 40-percent lost revenue. He believes it will be more like 30-percent for the Village of Mahomet.