Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay. Welcome everyone to Tuesday, 05/19/2026, the five thirty city hall most exciting committee meeting of all city committees, the Finance Committee.

Yay. Yay. The crowd roared.

Call to the row. Councilwoman Reardon. Aye. Are here. Councilman Hug. Here. And Councilman Mudrin, I'm here. First item is the approval of the minutes from the 04/21/2026 meeting.

Motion to approve.

Second. All in favor? Aye.

Citizens to be heard on agenda items, they're probably coming a little bit later. First agenda item, do I need to read it to say that it's been pulled off the agenda at yesterday's council meeting?

Yeah. Mean, I'll just summarize it. It's an ordinance proposing the Rock Run Business District and setting a public hearing. So as you mentioned, will not be acted on tonight. It's being postponed for some additional evaluation. But just to summarize, this is an ordinance that doesn't create a district. It just says we're cons I'm gonna summarize. Late person's terms says we're considering a business district. Here's a public hearing for public comment. That's really what the ordinance does.

To actually create it, there would be an ordinance creating. So if you I akin it to the council usually does this for special service areas where you have to say, hey. We're thinking about a public hearing and then we do it. Same concept here. So this sets you know, it's it's follows the requirements of the business district act to do this do it this way. That's why it's structured that way.

Good. And why are we taking it off?

Looking at additional, just additional considerations on on parcels that the consultant did a study to determine.

I got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. I thought that's what Beth said yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. We gotta make sure we got all the

perfect Yeah. So they asked us just to double check, so we're double checking. It. Timeline, like, you know, this is a additional sales tax, it has to be collected through Department of Revenue, and there was a deadline of end of September to to actually get that down there. So we wanted to make sure we had plenty of lead time in case it gets lost in the mail. So

Okay.

Can we just move on?

I would Alright. Unless someone has a question about your explanation.

So I do not want to be a hindrance.

Monthly finance statement. So first line just kidding. Just to summarize, so far the year's coming in overall in all funds that I usually talk about according to budget. I do want to point out general funds. So we are seeing a few revenues still coming in a little bit better than budget.

Those are sales tax, video gaming, and utility taxes. And so I want to stress on utility taxes, we don't tax the amount of your bill, we tax the usage. So rates could go up, that doesn't impact us. What impacts us is the kilowatts or the therms that you use. And so that's one misconception people have is, well, my electric bill's going up. The city's getting more money because of that. The answer is no. We're based on the actual kilowatts used or therms used. The market value of electric or what the residents pay is not our tax. So that's something just to let the council know. I'm not sure if you guys knew that

I didn't know

that. On utilities. So, yeah. So if rates go up, we don't get any more money. Usage has to go up for us to get more money.

It kinda goes one and one or together.

Mean

Yeah. So, citywide, as we add new users, new homes, new industrial, new commercial, that's when our revenues go up or weather, so on and so forth.

But I understand that. But on the retail occupation tax, on the retail tax, as prices go up, inflation goes up, that increases. So our increase in sales tax, not predicted, could be because of the increase in prices.

Yeah. It what I'm I'm seeing some trends that go beyond inflation, though. That's that's the one thing. I'm I'll be honest. I'm sorting through is it's a little bit of a surprise to me the the the amount it's going up because inflation's running, you know, was it the last report was three Is it two something, three?

Mhmm.

Yeah. I'm gonna say around 3%. Yeah. I'm seeing a little bit higher so far this year. And so that's telling me there's additional sales going on whether it's people ordering more and delivering it to their home or people from out of the area coming to Joliet stores.

Could be Morgan's wedding.

If people send a lot of stuff back.

Yeah. So I'm seeing more than inflation increases. So that's one thing I'm keeping an eye on because quite frankly, one of the concerns is if the economy goes down or as inflation goes up, while prices are going up, people are buying less. So you get some increase, you get some decrease. And then as spending gets constrained in households, then they absolutely just spend less.

Well, Internet sales tax, is that lumped into

there? Mhmm.

