For 12th year, Joliet earns award for financial reports
By Bob Okon bokon@stmedianetwork.com February 1, 2012 8:32PM
Trends, facts in Joliet’s annual financial report
The city of Joliet collected more than $36 million in property taxes in 2010, compared to less than $16 million in 2001.
The city workforce of 963 employees in 2010 is down from a peak of 1,055 in 2007 but about the same as it was in 2005 (969).
The biggest Joliet employer in 2009 was Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center with 2,500 workers. That compares to 2003 when Caterpillar Inc. was the top employer with 3,000 employees, a workforce that has since dropped to 1,500.
Joliet per capita income in 2010 was $22,111, less than in 2004 when it was $22,554.
The single property with the highest equalized assessed valuation is the Westfield Louis Joliet mall. In 2009, the mall was assessed at $24.7 million, which was used to calculate the property tax bill.
Updated: March 3, 2012 11:40AM
JOLIET — Like other cities, Joliet has had its budget problems in recent years. But there has been nothing wrong with the city’s financial reporting practices, according to the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.
The association has given Joliet its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the 12th consecutive year.
The certificate is awarded for the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, a 181-page document that can be found at www.cityofjoliet.info.
The report, which includes the annual audit, is a must-read for financial professionals who check on the city’s creditworthiness when Joliet goes out to the bond market to borrow money, said city budget director Kenneth Mihelich.
“Those folks use this quite a bit,” Mihelich said. The typical taxpayer should find parts of the report worth perusing as well, he added.
The meat of the report is the financial section, which may not always be easy for the average resident to understand but meets accounting standards and transparency goals set by the Government Finance Officers Association.
“They’re sticklers,” Mihelich said. “We do have to do quite a bit of work to get this certificate.”
The report, however, is not without its points of interest for the average person.
Joliet Finance Director Rachel Mayer pointed to the statistical section in the back of the report.
“I think for the nonfinancial world, the statistical section has a lot of useful information,” Mayer said, noting trends in city finances, government operations and even the local economy can be found there.
But the financial section does not have interesting information, too. Readers can find how much the city is spending on pensions, school crossing guards and even accountants, for instance.
As for those city accountants, Mihelich said the fact that the city got the reporting award for a 12th consecutive year shows they are doing a good job.
Mayer, Paul Pluth and Christine Skole in the city’s finance department are the staff members who devote the most time to compiling the annual report.
But, added Mayer, “It’s pretty much a citywide effort to accumulate all the information.”
Comments Click here to view or make a comment