Metro East Sun

At the Nov. 8 meeting of the Collinsville City Council, Dustin Ziebold, the city's  financial director, gave an overview of the 2023 budget. He explained that the tax rate would be going down because the expiration of the city's tax increment financing (TIF) will increase the city’s equalized assessment value (EAV). He said it will save homeowners money on the city portion of their taxes, dropping rates to around 2013-2014 rates.

“That's extra money we have to put back into our city instead of giving it to a third party, a bond company that is somewhere else,” Ziebold said. “So it's just this approach of trying to find ways to minimize what we have to borrow while still getting our infrastructure and capital needs done as quickly as possible.”

The council agenda noted the city has an approximate budget of $38 million.

Ziebold addressed the city’s 10-year capital improvement plan (CIP) which is currently being revamped from the city’s previous six-year method. The goal with this approach is to plan ahead and start putting money away to be able to pay for projects, instead of having to finance them and pay interest. For this plan, the city has created a fund in the budget for “Capital to be Assigned."

The city utilized an “unassigned fund balance” which is unspent revenues from prior years. It can be used to meet capital project goals more responsibly, and the finance staff is proposing that the council approve using part of this fund for the 2023 capital improvement projects. This could mean huge savings for the city by preventing council from relying on debt financing.

The city council will meet again at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 22 at City Hall on 125 South Center St. in Collinsville.