House committee discusses cutting shared revenues to local governments

Posted by mhopf – May 16, 2012

UPDATE (3 p.m. Wednesday): The amendments were not called before the committee. The committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The Illinois House Executive Committee is scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. to discuss amendments to House Bill 3637. The amendments would cut revenues collected through the personal property replacement tax and distributed to various units of local government. The state distributed $1.401 billion last fiscal year.

Introduced by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, the first amendment would divert $536 million to the Teachers’ Retirement System collected from the personal property replacement tax that school districts outside the city of Chicago would have received. Chicago Public Schools pay for the employer’s portion for teacher pensions.

The second amendment would take $982 million collected form the personal property replacement tax for all local governments except the city of Chicago, while the third amendment would divert the entire $1.4 billion money to teacher pensions.

In the state’s current fiscal year, the city was projected to receive $2.94 million while the county was projected at $1 million. Quincy Public Schools was budgeted for $4.49 million, according to projections from the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Quincy Mayor John Spring is expected to testify before the committee.

Coverage from The Herald-Whig can be found HERE.

Estimates on the revenues shared with local government and what was given in the 2011 fiscal year can be found HERE.

Abraham Lincoln battling a dinosaur?

Posted by mhopf – May 10, 2012

In Illinois, we love Abraham Lincoln. Any local connections to the 16th president are highlighted in Quincy and other communities. This is old news. However, this is something different from the Illinois Office of Tourism. It is part of a special promotion. It actually left this history student speechless.

Speaking of Lincoln while the idea of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” the book and movie had me cringing at first, I have to admit I want to see the movie after seeing the trailer. I should probably read the book as well. And for those of you wondering, I have never seen a “Twilight” film.

Meeting closes 2011-2012 fiscal year

Posted by mhopf – May 7, 2012

The Quincy City Council met for less than five minutes this afternoon to close out the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Aldermen quickly approved monthly and annual reports for numerous city departments.

It actually took city staff longer to attempt to fix the microphone system that apparently shorted out before the meeting than it took to run through the meeting.  City staff is going to try to have the system fixed before tonight’s regular City Council meeting.

This was quite different from last year’s end of the fiscal year meeting when aldermen sparred over the sale of a city-owned piece of property.

Preliminary permit applications for Lock and Dam 24, 25

Posted by mhopf – May 3, 2012

As expected the city of Quincy reapplied for preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday for Lock and Dam 24 in Clarksville, Mo. and Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield, Mo.

Boston-based Free Flow Power also submitted an application for the permits.

Chuck Bevelheimer, director of planning and development for the city, said he expects FERC will award the permits within three months. The city asked FERC to grant municipal preference, which allows communities to get first preference for permits.

Here are the permits available from FERC.

City of Quincy Permit Application for Lock and Dam 24

Free Flower Power Permit Application for Lock and Dam 24

City of Quincy Permit Application for Lock and Dam 25

Free Flow Power Permit Application for Lock and Dam 25

Lock and Dam 24, 25 progress reports filed day before permits expire

Posted by mhopf – April 30, 2012

The city of Quincy has filed the last progress reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the preliminary permits for Lock and Dam 24 in Clarksville, Mo. and Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield, Mo. The permits were set to expire at midnight Monday, though the city will attempt to renew them.

As you might recall, the City Council voted 9-5 on April 2 to reapply for the preliminary permits from FERC. City officials and aldermen met in closed session with representatives of Canadian-based Coastal Hydropower  on March 29 to discuss the development of facilities and Lock and Dam 24 and 25. No details from that meeting have been released.

Dixon city official accused of stealing $30 million

Posted by mhopf – April 18, 2012

The comptroller in the northern Illinois town of Dixon was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing $30 million in city funds over a six-year period.

The Dixon Telegraph reported that Rita A. Crundwell was charged with wire fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she used the money to support her “lavish lifestyle, including operating a horse farm.”

