 As the year progresses, city treasurer Les Plotner provides council
members current figures and a comparative of past figures. The
knowledge may be used to aid in deciding to postpone projects or to
make an improvement.
Below is a compilation of those figures: "A look back and a look
ahead."
One critical area of consideration that the council continues to
seek is to bring staffing back to the police, fire and street
departments. Council members have been reticent to consider bringing
back employees to just one or another department.
Currently the council is working out details to offer early
retirement incentives. It is believed that in the long run, hiring
new personnel at lower wages will be a benefit. The process has been
slow. The first consideration was whether union contracts would
permit this.
This past week aldermen spoke with department heads and asked
their input on how many employees they had eligible, the cost and
timing of training new personnel, and what effect it would have on
the department.
These and other factors are being weighed against the cost of
retirement benefits, keeping positions covered and the experience
that might be lost all at once to a department.
Police Chief Stuart Ehrlenbush said he thought there would be
three of five qualified employees who would opt to retire before the
end of the year. The next person on the eligibility list already has
been through training, so that cost and training time would be saved
for the hiring. Others hired would take six months after hiring
before they would be ready. Training is available Sept. 16 and Oct.
28, meaning that the officers would not be ready to begin working
until March 3 or April 14.
Fire Chief James Davis said that he has five staff qualifying as
well.
Both chiefs said that the interim between when the old staff
retired and when the new officers would be ready to begin would be a
tough time, but they would get through it.
It was decided to make a limited time offer to accept the early
retirement, ending in 2007.
However, there was concern that this would cause too many
retirements all at once. Alderman Melanie Anderson proposed a means
to possibly spread the retirements out a bit: extend the window on
the package. Anyone who is turning 50 one month after the ending
date (by Jan. 31, 2008) and is eligible can get the same package.
The council asked the department heads to take a poll of those
employees qualifying and report back.
A look back and a look ahead
Looking at the numbers below, you will see that in the years that
the city lost Lincoln Developmental Center, and the country as a
whole was suffering from the effects of 9/11, the revenues either
showed little increase or less than previous years.
The telecommunications tax that came into play in 2003 began at 1
percent, but was later increased to 3 percent and again increased to
6 percent. Non-home rule sales tax that pays for infrastructure also
saw an increase by referendum in 2003.
Plotner briefed council members on core tax revenues to date.
A comparison of tax revenues over the last few years:
Sales tax comparisons
2001-2002: $1,892,692
2002-2003: $1,912,639
2003-2004: $1,912,657
2004-2005: $1,966,144
2005-2006: $2,000,698
2006-2007: $2,102,914, up 5.1 percent
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 Use tax comparisons
2001-2002: $156,353
2002-2003: $135,548
2003-2004: $142,847
2004-2005: $158,098
2005-2006: $183,567
2006-2007: $199,431, up 8.6 percent; combined, up 5.4 percent
Telecommunications tax comparisons
2003-2004: $72,755
2004-2005: $171,447
2005-2006: $274,119
2006-2007: $495,590, up 80.7 percent
Non-home rule tax comparisons
2003-2004: $47,211
2004-2005: $616,400
2005-2006: $641,186
2006-2007: $657,214, up 2.5 percent
Income tax comparisons
2001-2002: $1,009,896
2002-2003: $1,009,946
2003-2004: $930,122
2004-2005: $1,014,214
2005-2006: $1,167,120
2006-2007: $1,274,712, up 14.3 percent
The city has just begun in the fourth month of its fiscal year.
How are tax revenues looking this year compared with last year?
A comparison of tax revenues of the first two months of the
fiscal years in 2006 and 2007:
Sales tax
May
and June 2006: $323.529
May
and June 2007: $370,020, up 14.3 percent
Use tax
May
and June 2006: $29,364
May
and June 2007: $28,864, down 1.7 percent
Telecommunications tax
May
and June 2006: $86,140
May
and June 2007: $89,726, down 5.1 percent
Non-home rule tax
May
and June 2006: $95,953
May
and June 2007: $109,011, up 13.6 percent
Income tax
May
and June 2006: $285,764
May
and June 2007: $330,629, up 15.7 percent
June 2006 general fund was $640,010.
June 2007 general fund is $772,243.
June 2007 bank balance is $4,107,646.
The general obligation bond issue gained $2,702.30 in interest
for the year, for a total $630,938 in investments.
Two funds at the Logan County Bank (special accounts and Logan
County accounts) are receiving 4.80 percent interest.
Accounts at the State Bank of Lincoln are receiving 5.026 percent
interest, the same as the Illinois funds (general fund, sewerage
operation and maintenance fund, motor fuel fund, and non-home rule
sales tax fund) that are currently on deposit there.
A comparison of the general fund
balance in June last year with this year:
2006:
$772,243
2007:
$640,010
[Jan
Youngquist]
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