Madison County holds FY 2025 budget public hearing; resident urges rollback on elected-official raises

Madison County held a public hearing on the proposed FY 2025 budget where county staff summarized revenue, expenditures, debt obligations and rollback figures, and a resident urged supervisors to reconsider recently approved raises for elected officials.

The county's presenter said total revenue for FY 2025 was $22,600,000 and total expenditures $25,500,000. "As you can see, 43% of it goes to roads and transportation," the Presenter said, and the Presenter also cited 21% for public safety and legal services. The Presenter described property tax collections as bringing in about $6.1 million countywide and about $2.9 million from the rural levy, for roughly $9.1 million in total property taxes.

The Presenter reviewed the county's debt service schedule, saying the dome project balance is $270,500 and will be paid from local option sales tax, the annex building purchase balance is $125,880 and is paid from debt service, and an E911 radio project (transcript referenced a prior balance of $792,257) will finish its payments on 06/30/2027. The Presenter also said the county still owes about $5,500,000 on a general obligation construction bond with about 11 years remaining.

On tax measures and valuations, the Presenter listed rollback percentages (residential 46%, agricultural 71%, commercial/industrial/railroad 90%) and explained that taxable value equals assessed value multiplied by the rollback rate. The Presenter said taxable valuations increased by over $89,000,000 year over year and identified Tax Increment Financing properties including "Maxburg Winterwinds," cited at a current value of $91,000,000. The Presenter recommended ending fund balances in the 20% to 25% range to cover county operations between July and September before most property tax receipts arrive.

During public comment, Kevin Charter of 1411 Warren Avenue recapped prior budget hearings and the public's earlier concerns, noting that voting machines had been removed from the budget and some stipends reallocated. Charter said supervisors approved elected-official salary increases at an April 9 meeting and named Supervisors Pitch and Clifton as having voted for the increases and Supervisor Stansell as having voted no. He said raises ranged about 3.5% to 5% and asked the board to "go back to the drawing board a little bit, sharpen up your pencil once again before you do a final improvement on it."

No formal adoption of the FY 2025 budget was recorded in this hearing; the meeting recorded routine procedural votes: the consent agenda was approved (motion recorded as "Motion by Diane, second by Heather") and the meeting adjourned on a voice vote (motion to adjourn recorded as "Motion by Diane," second by Heather). The Presenter offered to provide copies of budget materials by email and provided contact information for follow-up.

Next steps: the county will finalize the budget at a subsequent meeting or adoption action not recorded during this hearing. The public hearing record includes the presentation and the public comments urging reconsideration of elected-official salary increments prior to final adoption.