Trustees Tuesday passed the village property tax levy, which is expected to bring in an additional $370,000 this year. They also had their first board-level discussion about the draft 2025 budget, which shows an increase in fire and pension fund costs of $464,000. Those costs are funded by property taxes.
“You end up with a $94,000 shortage, essentially,” Carrie Dittman, the village’s chief financial officer, said at the meeting. “What that means is that fewer of our property tax dollars are going toward operations as more of them are being directed toward those police and fire pension fund contributions annually.
That contribution is required by the state in order to reach a 90 percent funding level in the pensions by 2040, Dittman explained. The village hires an independent actuary each year to calculate the amount required to reach that level. For 2025, the contributions will total $2.76 million, half of all villagewide benefits costs.
Salaries and benefits, including these pension fund contributions, make up 71 percent of the general fund expenses, Dittman said. When looking at expenses by department, police and fire make up more than half of expenses at 57 percent or about $12.6 million.
General fund revenues are projected at $24.5 million, up about 1 percent from last year’s budget. Property taxes at almost $9.4 million make up about 38 percent of that revenue. Sales taxes are second largest at 15 percent.
Expenses in the general fund are expected to increase 3.9 percent to slightly more than $22 million.
The general fund and the water and sewer fund are the largest of 10 funds in the operating budget. The total budget also includes the five-year capital improvement plan and the master infrastructure plan.
The MIP has been extended by one year to address the final project yet to be completed — Sixth Street from Garfield Avenue to County Line Road. The road will be reconstructed, the water main replaced and sanitary sewers separated for a cost of $6.5 million. Another $1.7 million is targeted for asphalt resurfacing and $500,000 for streetscape and safety improvements.
“Part of that funding is going to be going to a neighborhood pedestrian and traffic safety study,” Trustee Michelle Fisher said. “We do hear requests for a safer downtown and we think it’s time for us to have this kind of study.”
The capital improvement plan identifies about $16.6 million in expenses over the next five years, with $4.77 million slated for 2025. Forty percent of that amount will go toward vehicle replacements, with another 30 percent slated for building improvements.
In his report prior to the budget discussion, Village President Tom Cauley said the village is in a much better financial position than it was 15 years ago and in danger of losing its AAA bond rating.
“When I became village president in 2009, one of the main goals was to work to fix the village finances,” he said.
By 2012, the bond rating was upgraded to stable and has remained so since, he noted. The village expects to end 2025 with 25.4 percent of operating funds in reserves.
The board is expected to formally adopt the budget at its Tuesday, Dec. 17, meeting.
