McLean County treasurer reports stronger January receipts, flags nursing-home lag as ERP cutover nears

County Treasurer Becky McNeil reported to the McLean County Finance Committee on Feb. 4 that January tax receipts totaled about $1.73 million, roughly $190,000 higher than January 2025, and that shared sales-tax and motor-fuel receipts were also up year over year. She said county fund equity across all funds stands in the tens of millions and that interest rates are likely to settle around the mid-3% range in 2026.

McNeil said the county filed its 2025 property-tax levy (payable 2026) and that tax bills are hitting mailboxes; major distributions will begin in May and June. She cautioned the committee that some figures are preliminary: the nursing-home summary she presented was current through Dec. 31 and includes accruals and entries still being posted for 2025. "There are many entries that are yet to be posted," McNeil said, noting receivables, transfers and expense adjustments will continue through February and March.

On the nursing-home finances, McNeil reported year-to-date 2025 revenue below year-to-date expenses, with the nursing home showing a negative cash position and a fund equity reserve that will be adjusted during the 2025 audit. When a committee member asked about a sharp increase in expenses in the fourth quarter, McNeil said it was driven largely by payroll timing: "The county had three paydays during December," she said, and some payrolls were accrued back into November, increasing recorded expenses for that period.

The treasurer also briefed the committee on the county's planned enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) conversion. McNeil said staff are performing intensive testing and cross-checks of vendor files and migrated data and that a successful test of exporting payroll journals into the new chart of accounts occurred in late January. "We were able to test that process on Wednesday... and it was very successful," she said. The county expects to flip financial transactions into the new system on Feb. 16–17; payroll will remain on the legacy system until July while the payroll export/import process is finalized.

Committee members requested an Excel-format fixed-assets report from the auditor to facilitate departmental verification and comparison year over year. Auditor Michelle Anderson said she can provide department-level Excel exports and cautioned that some numbers are unaudited and subject to change during the formal audit process. "I'm always leery giving... preliminary numbers on fund balance," Anderson said, adding that preliminary reports are useful for internal purposes but should be treated carefully for external release.

The committee voted to accept and place the County Treasurer's monthly financial report on file.

What happens next: county staff will continue ERP testing and data migration validation ahead of the Feb. 16–17 financial system turnover. The treasurer and auditor will continue to post 2025 entries through the audit cycle, and members requested the auditor's fixed-asset workbook in Excel before the next meeting.