E-Help 07/11/2007
INCLUDES:
1.
Credit Card Fees (home rule)
2.
Budget for Depreciation?
3.
Identity Theft of Employee’s info
4.
Outsourcing Ambulance Billing (Highland)
5.
Sales Tax Rebate- response
6.
Investment Policy addressing Risk (Lake Co)
7. Payroll for Military Pay (Tinley Park) follow-up from
Annual Conference
9. Disaster Preparedness Guide
“Thanks again to everyone that has contributed information in the past. If you
have questions, please feel free to send me your request. If you are responding
to a request, please send your response to the requester and include me as a
“cc”. Thanks again!”
Michael Peterson
mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
www.imtausa.org
www.aptusc.org
www.publictreasuryinstitute.com/bookshop/catalog.do
CREDIT CARD FEES (Home Rule)
Mike, can you see if any municipality (home rule) has passed an ordinance to
accept credit card payments for fees, fines etc. Corporate Council has stated
that we need to pass this ordinance to accept payment for these. He also stated
we have to have a public hearing prior to passage?
Thank you,
Joy Nardi
City of Chicago Heights
JNardi@chicagoheights.net
Response:
Springfield IL has passed an ordinance and a copy is posted at
http://www.imtausa.org/misc.htm
State Treasurer's position regarding the need for an Ordinance: "If the govt. office has not accepted credit cards in any previous manner or the council has not taken action on the acceptance of credit cards for any office within the govt/municipality ~ then Yes you must have a public hearing in accordance with the Local Govt. of Credit Cards Acceptance Act. (50/ILCS 345)"
BUDGET SURVEY
Does your entity include Depreciation in your budget document?
Send responses to:
mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
IDENTITY THEFT SURVEY
Does your municipality
reimburse the employee for the costs involved in resolving an identity theft
matter? Specifically in situations where the employee’s information was
stolen as the result of their job with the Village. Example, Treasurer’s
personal information is on Village Bank account. Notary person’s personal
information is kept at the IL Dept of Financial and Professional Regulation..
Send responses to: mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
OUTSOURCE AMBULANCE BILLING
We are looking to outsource our ambulance billing.
Can anyone share their experience with any of these third party vendors for Ambulance Billing?
Medi-Claims
Efficient Billing Systems
ARS (Ambulance Reimbursement Systems)
Andres
Thanks.
Sharon Rusteberg,
Director of Finance
City of Highland Illinois
www.highlandil.gov
SALES TAX REBATE
I was wondering if any municipalities have created a sales tax rebate for a
commercial developer that was above and beyond infrastructure improvements.
Also, have they paid the developer interest and if so, what percentage.
RESPONSE:
Sales Tax Rebate/Incentive
Our general policy regarding incentives (usually sales tax based)
a) existing income streams are not subject to incentive (i.e. a business expansion where we are already receiving sales tax dollars)
b) agreement is for a fixed dollar amount
c) no more than 10 years
d) no interest included or added
e) Village gets more money over the life of the agreement than the developer (i.e. more than 50% of the new taxes generated retained by Village)
f) Village receives first dollars to cover incremental operating costs associated with development (and just in principle – it is our money that we are agreeing to share and therefore we should get first dibs on “new” money to help support general operations and incremental costs related to the existence of the new development)
g) Incentive is performance based (no free lunch – business has to perform to receive incentive dollars)
h) Development to be initiated and completed by a certain date, or agreement is void (can’t make an agreement and not develop until years later)
i) Incentive is based on “but for theory” – but for the financial assistance, the project would NOT occur. The normal basis for the “But for” is extraordinary developmental costs and not for ordinary costs of development including normal infrastructure costs.
j) Developer will be a “good corporate citizen” and pay all taxes, licenses, and fees in a timely manner. (failure to pay taxes – particularly property taxes, but also sales, income, and employment taxes can be grounds to terminate the incentive or at minimum suspend any payments until the default(s) are cured or within a stipulated cure period. You don’t want the public and political embarrassment of incenting a business or development that fails to satisfy its governmentally based tax and business related obligations.)
k) No double dipping. Cannot apply for more than one incentive for the same project. Village may elect to utilize multiple means to provide their approved financial assistance, but the various economic tools are not additive on the part of the developer (i.e. cannot ask for property tax relief [e.g. Cook County Class 8] if property is in a TIF District)
Additionally, in some circumstances a developer (residential or commercial) is required to “upsize” infrastructure (primarily water or sewer lines) to accommodate other future growth in the area in addition to accommodating the needs for the current development. In these cases, we will do a “recapture” agreement whereby when adjacent property(ies) develop, the respective developers must re-pay their share of these infrastructure costs. Our engineers aid in providing the allocation formulas. On recaptures, we DO add interest for a period of no more than 5 years from the completion of the original infrastructure improvements. We traditionally have used the Illinois Funds Money Market rate (formerly IPTIP), but the rate can be established on a number of other bases as well.
Brad L. Bettenhausen
Treasurer/Finance Director
bbettenhausen@tinleypark.org
INVESTMENT POLICY addressing Risk
I am looking for a sample investment policy that includes a policy on risk. We
adopted the boiler plate policy that the State required a few years ago but we
have not updated to include the addition of risk. Our auditor has asked about
it but I have not seen any policy that includes it.
Thanks
Julie O’Brien
Lake County Controller
PAYROLL for MILITARY PAY
Attached is some research that we have compiled on the military pay issue. We seem to find the hardest part is just classifying the absences. According to our research, that information is available within their orders. Also much of their pay information is available to the employee online if you need to pay the differential.
I hope this helps.
Ruth Gibson
Senior Accountant
Village of Tinley Park
708-444-5065
vhscans@tinleypark.org
Sidenote: Ruth's researched info can be found at: http://www.imtausa.org/misc.htm