A note from O’Fallon Mayor Herb Roach: Budget approval

On April 30, we will close out another Fiscal Year for the city with a balanced budget. We have been establishing next year’s city budget for a couple of months now. The new budget — which runs May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024 — will be voted on at our two city council meetings in April before going into effect Monday, May 1.

The last review of the budget numbers occurred at our Finance Committee meeting Monday, March 27.

I’m extremely proud of the work our staff and city council has done this year.

You will see several new areas of construction moving forward as the weather breaks and we have some additional new developments that should be coming forward during the next month or two.

Built into this year’s budget is a third full-time ambulance crew. This will allow us to better serve all of you and our local hospitals; in the budget are also many new features at our parks and continued work on our city Infrastructure.

This is being accomplished while reducing the city’s long-term debt, a slight reduction in the city budget and about a 2% reduction in the city’s portion of your real estate tax rate, which continues to be the lowest that it has been in over 35 years.

I just want to express my thanks and gratitude to the work of our city council members and city staff. They are truly being fiscally responsible with your tax dollars while maintaining the services you deserve and are needed to keep our city moving forward.

On a separate note, I encourage all of you to get out and vote in the local elections Tuesday, April 4. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can find more information at https://www.co.st-clair.il.us/departments/county-clerk/elections/petitions-and-resources.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.