The Lake County Council on Tuesday reversed its course on shifting salaries to fund road improvements, a move that previously lost the board president’s vote when it came time to approve the overall budget.
Council President Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said he’s going to support the overall 2018 budget after the council agreed to move monies taken out of the motor vehicle highway fund, which is paid for by the state’s gas tax, into a miscellaneous revenue line so it doesn’t impact the tax rate.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable with taking that into the general fund,” Bilski said.
Bilski said he was concerned that Lake County could lose state matching funds if it didn’t comply with a new law that mandated how municipalities can use their share of the gas tax money.
The County Council last week moved roughly $2 million out a county highway fund, paid for through gas tax revenue from the state, to the general fund. That shifted a series of salaries from the highway fund and put it into the larger budget, freeing up money to do more road and infrastructure projects, according to Councilman Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point, who made the proposal.
The change would use the general fund for salaries and let the gas tax money go toward road projects, according to Strong’s first proposal.
“We’ve done a lot this year,” Strong said. “There’s still a hell of a lot more to get done.”
Bilski objected to shifting those salaries into the general fund, which would impact residents’ tax rates, because residents all over Lake County would pay for road improvements in unincorporated areas.
The council’s decision Tuesday was to still pull roughly $2.2 million is salaries out of the motor vehicle highway fund but instead shift them to a miscellaneous revenue line, which wouldn’t require using more of the state-allotted levy.
Dante Rondelli, the council’s financial adviser, said the county will petition the state to use additional miscellaneous revenue to cover what’s being moved out of the motor vehicle highway fund.
Strong said he was concerned that the state wouldn’t give the county that leeway.
“We have to put an element of risk,” Rondelli said, because otherwise it’d be a hit to the general fund.
If the state doesn’t allow the county to use that miscellaneous revenue for next year, Rondelli said the county will have cash balance to make that shift in 2019. Rondelli said those salaries would shift back into the motor vehicle highway fund should the state not approve the plan.
“I’m just trying to get more dollars,” Strong said.
Strong said if the county either gets that money in 2018 or 2019, he’d be a happy guy.
“I think we’re going to get it in ’18,” Bilski said.
