z - Retired - Finance Committee

draft Finance Committee Meeting Minutes ­ January 5, 2017 Westmont Village Hall Call to Order: 4:00 pm ‐ Mayor Gunter Pledge of Allegiance Roll Call: Committee Staff Trustee Liddle Director Parker Trustee Barker Manager May Mayor Gunter Police Chief Gunther Clerk Szymski Deputy Liquor Commissioner Mulhearn Trustee Addington (4:18) Deputy Fire Chief Riley Fire Chief Weiss Visitors None Minutes approved: The December 8, 2016 Mee៝�ng Minutes were approved by a mo៝�on from Trustee Liddle and a second by Trustee Barker, all ayes. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Director Parker began the mee៝�ng presen៝�ng objec៝�ves of the reviewed topics: Cigarette Tax update: Director Parker started the discussion by saying there is an update about the Cigareោ�e Tax. He has spoken to the contact at the Na៝�onal Associa៝�on of Tobacco Outlets who previously reached out to us. The person at Na៝�onal Associa៝�on of Tobacco Outlets found that the restric៝�on he recalled related to the tax does not apply to us because the Village does not have home rule. This matches with our our aោ�orney’s previous finding that since we are not home rule anymore, we could do a cigareោ�e tax. The next step in this process is to find out how much revenue we would get from the tax. To find that out, we would need to find out how many stores are selling cigareោ�es in Westmont and make an educated guess from that informa៝�on. Director Parker stated that the tax would be one penny per pack of cigareោ�es. The retailer would have to report to us how many they have sold. It would be on an honor system from the retailer who is selling, unless we audit them for their records. Water meter factoring issue: Director Parker reiterated that the issue with the water meters was that some read a number of 1, 10 or 100 gallons and then our computer mul៝�plies it by 1, 10 or 100. Some of the accounts are being billed only 10% of what they should be charged because of an error in the system entry. Staff has looked through data to see if other poten៝�al issues could be iden៝�fied. The Public Works department tested one of the meters today and found that, as indicated by that data, the system calcula៝�ng incorrectly. Staff will con៝�nue to look into and test other meters we suspect may be incorrect to see which other meters are affected. Director Parker also stated we are s៝�ll looking into giving payment plans to residents if one is needed. NEW BUSINESS: Director Parker presented objec៝�ves of the agenda topics: Lien Fees: Director Parker started the topic with an overview of how we assess lien fee amounts. When a Lien is put on someone’s house the fee we charge to put the lien on and take the lien off is $115.00. We have had several ques៝�ons as to how we came up with that dollar amount. A៻�er reviewing the ៝�me it takes to process the paperwork needed to set up the lien and take off the lien, get the paperwork to the county, we calculated the dollar amount for our costs is about $60.00. We are thinking of poten៝�ally reducing the fee we charge to put the lien on and release a lien down to $60.00. The finance department is thinking about using liens more frequently, especially if we are giving extended payment plans to residents who had a large bill, or trouble making payments. Director Parker asked the Commiោ�ee’s opinion on pu៶�ng liens on proper៝�es along with a payment plan. This would be for payment plans that take a long ៝�me to pay back. We are thinking of doing this so if the payment plan is not completed, we can use the lien to collect payment. In addi៝�on to the payment plan there would also be the $60.00 lien fee. If this is implemented, it will be in the future. We will look at how long the payment plan will be in effect and set a minimum dollar amount on the payment plan for there to be a lien placed on the house. These liens will be for water bill payment plans only. If there is a foreclosure that has this payment plan on a property, we will not recover the $30 cost of pu៶�ng the lien on the property. REPORTS: Director Parker presented on the following topics: Revenue Projections: Director Parker said that departments have prepared and turned in their ini៝�al submissions for the dra៻� budget. Finance will look at the submissions, meet with Manager May, fine tune them, and decide what will make it to the dra៻� budget. These numbers may change by the ៝�me they make it to budget. Director Parker gave a review of the following Tax projec៝�ons: The Income Tax es៝�mated by Illinois Municipal League (IML) 2017 is trending at $97.20 per capita, last year was es៝�mated to be $102.00 for this ៝�me. We are looking at a reduc៝�on of about $100,000 in income tax this year. Sales Tax varies on a month by month basis. Right now it is projected to be where we budgeted, which is a zero percent increase. The Local Use Tax projec៝�on we received from IML is projected to go up from our budget by about $40,000.00. This can only be based on where we are now, and we have to project the rest. U៝�lity Tax, (telecom, ComEd and Nicor) we will raise the U៝�lity Tax budget to $30,000.00. The Video Gaming Tax will be raised by $100,000.00 to be up to $300,000.00 in revenue. The Property Tax general fund has a reduc៝�on of $100,000.00 this year, because more has to go to police pension this year. The Places for Ea៝�ng Tax is doing beោ�er than last year, it will be increased by $50,000.00. Right now we have about 15 to 20 places that do not pay their Places for Ea៝�ng Tax. A leោ�er is being dra៻�ed about the poten៝�al fines, possible loss of business license, possible loss of liquor license, and possible fines of $50‐$75 a day that will go out to those places. A៻�er our aោ�orney approves the leោ�er it will go out to them. There are a few places that have never paid, or they paid inconsistently. Some places may not be even collec៝�ng the tax, and some are collec៝�ng the tax and not paying. Motor Fuel Tax is looking at no change. We are tracking well with what IML predicts and what we budgeted. Hotel/Motel Tax is looking at increase of about $100,000.00 this year. This number may be a liោ�le less if construc៝�on affects revenue. We are receiving our IML reports in a ៝�mely manner. The reports seem low, but we are close to what we are budge៝�ng for and where we expect to be at budget ៝�me. In fiscal year 2017/2018 there was a total net increase of $20,000.00. Last fiscal year we had an increase of $1,000,000.00. That money went to annual costs and special projects in the Village. Most of that money has been used. BUDGET MEETINGS: The Budget Workshop mee៝�ng will be Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 6:00pm. A back up day, or to finish would be Friday, April 7, 2017. The next Finance mee៝�ng is February 2, 2017. Adjourn: 4:25 pm, mo៝�on by Mayor Gunter and second by Trustee Guzzo, all ayes.