Utility audits yield more than $250k for one Illinois city

Compliance audits pay off—with little up-front risk

Decatur is a central Illinois community of 76,000, centered around agriculture, from crop sciences to farming machinery.

But when they're not feeding America, Decatur residents can enjoy recreation along the Sangamon River, take in notable architecture, or enjoy culture driven by Millikin University’s well-regarded music program.

To power Decatur’s vibrant community, municipal leaders tapped Azavar to conduct a series of revenue reviews to make sure the city was receiving all monies owed. This is a fantastic way for local leaders to show taxpayers that the city is doing all it can to find funds through sources other than property-tax hikes or budget cuts.

>> Our revenue discovery system uncovered significant findings and unreceived utility taxes.

Azavar’s team of tax-and-fee compliance experts applied advanced geographical mapping tools, along with decades of experience and insight, to examine cable and electric taxes and franchise fees.

• Through our electric auditing, Azavar found 76 incorrectly coded addresses, which represents $23,000 in additional taxes for Decatur per year. In addition, we identified $130,000 in back electric taxes due this community.
• Our cable audit revealed nearly 1,000 miscoded addresses. That represented more than $116,000 in back taxes owed to Decatur, plus nearly $30,000 in additional annual cable taxes.

In total? That’s nearly a quarter of a million dollars in arrears and more than $50K in new revenue going forward.

Right now, local governments need every penny to fund critical services such as economic development and road repair, or quality-of-life enhancers like new library books and lifeguards for public pools. That’s what our work at Azavar helps these communities do.

It never hurts to check your taxes and fees

Our approach to revenue reviews follows the needs of the communities we serve. For many municipalities, this means that a contingency fee-based approach is preferred.

In these cases, Azavar performs a comprehensive revenue review, identifies monies owed, and works directly with utility providers to secure funds for municipalities—before we get paid a dime. This helps communities manage risk, while still pursuing rewards for their residents.

Get started on your own revenue reviews today.

Set up a time to speak with Azavar's local-government experts about how to put our revenue discovery system to work for your municipality.

Whether you need to examine sales or garbage taxes, franchise fees or short-term rental registrations, Azavar can help. Book your meeting today to get started.