Okay. So that's that's you know, people might be ordering more online to try to save money.

Yeah.

And that you know, maybe instead of buying it over in

Another community.

Or Plainfield. Right?

Yep.

And this would have an impact. Right? There's a lot of restaurants still closing. Right? A lot of people have gone from going two, three nights a week out for dinner to once a month for instance. Right? Now they're buying more

Grocery.

Groceries and increasing that that volume

a lot. Correct? So it it could and and those are all the things we're trying to sort out to see if we can identify. A, trends and b, you know, I'll call it exposure or risks to the city for when the economy turns one way or another, how's that going to impact us? So that's one of the things we're working on internally is trying to identify that so that if we have to pivot or make some decisions, we we do that sooner than later.

And remember, the inflation, what do you call it, the items considered inflation, which For can instance, yeah, maybe 2.8, I think, is what we have the published inflation rate. Like you said, a 1.3.

Right? Yeah.

And that doesn't explain why, literally, since January, Juul Juul or Tony's that a beef roast, I like to have beef roast on Sundays, went from $6.99 a pound to $8.99

a pound.

That's a hell of a lot more than 3%. So when it comes to groceries and consumables, I think it's much higher than 2.8

And those are the things where

That's where we get our tax.

Yeah. Once again, our gas tax is by gallon. It's not by the price of the pump. So we have some of those things in place to not have customers outside of sales. You pay based on inflation. But those products and those things come with disposable income. And if people are squeezed at groceries, they tend to buy less know we have

a per gallon, you know, when we have the most recent one was the one that does our capital.

They do their vehicles. Yeah.

I thought we also had the occupation tax on that. No. Okay. Mhmm. That's No. Good if we don't, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's gonna

go up anyway from July.

Yeah. I mean, I think there's a I I gotta double check, but think part of the sales tax may occur through that, but we have a separate gas tax that that comes through.

Yeah. Think there's isn't there but

Yeah, think there's still sales, yeah.

There could be a sales tax on

the total I

think there is.

Think you're right. Okay.

There's a, the irony of it is, just you guys talking about this is that they've just, like, on the radio that this Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the highest ever travel day. Yeah. Like ever.

And people are still They're just

go, go, go.

Yeah. Yep.

Eight. Sherry, the triple eight

I think it might have been triple a.

Yeah. Question I have though is, is more expensive air flights coming out and there's more people actually on the roads because they're doing more staycations? They're going to Indiana instead of going to Bermuda.

I don't know.

I'd be curious.

Yeah. Yeah. So I bring it up because it's not a big agenda and it is something that we're watching as we enter budget season. And I'll talk a little bit about that at the end. But we're seeing that on the monthly financial that some of these trends like gaming, that's usually 100% disposable income. And that's above budget, which to me says I don't know

if it's disposable income. It is to the sensible person who is budgeting. Think that it's a way for people to kind of

Entertainment. Get

out of life for a little while. Think that's a good point, Sherry. Because you know, when you look at lottery purchases, some of the most religiously buying high volume lottery purchases are lower income people. Yeah. Because they're looking for that payout. Yeah. So when times get bad, maybe more people gamble.

Yeah. So this is the video gaming. When I say gaming in the general fund, it's video gaming. Yeah. And we're seeing that's trending at 37% of budget is 33. So it's it's trending higher than

Yeah.

Than budget. So it and even higher than this same period last year, $4 more. So so we're that's what I'm saying. We're we're kinda keeping an eye on it. We like to look for patterns. And right now, we we can't identify that so that we can get a handle on it.

Do you think part of it might be, you know, to my liking that you just were very conservative in your estimates on the budget? Yes and no. I like conservative.

Yeah, yes and no. But once again, we're seeing year over year increases that are the ones that we're saying, all right, so if I was conservative two years in a row, that would be why I'm above budget. But I'm seeing the percent increase maintain at a level that is higher than inflation. And so they would generally tell me it's retailers coming online and I look at, okay, what's come online? And I go, okay, we didn't get a large retail, a bunch of large retail, so then it's people shopping and spending more in Joliet.

