When communication starts rolling out from city and school boards in mid-March about their budget processes, do not panic, even if there appear to be more hearings scheduled.
The cities, schools, fire districts and other entities in Mount Vernon, Lisbon and other communities are just adhering to laws that were passed by the state legislature in 2023.
Budgets for all government agencies must now be filed by Tuesday, April 30.
Additionally, all entities are now required to hold two public hearings and notices about their budgets ahead of that deadline as well.
Cities are also to hold a hearing on their proposed levy rates and property tax amounts prior to the final budget adoption. Those hearings must occur after March 15.
Mayor Tom Wieseler and city administrator Brandon Siggins had a brief discussion on the matter of the new regulations at the Community Leaders Breakfast Thursday, Feb. 15, and it was a point of discussion for Lisbon School Board at the Wednesday, Feb. 14, school board meeting.
For the city of Mount Vernon and Lisbon, the work on this year’s budgeting process has already started. Lisbon had their usual discussion of budget requests through January and early February meetings to help narrow down what can be accomplished by the city in the coming fiscal year. Mount Vernon’s levy rate is slated to have a slight increase this year, holding to the plans passed last year to slowly raise the levy rate to a new cap more in line with the costs for the city’s expenses. The city identified a group of capital improvement projects they are looking into completing for the next five years as well.
Lisbon School Board’s hearings will be March 27 and April 10. Business manager Laurie Maher said her budget is fairly similar to last year’s and the proposed levy rate will be within a penny of what it was in the current fiscal year for the district.
All city and government entities in our area have been transparent on their budget processes and how they utilize the tax dollars they are collecting. As someone who sits at many of those meetings can attest, these groups look to do as much as they can for their citizens without impacting levy rates too drastically, but in many cases the amount of local control on these budgets (especially at schools) is very small. In the City of Mount Vernon’s case, the city held to a $12.99 per $1,000 levy rate for more than 20 years and still accomplished many projects and improvements in the community. They only changed that as the costs of projects have been growing.
If you as citizens have questions on these budgets as proposed by any entity, these hearings are your chance to get answers to those questions. But so are sitting at council and school board meetings during the budget process and any time as a citizen.