The Knox County Finance Committee approved a handful of resolutions at Wednesday night’s meeting regarding additional gate fees to the Landfill, as well as allocations for the revenues from those fees.
The gate fee increase is approved every year, with the revenue raised going towards different county funds, one of which was a special contingency fund for the Mary Davis Home, Building Fund, and General Fund.
Discussion took place regarding making changes to what funds could access the contingency, specifically replacing the Mary Davis Home with the Nursing Home.
Board member Rick Sandoval said that while the Mary Davis Home is standing on its own right now, that may not be the case in the future.
“Well, the Mary Davis Home is standing on its own right now, but you’ve got that money that they got for last year and you’ve got to see what’s coming down the road. And the way it looks coming down the road – I wish we had a crystal ball – but it doesn’t look good,” Sandoval told the committee. “Do you throw a life raft out because you think you can make it to shore, or do you keep your life raft on the boat?”
In the end, the board approved keeping access available to the Mary Davis Home and adding access for the Nursing Home.
The committee also approved a salary increase to the Public Defender’s salary and along with that, approved to file paperwork for reimbursement from the State of Illinois.
According to Treasurer Robin Davis, the Public Defender’s salary must be at least 90% of what the State’s Attorney’s salary is.
Davis said that the state passed a statute that automatically gave a raise to the top prosecutor for each county to the tune of 2.2%.
While the salary increases were forced on the county, Davis said that the state would be reimbursing the county for at least a portion of the raises.