And then the question is, is that sustainable? And so that's why we budget conservatively because common you know, the better judgment is don't count on it because if you do, it's a lot harder to cut the expense than it is to to raise the revenue. And so we're just looking to see whether we should not be as conservative or maintain our conservative nature so that we don't get ahead of our skis.

I'd vote for maintain. Yeah. Having a surplus isn't bad.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's just that I'd rather come to you and say, hey. We had a surplus last year versus we had a dip in the reserves last year.

Yeah. I'd rather you did too.

Yeah. Yeah. So which which is a self con you know, it puts constraints on ourselves to make sure we're budgeting appropriately. But, you know, sewer and water, same thing. Overall, it's in line with the budget. I call it seasonally adjusted. Revenues are slightly below the 33% mark, but once again, it's wintertime. People aren't watering grass, so they'll usually bump up above the trend and then come wintertime again get back in line. But everything's

It's been raining every day. We don't need

a water Seem to be going in line in sewer and water. And then same on the parking overall, think, is kind of within the expectation. So we do have a little bit of a delay we see from they collect money through the machines and then by the time it gets to us we've closed the month. So overall we're still on track.

So Kevin, on the parking for a second, as you know, the Rialto had a big event the other day, and I assume parking, the lot had to be full or close to full, and that's full pay all the time now.

Yeah. Right? Twenty four hours a day.

Okay. Yeah.

Do we

And the street, obviously, after hours is there's no restrictions.

So And what are the city owned charging stations doing?

I'd have to look at that. I don't know though. I don't know. I I have to look. Fleet manages those, so I'll have to look and see We what those

don't have the revenues broken down in here?

They're in here. I just have to dig dig on where they're how much it is. But I'll I'll get that. I was gonna joke and say I have people to get me the my accounts would know that offhand. Alright.

Next, you have the exceptions, the invoices that we send out in between meetings, which are the reprints or reimbursements or utilities. Happy to answer any questions. Hearing none. I closed my agenda, didn't I? I think the museum's next. Quarterly report. They had seven over 1,700 visitors. Notable categories was 712 at the prison, 323 at the museum welcome center, 312 at concerts, and 255 attendees through field trips. Visitors came from over 27 states and 15 countries. So

Do we have any idea idea of the success of the game?

That I don't. No. We do have yeah. You have their financials, but it doesn't include April.

Yeah. So Sad the weather wasn't what it was.

Yeah. The the attendance was pretty good,

though. And

then travel report.

People are moving again.

Yeah. So training season has come upon us, a lot of public safety. As it usually is. And then I know we sent in finance a group to the Tyler conference to learn efficiencies within the financial software. So that brought back a lot of

Where was that at?

I think it was in Vegas.

I think it was.

It was in Vegas. Yeah.

We were talking about that.

It's one of those if you if you've gone to Vegas for not fun, it's usually not fun because they spend all day in a conference.

Yeah.

And, Kevin, is the museum getting any subsidies out of the city

right now? Not yet. So we have yet to bring the grant forward. We're working some details out with the Rialto, and we just I've lumped the museum with it. So we've not brought anything forward. And I know legal is working on a renewal of their agreement for the lease. And then the only other item I have is I wanted to let the finance committee know that we are, within the next week or two, we'll be formally launching the twenty twenty seven fiscal year budget process. We usually do it in June this year. I think we're gonna try and do it at least a week earlier. Our goal is to for me to stand at the podium for the public hearing and the presentation of the the final 2027 budget in October.

Your Halloween costume?

I will be a finance director for Halloween.

Okay.

I may do a treasurer, but we'll see.

That's good news, Kevin. Thank you.

Yes.

You know, going back to 2011, I've always we used to wait till the last

time,

and it irritated the heck out of me.

