Tonight the board is discussing the fiscal year 2025-26 budget.
They are also considering an update to the code of ordinances.
They are approving the consent agenda. Paying bills in the cost of $47, 057.22.
Busey is still not submitting investment recommendations to the village.
Draft budget- I will get it and let you know what’s in it. Joe is reminding the board that they have a few projects that have went from one fiscal year to the next. They are hopeful that next fiscal year will have most of the projects paid off and that will cause the budget to be different. Briefly discussed the amount budgeted for garbage, roads, ect.
Consideration of an update to the code ordinances: Fruhling-Voges saying there is a lot of outdated information. You can read the proposed changes here. She said this is the first phase of it. The administrator and the mayor went through the codes first then the lawyer to make them more general and less time relevant. They are making a few grammatical changes before approving it, which they can do.
Fence variance from last meeting. If you remember, the board wanted to know what the neighbors thought. The neighbors are apparently on board because they voted to approve it.
Village administrator: West Evergreen will be fixed in the fall. (So avoid it if you can.) The trucks have messed it up.
TIF meeting is April 15 at 7 p.m. and then April 29 at 7 p.m. These are basically exclusively public comment meetings. If you come to talk at these meetings you will have five minutes. The board is discussing how they will respond to residents. It sounds like the board will listen and take notes and then at the end of the public comment the board will make comments if they want to. Angela Page is hoping people ask questions and not just voice opposition.
Tami is saying TIFs are complicated. I love covering TIFs. So here’s some fast facts.
Some TIF facts:
It is not a new tax.
It is a way for your property tax money to be allocated in a different way.
If you own a property in the TIF district your tax bill will not change.
Lots of area towns have TIFs. Monticello, Villa Grove, Homer, ect. I cover Monticello and they give tens of thousands of dollars to businesses in their TIF for upgrades. It’s really impressive.
Tami saying a lot of communities don’t have agreement with other taxing bodies the way St. Joseph is doing. The agreements are kinda complicated with the taxing bodies. They get all the tax dollars they currently get from the property in the TIF. Then once new development occurs, the schools, the township and the fire protection district get a percentage of new tax dollars from the district. The remainder of the tax dollars go into a TIF Fund that can be spend on certain expenditures.
Just so everyone knows, there will be a sheriff’s deputy at the TIF meeting. The deputy is St. Joseph’s own Rowdy Randall.
I would be curious how many of the other towns have residential TIFs, I think the residential part is what people have a hard time with.
They are wrapping up the meeting.
I just gave a pitch for my egg hunt. There are 15 eggs hidden in St. Joseph, two are in residential areas, some are inside businesses and some are outside. GO FIND THEM. You have until April 17.
Talking about the road projects. Tami drove on it today and said it is going to be so nice. “I think people will be very impressed with it.”
Meeting adjourned.
You must be logged in to post a comment.