The McLean County Board started the budget process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 on Thursday when it approved a resolution establishing the Budget Policy and approved a calendar for preparation of the budget and Five-Year Capital Improvement Budget.
“This is the kick off time for us to start working on our budget for 2024,” McLean County Administrator Cassy Taylor said. “The budget policy establishes the start of our budget cycle and it also establishes through county board rule the policies and the procedures that we will be utilizing to set budgets.”
“We are expecting equalized assessed value (EAV) growth and so the categories are set at last year’s totals,” Taylor said.
County Board Chair John McIntyre added, “Our County Administrator gives an introduction to this then introduces and sets the policy for us then we give it to committees to work. And we work through this clear to November. It’s quite a process. It’s very detailed. It’s very good. Our budget book … is like 500 pages and we go through line item by line item in committee.”
“I have been so impressed with our administration and how well they have done to keep our tax rate, which is one of the goals of my charge is to help set our county share, and remember it is the county share, of our tax rate even,” McIntyre said.
According to the calendar approved the following is scheduled for the next month.
May 18, 2023 Department Head Meeting with Administrator – Distribution of Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Manual of Instructions
May 18 – May 31, 2023 Training Meetings scheduled with Information Services staff for departmental personnel who will be entering budget requests into the computer.
June 1, 2023 Departments begin entering and revising Fiscal Year 2024 budget data, and Five-Year Capital Improvement Budget.
June 12, 2023 New Position(s) Requests and Justification for New Position(s) completed and submitted to the Administrator’s Office.
According to theĀ FY 2023 Budget Book this year’s budget is $127 million with $44.9 million being funded from the General Fund and spent from it. Of that amount $25.1 million is spent on eight budget lines.
- Sheriff, Jail Operations – $6.07 Million
- Sheriff, Law Enforcement – $3.17 Million
- State’s Attorney, Prosecution and Litigation – $2.98 Million
- Court Services, Court Services – $2.86 Million
- Information Services, Data Processing – $2.86 Million
- Facilities Management, Law and Justice Building – $2.81 Million
- Public Defender, Public Defender Services – $2.23 Million
- Facilities Management, Government Center – $2.16 Million