Metro East Sun

The Collinsville City Council recently discussed the City's 2023 budget and held a public hearing.

"So this was an overall approach to get it back to the priorities and the performance of the various departments within the city to get these kind of settled back in to where they're a little more realistic based on some of the changes we made over the last few years," Dustin Ziebold, the City's finance director, said at the hearing.

The council reviewed the budget proposal for the fiscal year of 2023. There were a few changes to revenue numbers as they were adjusted to more appropriately reflect trends and expectations for those categories while still estimating conservatively. The expenses were changed from a Consumer Price Index projection to a priority-based approach that is better suited to post-pandemic budget needs. The City will have a surplus of approximately $37,000.

The City has created an unassigned fund balance account that catches any extra expense funds that were not spent. The fund, which is categorized as a revenue, is then used for operational capital and debt fund payoff. The City also plans to take a more aggressive approach to repaying debt, which is a necessary tool for some projects.

The next topic of the budget was the expiration of TIF1, which would bump up collectable taxes for the City. However, the City is choosing not to grab that money and let the tax rate actually go down a bit and put money back in residents' pockets. Therefore, the levy will be at the same amount as the previous year and will still fund everything needed for it to fund.