We've taken, I mean the last year, the year before, I we were, I think my first budget, I was ready in October, think we adopted it in November. And then it's kind of as we've done more internal vetting, it's kind of pushed. And city manager met with me afterwards and said, look, we've to get back to this October. And so we are going to do what we can for me to stand there in October, which I think gives the public and everyone, you know, time and

This is only the second year this time this one, isn't it, for the way you did it last year with every director going line by line?

Yeah. This will be the third.

Oh, this is the third.

This will be the third or the well, since Beth has been here when she start? '23? So she didn't do '24. So '25, '26. This will be the third. '27. Yeah. Yeah. Because she came in right at the adoption of the one when she was hired.

Well, everybody should be

Yeah.

Used to it now.

Yeah. Yeah. They I think they are and and so we're gonna we're gonna do the we're still doing those. We've actually those the city deep booked those today. So those are already on the calendar. So those are that's exciting. So yeah, so we're

Good.

Exciting for you or for the department heads?

Well, finance it's exciting. I don't know about the part. I talked to one today, they weren't happy. Correct. He said, Aren't you starting a month early? I go, It's a week. It it does so I and I will say, you know, we're six months from the year. Right? We have five months as of this thing, four months. So roughly four or five months reported and they're now asking for the next out twelve months. And so some of the delays do come because as we get late in the process it's like, well, this came up. I need this. So we try to accommodate that to have a good budget. So we'll be sorting through that.

Realistic. You want it to be realistic.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm hearing conservative revenues across the board, is that what I mean? Be conservative? Okay, we will. That is good feedback to get.

Anything we can do to lighten the load on taxpayers is good. That should be our signpost.

Do you want me to do the budget slogan? Kidding. That's all I have. I I think I stressed out the meeting long enough.

Okay. Well, and one clarification. You know what? When it comes to whether it's in TIF or otherwise, when we give a tax property tax break to anybody new, it's usually a business. It's not a house. Right? So they're gonna add a $100,000 worth of value to the levy, but we don't what they're gonna get their tax back to a re a rebate or or through the tip. Right? Do we add that in since we're not getting that money and put that on the backs of the rest of the tax payers, on the tax, what's what I'm looking for, levy.

I'm trying to follow you. So not a TIF. Because a TIF is not included in our levy. A rebate, we levy, and then that amount goes back out. So think of it as we collect it and then send it back. So it's not like it's not included or gets redivvied over everyone else.

So it doesn't is the other everybody else doesn't care.

We ask for what we ask for. If we gave a rebate, that comes out of what we asked for. Does that make sense? So if we asked for 50,000,000 and we gave a 100,000 as a rebate, we will get 49,900,000 in revenue.

So they will pay the 50,000,000, but then we'll write them a check for 100.

Correct. But it but that 100 doesn't then get split over everyone else.

No. Because it's already been collected.

Correct.

Okay.

So think of it as we still collect it and then we chose to give it back. So it doesn't show that way, but that's the way it works. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. Okay. I know about a TIF for sure.

Yeah.

Know, because that's the biggest, you know, when we give incentives, you know, I would rather give no incentives, but we won't be in the development game if we do that. That's unfortunate. There's necessary evils in

life. Mhmm.

And we keep our incentives pretty low, usually.

We only have, that I'm aware of, two rebates direct through the county, if I'm not mistaken. Don't quote me, but we've got one, then the Hyundai.

Yeah. Which is fine because that's manufacturing.

Yeah.

And, you know, we do wanna get that ball rolling.

Yeah.

So it can snowball. But but, But they're they pay their tax.

Yes.

Burden. Nobody makes it up. Because that's the biggest, you know, you gotta

get constituents

to call you up. Yeah, we're gonna pick it up because you're giving them no. We collect that money, then we give it back.

Think of it as sales tax rebate. Right? So sales tax rebate, it's in the revenue number and we have an expense on the back end to send the money back. Yep.

I got Kevin?

That's all I got. I'll be quiet. New

road business, not for final action or recommendation? Nothing.

I think we just got it.

Yeah.

Okay. Public comment? We do I see we have one publican back in the corner who is waving but has no comment at this time. Can I have a motion?

Motion to adjourn.

No second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you.