Morgan County board to review 2025 budget audit, reappoint assessments supervisor

Morgan County leaders put the county’s books, property valuations and emergency dispatch oversight at the center of the June 21 meeting at the courthouse. The board heard the 2025 budget audit, a review of the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2025, then moved to reappoint Allen Vogt as supervisor of assessments and place Jacksonville Deputy Police Chief Kyle Chumley on the West Central joint emergency telephone systems board.

The audit matters because it is one of the clearest checks on how Morgan County handled taxpayer money during the last fiscal year. The county’s books run on a Sept. 1 to Aug. 31 calendar, and residents can compare the audit with earlier years through the county finance page, which keeps archived budgets, levies, audits and salary data. That record gives taxpayers a way to see whether spending, reserves or other accounting items changed from year to year as county officials head into the next budget cycle.

Vogt’s reappointment keeps the county’s top assessment office in familiar hands. Morgan County’s supervisor of assessments office says it is responsible for assessing all property in the county under Illinois law and Department of Revenue guidelines, with most property assessed at 33.33% of market value, except farmland and farm buildings. The office also handles exemptions and relies on state appraisal manuals for residential, commercial and industrial property. Vogt is listed by the Illinois Chief County Assessment Officers association as Morgan County’s chief county assessment officer, and county records show he was reappointed to the post in 2010, 2018 and 2022.

Chumley’s appointment places another Jacksonville law enforcement official inside the region’s emergency communications structure. The West Central Joint Dispatch Center was built as a joint effort involving the City of Jacksonville, the Morgan County Board, Passavant Hospital and the West Central ETSB. The board says it has 13 members drawn from agencies and county boards in Morgan, Greene and Calhoun counties, and that it provides 911 and emergency dispatch services for law enforcement, fire and EMS. It also describes itself as tri-accredited in medical, fire and police dispatch, and one of only two Tri-ACE agencies in Illinois.

Chumley’s seat on the board was reported to run through 2029, extending his role just days after Jacksonville promoted him to deputy chief. For Morgan County residents, the morning’s actions touched three of the government functions that shape daily life most directly: how taxes are reviewed, how property is assessed and how emergency calls are routed.