The complaint alleges that she used fraudulently obtained funds to make additional purchases, including a 2009 Liberty Coach Motor Home for $2,108,000, a 2009 Kenworth T800 Tractor Truck for $146,787, a 2009 Freightliner Truck for $140,000, a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck for $56,646, and a 2009 Featherlite Horse Trailer for $258,698. Between January of 2007 and March of 2012, Crundwell incurred charges of more than $2.5 million on her personal American Express credit card account, including more than $339,000 on jewelry alone, and allegedly used Dixon funds to pay the entire amount of charges, according to a press release from the office.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the city of 15,000 has an annual budget between $8 million and $9 million.

It is not uncommon for a public official to be charged with stealing money, but it usually isn’t anywhere near this amount. It makes you wonder how no one noticed it earlier.

Live Blog: City of Quincy’s annual budget meeting

Posted by mhopf – April 11, 2012

Finance Committee agrees to cede private bonding capacity

Posted by mhopf – March 27, 2012

The Quincy Finance Committee has agreed to cede its private bonding capacity to the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Western Illinois Economic Development Authority.

The city has $3.86 million in private bonding capacity. The Illinois Housing Development Authority will receive $1.2 million in bonding capacity, which it will use for first-time home buyer assistance in the area. The Western Illinois Economic Development Authority will receive $2.66 million, which can be pooled with other dollars for large economic projects.

Chuck Bevelheimer, director of planning and development for the city, said the city has ceded its bonding capacity to other jurisdictions for a number of years.

If the city does not cede the capacity, it will lose it. Bevelheimer said there have been no requests to use the city’s bonding capacity in recent years.

“If there is ever a bigger project that exceeds the $2.6 (million) that we have available, (WIEDA) will let us access that cash from the region,” he said. “So it basically gives it to a bank-type pooling bond capacity, where if we need it, they’ve agreed to give it back to us.”

The committee also:

• Approved the low bid of $4,948 from Skirvin Excavating and Trucking to demolish 401-403 State, which is part of the city’s “fix or flatten” program. Estimates to repair the building were $70,000.

• Agreed to sell 923 N. Fifth to Ron McKenzie for $2,000. McKenzie plans to rehab the house.

Aldermen will receive update Monday on police contract negotiations

Posted by mhopf – March 9, 2012

The Quincy City Council will go into executive session Monday night to receive an update on contract negotiations with Quincy police officers and patrol officers.

Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley confirmed Friday afternoon that the police contracts will be discussed but would not provide any further details until aldermen are briefed.

Police officers and supervisors represented by the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Local 12 have been working without a contract since April 30, 2011. The previous one-year deal included no general pay increases. The city and the union are scheduled to go to arbitration in March.

This will be the second time the city has gone to arbitration since union contracts expired April 30, 2011. In November, an arbitrator ruled that Quincy firefighters with Firefighters Local 63 should receive raises of 2 percent this year, 2.5 percent next year and 3 percent in the final year of a three-year contract.

The city was able to reach an agreement with the city’s two other bargaining units — Machinists Local 822 and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1108 — earlier in 2011.

The Machinists union represents employees at Central Services, the water treatment plant, the wastewater treatment plan and Quincy Regional Airport, as well as animal control officers and clerical workers at the Police Department. The three-year deal provides a 38-cent raise in hourly pay each year. Transit drivers will get a 2 percent raise in the first and second years of the contract and a 2.25 percent raise in the third year. Non-union city employees received a 1.5 percent raise this year.

Smoking ban rollback defeated in Illinois House

Posted by mhopf – February 29, 2012

Legislation in the Illinois House was defeated Tuesday that would have allowed communities to issue smoking licenses for a few select businesses.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, legislators voted 82-30 defeating the legislation to offer smoking licenses to bars, casinos, adult entertainment venues and establishments hosting a tobacco products convention.

The indoor smoking ban has been in effect since 2008.