The Jacksonville City Council is set to decide on the city’s 2025 operating budget tonight after it was pulled off the agenda earlier this month.
The City Council approved the 2025 appropriations budget at their February 10th meeting by a 7-1 vote. Ward 3 Alderman Kent Hannant, Jr. was the lone ‘no’ vote. The appropriations budget allows the city to spend up to 10% over its approved budget without triggering a meeting to amend their annual budget at the end of the year. The 10% cushion allows for any emergency spending that may occur throughout the year.
However, some members of the council were uncomfortable with the city’s operating budget, especially on the Capital Improvements budget for the various departments. Mayor Andy Ezard had the item pulled and said afterwards that the council wanted more input on the budget as well as more rule-making on particular funds, specifically how the city spent revenue from cannabis and gaming taxes, and how money in their Security Exchange fund would be spent: “The council felt that there was a lot more to talk about, a lot of different capital improvement ideas, as far as does the city need to spend money here or there or does the city need to take care of repairs – things like that, that kinda just need to get worked through as well as any other projects that are important to the aldermen. We’re trying to get a plan in place on how exactly we can spend gaming revenue that we acquire. Annually, we get about a half million dollars on that. The aldermen kind of want to put together a direction on what we can and can’t spend that on – rules made. We’ll go through the process. I think the aldermen will do their due diligence and report what they would like to see and how the budget should shape up.”
Ezard noted that this is the first time that City Clerk Angela Salyer has gone through the budget process. He says that Treasurer Beth Hopkins, Ward 5 Alderman and City Finance Chair Don Cook, and himself have all remained highly involved in the process.
Ezard presented a list of capital improvement requests from the city’s department heads. The list totaled over $1 million, but Ezard says there was about $300,000 less than that to actually spend unless the council wished to explore other revenue streams to pay for some of the items on the list. Ezard said that the aldermen would have to decide which projects should be completed, how they should be paid for, and what to prioritize: “[The list] was my thinking and [the council] stopped me on it. It’s fine. The council said they had other ideas. I just need to know those other ideas. That’s what I want. I really need their input, because maybe I am wrong. I joke a lot about that, but I am wrong a lot. I learn a lot. If others have other ideas on how to do it better and present a budget that would fit more needs, then we will go that direction. I look forward to that. If not, I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job the last several years with our budgets as good as we can. I see that continuing whichever direction we go.”
City Finance Chair and Ward 5 Alderman Don Cook has been on vacation for the month and was not present at the February 10th meeting nor at the most recent City Finance Committee meeting held on February 21st.
Ward 2 Alderwoman Lori Large-Oldenettel pointed to a publicly spoken freeze on using the city’s Securities Exchange fund until further notice at the February 10th meeting. The prior consensus of the council was not to take any funds from the Securities Exchange fund until 2026 in order to rebuild its balance. The city has used the fund to pay for the I3 broadband project, with the final payment scheduled later this Spring. Cannabis tax revenues and gaming tax revenues have also been a concern of the council because a lack of parameters and rules on how to use those funds. Various major projects, including paying for a new fire truck, a multi-million dollar upgrade to the emergency service dispatch system, and the upcoming lead service line replacement also has raised concerned about upcoming spending priorities.
Ezard says that some of the city’s revenue streams ebb and flow, and there are some concerns at the state and federal level on how that will effect the city’s fund balances. One particular revenue stream from the state that is going away is the 1% sales tax on groceries. Ezard says that city officials are currently exploring a local version of the tax to help relieve that gap: “I believe we will eventually pass that, which will help with the load. That’s got major potential for a lot of money being lost. If we keep that money online and add the gaming, the cannabis dispensary, and eventually the craft grow facility; there will potentially some new revenue streams that could benefit Jacksonville. We’re just not there yet. Trying to fit all the capital improvements in is a challenge. We would like to have another half million in the budget. It could have accomplished a lot of things as far as those capital improvements that we wanted to do, and we could have probably passed it. It’s not bad to take a good look at things and get the aldermen’s input moving forward.”
At the city finance committee meeting on February 21, several of the alderman provided that direct input. Vice Chair of the Finance Committee, Ward 5 Alderwoman Mary Watts feels that the committee has laid out a good recommendation ahead of tonight’s meeting: “Everyone was happy with how we rearranged with where the money was coming from. The projects that we picked were good projects, and accomplishing some of the things that weren’t on the capital improvements list that are going to be addressed throughout the year.”
One of the pieces that was pulled from the list was a suggested $200,000 pickle ball court at Veterans Park. Watts says that priorities were placed on more necessities, like the upgrades to the city’s emergency services communication infrastructure: “The [emergency services] radios are a necessity, where the pickle ball court is a want. The Parks Department has decided that they feel like they can still accomplish something, with still setting aside those funds to some of those necessities that we need to address.”
The Parks Department had funds set aside to make repairs at both the Nichols Park and Community Park bathrooms and make upgrades and repairs to the basketball court at East Park. Watts says that the majority of projects will be paid for through the Securities Exchange fund – which City Treasurer Beth Hopkins has described as a “checking account” for the city.
Watts says the committee came to a consensus that the shift in how to pay for the projects was necessary: “We decided to pull the money out of the Securities Investments rather than pay for some of these projects through the gaming revenue. We’re holding that gaming revenue aside as other projects come up.”
The recommendation by the finance committee is expected to be the top priority tonight for the full city council as well as the low-interest loan schedule for the Marx property at the former Shopko building. Developer Tom Marx purchased the property more than two years ago and his company is looking at filling out the remainder of the building, but has run into some unexpected costs in completing the project. Marx unexpectedly passed away this winter, but the project and the owners of his company have vowed to see it to completion.
The City Council meetings start with the Workshop Session at 6PM followed by the full city council meeting at 7PM at the Municipal Building, located at 200 West Douglas Avenue. Remote video of the business meeting can be done by visiting the link provided with the agenda at jacksonvilleil.gov.