The Morgan County Commissioners approve a number of financial actions on Monday morning.
In the commissioners’ first order of business, they approved the 8% increase to the county’s tax levy as well as an increase to $3,000 for Marnico Village’s tax levy for next year. The commissioners received no opposition at their truth-in-taxation hearing earlier this month. At the time, Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning said that the county was attempting to capture as much new growth in the county as possible.
Morgan County Engineer Matt Coultas said the increase at Marnico Village will also go towards maintenance of the streets and the paying of the street lights’ electric bill with Ameren. The increase will allow Road District 6 to afford improvements this year on the village’s roads.
The conversation led to Coultas asking for approval on the fiscal year 2024 Motor Fuel Tax expenditures. Coultas says that it’s an annual requirement from the Illinois Department of Transportation: “The MFT IDOT forms holds the estimate of costs of items anticipated to be utilized in 2024 by the Morgan County Highway Department. The total on the sheet is $1,217,775. Now, that is just more or less just information only that supplements the second sheet, which is the actual resolution where the county board will insert their resolution number, which basically appropriates those funds for the 2024 maintenance year.”
The $1.2 million will be split between the 10 road district commissioners’ budgets. With the passage, Coultas says it will set up the highway department to use any of those funds starting January 1st.
The Commissioners’ second order of business with Coultas concerned the annual approval of his salary, which is also an IDOT requirement. Morgan County and Scott County currently split Coultas’ salary, as he is the highway engineer for both counties. The engineer’s salary is also paid through Motor Fuel Tax funds as well as a 50% reimbursement from the county’s Surface Transportation Program Rural allotment from IDOT through the federal government.
Coultas also informed the board that a new bridge project on Johnson Road, north of the Literberry-Prentice blacktop will begin sometime this week.