BENTON, IL — The Benton City Council approved the city’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 budget by a vote of 4 to 1 at Monday night’s meeting. You can see a draft copy of the budget on the city’s website at bentonil.com.

The budget shows that total projected revenue will be just over $3 million with total projected expenditures totaling just over $3.1 million.

The council went ahead and passed the budget as is, but the coronavirus pandemic may force the city to make changes to it at some point down the road due to the loss of revenue from the economic impact the pandemic is having on local businesses. Benton Mayor Fred Kondritz….

Kondritz says he has been talking with other southern Illinois mayors since the pandemic started. He says they are all wondering where the money for their cities is going to come from and if the federal or state government is going to back them up.

Streets and Improvements Commissioner Lee Messersmith did not vote for the budget saying he wanted some questions answered about how some personnel issues would affect the budget, something Accounts and Finance Commissioner Cathy Ann Garavalia could not answer at the meeting. Messersmith did agree with Garavalia that the budget is a guideline on how the projected revenue will come in and how it will be spent.