Higher revenues mean more money for last year of village’s 15-year infrastructure plan
Higher than anticipated revenues in 2023 and rising revenues in 2024 will allow the village to invest more in master infrastructure plan and capital projects.
Permit revenue and interest income have outperformed budget projections this year, village manager Kathleen Gargano wrote in a memo to trustees for their Nov. 21 meeting. That, combined with lower employee salary costs due to long-term vacancies not being filled and decreased overtime costs, will leave the 2023 budget with a projected operating fund balance, after transfers, of 34.7 percent of operating expenses. Village policy calls for year-end balances of 25 percent.
Staff is recommending an increase from $1.72 million to $2.5 million in the budgeted transfer to the master infrastructure plan fund and an increase from $1.4 million to $2.3 million for the capital improvement plan. Looking ahead to 2024, the village anticipates a 7.2 percent increase in operating revenues in the general fund, bringing the total to $24.2 million. That $1.6 million increase includes $200,000 more in interest income and an anticipated $350,000 in donations related to 150th anniversary celebrations, both of which are nonrecurring revenues.
Property taxes, at an estimated $9 million, account for 37.2 percent of general fund revenues. Other sources are sales tax at $3.5 million, state income tax at $2.8 million, utility taxes at almost $1.7 million and permit fees at $1.35 million.
While property taxes are the single largest source of revenue in the general fund, the village portion of a resident’s property tax bill is less than 10 percent, Gargano noted. Districts 181 and 86 account for 79 percent of the property taxes residents pay.
“I think that’s worth talking about,” Village President Tom Cauley said. “A lot of people talk about the village and property taxes, but the village only gets 7.3 percent of property taxes. Most of it goes to the schools.”
General fund expenses are expected to increase 5 percent to almost $21.2 million. The village’s largest expense — 70 percent — is for employee salaries and benefits, which are projected at $14.8 million. Salaries are forecasted to increase by $394,000 or 4.2 percent to cover merit/step increases and pay plan adjustments. The village also will be fully staffed in 2024 with 118.1 full-time equivalents.
Benefit and employment costs are anticipated to increase by $590,700 or 13 percent, primarily due to increases in pension costs and health insurance.
“The village funding of the pension funds is outside of the village’s control,” Gargano noted.
The village’s required minimum contributions will increase 35 percent to $993,000 for the police pension fund and 12 percent to $1.3 million for the fire pension fund.
“That is significant when you think about where we’re getting our revenue and our ability to support these pensions,” Gargano said.
Broken down by department, the village spends most of its general fund revenues on police ($6.2 million/29 percent), fire ($5.4 million/25 percent) and public services ($3.4 million/16 percent).
In addition to the general fund, the village has three other funds: water/sewer, capital improvement plan and master infrastructure plan.
The water/sewer fund is estimated to have revenues of $8.74 million from water/sewer user fees and $530,000 from the fixed $15 bimonthly charge for capital improvements. The village expects to spend almost $4.9 million to purchase water from the DuPage Water Commission and $2.5 million on infrastructure.
The capital improvement plan lists $3.9 million in expenditures for 2024 (see sidebar).
The master infrastructure plan fund is expected to see revenues of $2.1 million from the non-home rule sales tax, $2 million from a general fund transfer, $764,000 from the motor fuel tax receipts, $520,000 from utility taxes and $70,000 from the downtown parking deck special services area tax. The village has identified $7.3 million in expenses (see sidebar), including work on Sixth Street.
“We’ve kicked this down the road a couple of times because it’s extremely expensive,” Cauley said.
Once the 2024 projects are finished, all the work identified in the 2009 master infrastructure plan will be complete. About 63 of the village’ 69 miles of roadways have been rehabilitated, including 16 miles of water mains and 18 miles of sewers, Gargano said. As of 2023, the village no longer has any roads identified as “failing.”
“This is really a significant milestone that the board achieved. It had a tremendous amount of forethought back 15 years ago to set up this plan. A small community doing this amount of work is really quite remarkable,” Gargano said.
The board is expected to officially adopt the budget at its Tuesday, Dec. 12, meeting.