Village Presents Balanced Budget

Although revenues came in under FY 2010-2011 projections and are projected to decrease by over a percent again this year, the mayor, village trustees and department heads were presented with a balanced budget at the March 14 budget workshop.

Balancing the budget did not come without sacrifices, however, including the elimination of a full-time police officer and use of $30,000 in pathway fund interest earnings, among other reductions and transfers.

Speaking on the revenue budget, Village Administrator Steve Stricker said “I'm not doing any flips over these numbers and am not convinced things will pick up this year."

“It's a balanced budget, but I'm still worried about sales and income tax [revenue] and we are going to have to keep our eye on [developments in legislation regarding] the police pension fund,” he added.

An overall, summary budget of all funds provides starting reserves on May 1, 2011 of $26,147,987 with projected revenue of $15,637,860 for the year. Expenditures are projected to come in at $16,188,245 for an ending reserve of $25,597,602 on April 30, 2012.

Contributing to the $550,000 decrease in reserves are six figure reductions (over $850,000) in the capital projects funds and a quarter-million dollar loss in the water fund.

The capital improvements fund will start with a balance of $810,000, although that is due in large part to the 2010-2011 transfer of building bond forfeiture funds in the amount of $850,000 to the capital projects fund. The improvement fund will be dialed down to $294,269 with over $1.2 million in expenditures, which includes engineering for the I-55 bridge improvement plan.

News was particularly grim for the pathway fund, which is used for sidewalk and other pedestrian improvements. The fund will see a decrease of over $165,000 this year, far less than the capital improvements fund, but with continually decreasing revenues for the fund in coming years.

“There is not a lot of money in the fund and it's going to continue to dwindle,” said Stricker. “In five to six years there won't be any pathway money left and then it will come from the general fund.”

An interesting new change in the new year's budget was the addition of a new operating program to establish a 501(c)3 Friends of Burr Ridge Foundation. The program will have a small, $4,000 expenditure this year for its creation, but in the future will hopefully be a new form of revenue for the village.

“This fund will allow Burr Ridge residents to make donations to projects that may be near and dear to their heart,” said Mayor Gary Grasso.

The Village made no other changes to its revenue stream (such as raising taxes) and Stricker said unfortunately, in the current economy, there just aren't a lot of new ways to generate revenue.

Stricker was unsure, but said perhaps the village could reap some benefits from the new Internet tax bill signed by the Gov. Pat Quinn, although was unsure on details of how revenue from the new state tax might be shared with local governments.

As a non-home rule community, the village cannot raise property taxes without a referendum, and raising taxes was not suggested at the workshop. Likely, the Village will just have to continue to do with less revenue.

“This isn't like the old days when there was always money left over and we were looking for something to do with it,” said Stricker.

The village will hold a public hearing on the new budget at the April 11 board meeting.