LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
PARIS – Edgar County’s tentative tax levy for fiscal year 2025 proved to be the elephant in the room during the Edgar County Board’s study session on Monday, Oct. 21.
Edgar County Board Chairman Jeff Voigt and the rest of the board discussed in detail the proposed levy, which would result in a 9.07 percent increase over the 2024 levy if accepted in its current form. While several local taxes held steady or changed in small increments, others swelled to new heights. The General County Tax, Federal Aid Matching Tax and Tort Immunity Tax saw some of the largest jumps from the previous year.
Overall, the county would ask for an additional $430,236.33 from local taxpayers, if the levy is approved as is.
Voigt reminded his fellow board members the numbers presented at the meeting were not yet finalized and could be adjusted as needed up until Nov. 27. Several important questions remain unanswered regarding the 2025 levy, including the updated cost of the county’s insurance policy. The premium owed by the county could grow an estimated 20 percent, or roughly $100,000, according to board member Karl Farnham.
Voigt attributed the increase to two factors. First, he cited the June 29, 2023 derecho that slammed East Central Illinois and caused roughly $1.2 million in damage to the Edgar County Courthouse, the Edgar County Public Health Department and several other county facilities. Additionally, Voigt explained liability stemming from the current Edgar County Jail is also playing into the increase, while simultaneously deterring other insurance providers from offering cheaper policies.
“We have a couple of companies that we’d love to have offer their policies to us, but because they just didn’t think the Sheriff’s Department had cleaned up their policies and procedures, and that everybody was aware of (the policies) and were using them, we weren’t able to get those benefits,” Voigt explained.
In a follow-up interview with a Prairie Press reporter, Voigt provided a statement from the board.
“The issue is incomplete training of correctional officers on jail policies and procedures,” Voigt said. “The sheriff and his jail management staff are not holding correctional officers accountable which could lead to safety issues for both staff and inmates as well as legal actions against the county.”
The Prairie Press attempted to contact Edgar County Sheriff Jeff Wood for comment but received no response prior to press time.
If the county’s insurance premiums increase as anticipated, it would be the second straight year with a $100,000 increase. Voigt noted the back-to-back increases are costing the county a total of $300,000 across both years. The county’s current policy also had its deductible increased to $250,000 for any claims stemming from the jail, up from $50,000 in previous years.
After some discussion of the county’s insurance woes, Farnham refocused the conversation on the steep increase in the county’s tentative tax levy.
“I was looking at these different levies. The general county tax went from $995,000 to $1.2 million, that’s a 26 percent increase … That’s, to me, unacceptable,” he explained, later adding. “As far as I’m concerned, we need to send all this back to the eight different department heads and see if they can find some more cuts.”
Discussion of the budget, and the challenges faced by the county’s different departments, ensued.
“A 26 percent increase, that’s pretty substantial. And I know there’s a lot of justification for some of these increases, but I would like for the individual department heads to take a closer look and see if they can make some cuts,” Farnham continued.
Voigt agreed, but noted that some departments have already cut some expenses and are under their 2024 budgets. Still, others are as much as 10 percent over their previous budgets. The board also acknowledged several financial burdens stemming from improvements and expenses for local law enforcement and adjudication, burdens that will affect tax levies.
“We’ve made some difficult choices over the last two, three years … we were able to fund those changes originally by using the money that we received from the federal government, and of course, that’s gone, so we had to decide where that money was coming from,” Voigt said.
Board member Andy Patrick agreed with Farnham, but explained regular expenses have also increased in recent years. This applies additional financial pressure to taxing bodies and taxpayers.
“I agree with you (Karl), you’ve also got to understand … all the prices of everything that you pay for is higher … gas is higher, supplies’ higher, labor’s higher, it’s all going up,” Patrick said.
“I think we’ve got to give it a shot and let taxpayers know we’re trying to make as many cuts as we can,” Farnham concluded. “But they’ve gotta realize with everything that taxes are going to go up.”
Voigt suggested allowing green energy operations to set up shop in Edgar County and pay taxes could offset some of the rising costs faced by local government without putting additional pressure on taxpayers, but no official action was taken.
“Green energy would be a way … for this county and a lot of counties, to bring in less local taxes … (there would) still be land taxes, but somebody else would be paying them,” he said.
Voigt will draft a request for department heads to review their budgets for FY-25 and cut expenses in an attempt to lower the tax levy. A public hearing will be held for the levy at 8:45 a.m., Monday, Nov. 4 before the board’s regularly scheduled study session. Board members will vote on the levy during the Wednesday, Nov. 6 meeting, but can make adjustments to the levy for three weeks after it is approved.
The board also covered several other topics during its study session.
EDGAR COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY CENTER
Contractors are using ground-penetrating radar and other techniques to test the endurance of the foundation of the Edgar County Public Safety Center (ECPSC) and the ground underneath.
“They’re going to test it to about 36,000 pounds … just to make sure we don’t have any difficulty, and that we get longevity out of the foundation on the building,” Voigt explained.
Voigt also noted wall panels for the building are complete and are expected to be installed soon. The $18.3 million project is currently underway on Springfield Road in Paris, across from the Edgar County Highway Department. The ECPSC will house a jail, the Edgar County Sheriff’s Office and an office for emergency dispatchers.
Voigt also noted an increase in the average number of inmates housed in the county’s current facility. The average number of inmates has risen into the 20s, up from the low teens earlier this year.
“Everything seems to be going up … not sure quite why,” Voigt said. “Maybe it’s just the system is getting some age on it and some of the prisoners have some recurring events … That’s probably why it’s creeping up.”
BROADBAND INTERNET UPDATE
Board member Lisa Ellis provided a brief update on the status of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program – part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021. According to a source involved with the implementation of the program in Edgar County, two more internet service providers (ISPs) are considering applying for the federal grant funds reserved for the expansion of broadband internet infrastructure in Edgar County. Frontier Communications has already made known its intent to apply for the grant funding earmarked for executing the BEAD project in Edgar County.
She also explained that the board can throw its support behind any and all applicants.
“We can do letters of support, or however we choose to do that, for as many companies as we want,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that we are committed to any one of them, or that we are showing favoritism.”
Ellis also reported the board may want to consider selling some space on its newly purchased, 490-foot radio tower located southwest of Paris. Space could become valuable as ISPs look to push into the area.
“Our new tower could be really valuable. We could end up making quite a bit of income from that, because it’s very likely that at least one of these three companies is going to want to use that,” she explained.
EARLY VOTING IN EDGAR COUNTY
Edgar County Clerk and Recorder August Griffin provided updated metrics for early voting in Edgar County. Per Griffin, roughly 1,350 county residents have voted ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
“Mostly it’s half and half between walk-ins and mail (ballots),” he explained.
Edgar County is home to roughly 11,000 registered voters in total, according to Voigt.
The Edgar County Board will meet for another study session Monday, Nov. 4, at 9:30 a.m. at the Edgar County Highway Department. The next official meeting is set for Wednesday, Nov. 6 at the Edgar County Courthouse.