County Board passes tax resolution, voter approval needed
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met on Thursday, Jan. 22 for their bi-monthly meeting. The Board passed resolution 09-01, which is a Service Occupation Tax. It will now be up to Randolph County voters to approve the resolution. This will appear on the ballot on April 7, 2007. The resolution is for building upkeep and renovation in what was described as "very narrow." It is to do everything from asbestos removal to bathroom renovation. The resolution will have a 1% cap in 1/4% increments. If 51% of the county resident student enrollment is represented, then the County Board is required to offer a sales tax referendum in the next election. The school districts are asking county residents for support.
Steeleville Superinten-dent Stephanie Mulholland said, "We are running [the schools] at minimum maintenance."
The Steeleville Tax Increment Financing district (TIF) will be extended according to the County Board of Commissioners. The current TIF district has been very successful in developing the Steeleville area. Resolution 4 for economic development was passed by majority vote by the County Board. The TIF agreement now must head up to Springfield to be approved. A TIF is used by cities and areas to help develop and/or redevelop an area. It is used for an area when other means of revenue may be difficult or even impossible to obtain. It works like so: 1) A municipality will designate an area as a TIF district, which is usually an area within an area but may be an entire township, 2) The tax revenue that is collected by other tax districts is frozen at current levels, called the "base amount", with which these 'districts' will receive the same amount of tax revenue from the TIF district until the TIF ends, up to 23 years, 3) The district will then either conduct its own revitalizing improvements to the area or will pay for developing contractors or companies to make improvements on their own, 4) Once the development has taken place, the properties that have been included have become more valuable thus creating more revenue in property taxes. This revenue, instead of being divided amongst all the taxing bodies, will go directly to the area that it came from. Save for the base amount, all new revenue collected will go into a special fund that pays for improvements within the TIF district.
The Care Center has digital conversion problems. They do not have enough digital converters to take care of the digital switch that is happening in February. They are reviewing the issues and will make the necessary changes. They will also be conducting a total replacement of the heating and cooling units at the center. More to come in the future.
The Board approved an application for a new RV park in Tilden.
The Board also passed a resolution to separate pre-existing farm units.