PRINCETON — The Bureau County Highway Department is planning to take a significant financial hit from the FY18 state budget that will impact operational costs.
Language in the budget moved $303 million worth of bills for Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Series D bond payments from the general fund to the transportation fund.
With this new burden, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) made the decision to take $50 million from local agencies and the remaining balance from its construction program.
Bureau County Highway Engineer John Gross wrote a letter to the county board explaining the reduction in funding and was at Tuesday’s meeting to talk further about how this will impact the county and townships.
The county’s Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) revenue will be cut by $73,493. And, there will be $90,517 cut from 22 townships throughout the county. Gross said that’s all but three townships —Princeton, Hall and Leepertown— that will see a reduction in their budgets.
The $73,493 reduction for the county is nearly 12 percent of MFT revenue that was already budgeted this year for the highway department, according to Gross. He called this loss “pretty significant” and one that was unforeseen. During Tuesday’s meeting, board members asked about cuts in Chicago. Gross said cuts were strategically avoided in centers of populations. The only reply county board member Mike Kohr had to that was, “Votes.”
While the highway department has been forced to adjust and decrease construction contracts over the past several years in an effort to battle the ever-decreasing MFT revenue, this latest decrease will force the highway department to reduce operational cost.
Gross said an employee recently retired, and the department will not be able to replace him, which will make up two-thirds of the revenue lost. The other one-third of costs, or about $25,000, will be cut from fuel, parts, etc. Gross said it’s hard to tell right now exactly where those cuts will be made.
Townships around Bureau County will also be forced to make hard decisions when adjusting to their reduced revenue stream from the state. A board member at Tuesday’s meeting made the comment that this will definitely hurt, because townships live off that revenue.
While many want to believe this will only be a one-year adjustment, Gross said this reduction is expected to be perpetual because it’s the outcome of a shift in funding from general revenue to transportation. He said the cost of paying the Series D bonds will increase every year and it’s unknown when those bonds will retire. The bonds paid for the Illinois Jobs Now! program former Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in 2009. And as for the Chicago transit, Gross said there’s been no requirement for CTA to cut back on its budget.
“Counties and townships are essentially being forced to pay for bond obligations and operation of a transit system, both of which they receive no benefit from,” Gross said. “When the good people of rural Illinois voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Lockbox Amendment for Transportation, I don’t believe this was the expected outcome.”
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