Peoria County could take over the financial management of the City Election Commission. Peoria Public Radio's Alex Rusciano reports that's one topic for tomorrow's Metro Peoria Committee:
This year the County budgeted $740,000 for the City Election Commission to operate and pay salaries. Anything unspent currently stays in city coffers. The new proposal would have the County keeping the unspent operating funds. City Councilman Tim Riggenbach says the proposal makes sense and simplifies the process:
“There’s just too many cooks in the kitchen right now. If we can put this together that the county would be the fiscal agent, then they could speak with a clear voice, an unequivocal voice to the state legislators as to what changes in the law they would like to see,” Riggenbach says.
Riggenbach says right now there’s more than $300,000 in unspent election commission money. He says that money can be banked each year by the county to help with long term expenses like new voting equipment.
The County has listed transitioning to a County-wide election commission as a priority for state lawmakers.