The chairman of the Vermilion County Board’s Finance/Personnel Committee, Steve Fourez, says he is surprised that revenues have been holding up this year. But he adds things could change…
{”I’m not sure the hens have come home to roost quite yet because of the timing of when state money flows through the pipeline. But I’m sure it may tighten up a little bit as we go through this last four months of the current budget,” said Fourez. ”And we’re trying to kind of factor that in as we look at the budget for ’21 – because whatever happens this year is sure to affect what’s going to happen in the next budget year.”}
Fourez gave a financial update to members of the County Board during their meeting this (last) evening. County Board Chairman Larry Baughn had reported first-quarter revenues for this year were slightly ahead of last year. But Fourez notes the numbers drag because the sales tax is collected and sent to the state and then distributed back….
{”The first three months of the year we were actually running ahead on sales tax, but the first quarter ended at the end of March which was just as the business disruptions were beginning to show up,” said Fourez. ”So, the next quarter’s numbers is what may tell the tale as far as where we’re going to be on sales tax revenue and some of those sort of things.”}
But as County Board members keep an eye on the numbers, Fourez adds, at this point there has been no action on any specific cuts…
{”A couple of months ago the Finance Director, we had her run some projections as far as state money falling 25-percent below budget, 50-percent below budget, 75-percent below budget – just so we were kind of aware of where we might wind up finding ourselves and could begin thinking about places where we might have to make some changes, and tighten our belt a little bit to make up for the revenue shortfall,” added Fourez during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.}
Fourez adds discussions on the proposed new budget are moving along nicely. He says the goal is to have a proposed new budget ready to be presented to the full board in September.
