On Wednesday night the McLean County Health Board amended its budget by moving $300,000 from an account that had an excess fund balance to its adult psychiatric services account in order to balance its 2023 budget. That action became necessary when the McLean County Health Committee did not grant $300,000 requested by the department.
Not providing the $300,000 will allow the McLean County Board to pass a balanced budget for 2023. It also allows the McLean County board to reduce the health department tax levy. If the full board passes this budget it will result in two straight years without a budget increase. The McLean County Board meets today at 5:30.
The proposed cut was prompted by McLean County Board Member Chuck Erickson. Erickson proposed looking for a small cut after seeing that the budget proposed by McLean County Administrator Cassy Taylor showed a slight increase in the budget.
While in the overall scheme of things this isn’t necessarily that significant. Its the optics that are important. McLean County government knows it needs to be responsible with its budget. Not raising the budget and lowering the tax levy sends a message to citizens that the governing body realizes that the money in their budget is not their own but tax dollars that came from citizens. It is a sign of respect shown to residents.
Contrast that with Normal.
At the Normal Town Council meeting on Monday night. A standstill budget was presented. And it was proposed to cut the tax levy so that only that budgeted amount is collected. That amount would actually be more than the cut McLean County is making.
But optics in Normal remain a problem.
Also at Monday night’s meeting Normal Town Council Member Stan Nord made a motion to cut the town budget by $200,000. Normal Town Council Member Scott Preston seconded Nord’s motion. Instead of agreeing to see if maybe a simple $200,000 might be cut from the proposed budget Normal Town Council Member Kathleen Lorenz argued against the motion.
Lorenz said, “I shudder at the thought of kind of just pulling a number out of the sky because it sounds good. … It’s not good policy to just pull numbers out of the sky here at the dais. … This could have a detrimental effect on how our bond rating agencies look at us. … To willy nilly just pull it down by meh, $200,000 that is very scary policy making.”
Instead of taking the matter under advisement and looking to see if there was an appropriate place to make a $200,000 cut, the Normal Town Council voted the motion down. And once again the Normal Town Council has egg on its face.
