BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — The McLean County Board and the Twin Cities met last night to discuss the terms of an audit, regarding the sales tax agreement, after confusion sparked for the cities earlier this week.
“The meeting last night was really to try to hammer through what would fit within the scope of the audit and was very good conversation. I’m hoping that it will lead very quickly to the next conversation, hopefully to finalize what that scope of work will be,” said Elizabeth Johnston, chairperson for the McLean County Board.
The sales tax agreement has been in place for almost ten years, and it takes all sales tax money made within the county and puts it into a fund, managed by the county. This money is then split into different services and debts for the county.
“A portion of it is meant to cover 30% of the jail debt service and he county covers the other part. The shared sales tax was supposed to help with the improvements to mental health with the new structure. A portion of it was to rebuild the electronic justice system, which is a system the county built back in about 30 to 35 years ago,” Johnston said.
Earlier this week, a misunderstanding between the twin cities and the council was brought to everyone’s attention, with a letter from Mayor Chris Koos sent to Johnston. The letter spoke about a surplus of money in the fund that was not dispersed.
Johnston assured there is a surplus, but not as much as Koos thinks, due to rewriting the mental health services system.
“What I would say, though, is that based on our contracts, we know that big payments are coming. So I do fundamentally disagree with the fact that the balance is equal to surplus,” she said.
“Some of it is and the disruptions to the system, the new system that we’re creating….We’ve got three large systems that are going live, the first one in July, and that was the law enforcement piece that the police officers and staff have access to. We also have a court system and then we have the jail system that’s also going to be going live. And that’s where some of the big payments will be coming out when that happens,” she said.
All in all, leaders came together last night to iron out some of the wrinkles and stomp the confusion between parties to make sure everyone was on the same page. They came to an agreement, which will be formalized at tonight’s county board meeting.
They agreed upon an audit to make sure all of the money was going where it was supposed to. It was never a matter of shady business, but a matter of where the money came from, and where it was going, which will be solved with the audit.
“I think that at the end of the day, like having listened to and having conversations with the city and the town council members, just the community in there is in their heart like we are all focused on serving the community and everybody is interested in figuring out how do we make this money successful, How do we make Bloomington-Normal and McLean County stronger through this kind of collective vision,” she said.
“After this much time, it does seem like we need to kind of come together and kind of recalibrate what that vision is. And I think that that’s appropriate. And I’m very open to having those conversations.”
There is no set date for this audit, but it will be happening as soon as possible.
