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player ready...Wilmette residents will pay more in sales tax and sewer fees after the town’s village board approved its 2015 budget on Wednesday night.
Expenses in the approved 2015 budget total about $34.8 million, while revenue tops out at roughly $34.7 million. Included in the village’s projected costs is a $250,000 contingency fund, which board members said they don’t expect to spend in its entirety.
The budget was described by board member Carol Ducommun as one that was balanced and would maintain the current level of village services.
But the budget also reveals both good news and bad news, according to village documents.
In a memo to the board, village manager Timothy Frenzer wrote that the budget calls for a property tax levy increase of 3.35 percent — the smallest percentage increase in the levy in 17 years.
Wilmette finance director Melinda Molloy said unexpected gains in several revenue streams accounted for the lower levy increase.
Real estate transfer tax, sales tax, state income tax, building permits, vehicle stickers, telecommunication taxes and other miscellaneous revenue streams brought in $841,000 more in 2014 than previously expected, according to Frenzer’s memo.
Additionally, reduced staffing levels, benefits savings and lower than expected winter and snow expenses saved the village $333,000, according to the memo.
But Frenzer noted that increases in these revenue streams — though higher than projected for the year — are still lower than their pre-recession levels.
“That analysis shows that the economic recession still adversely impacts the village’s revenue needed for capital improvements,” Frenzer wrote.
As a result of the recession, Wilmette had lost $15 million in revenue “that it will never recoup,” Frenzer wrote.
The end result, Frenzer added, is that capital improvements in the village have been underfunded since 2010.
To combat this trend, the village board previously voted unanimously to increase the home rule sales tax from .25 percent to 1 percent next year.
The increased tax would provide the village with a “reliable, recurring revenue source dedicated to capital improvements,” Frenzer wrote.
In addition to the higher sales tax, Wilmette residents also will see a 40 cent increase in the village’s sewer fee next year.
The sewer fee had previously been raised by 40 cents in 2014, Molloy said.
The village plans to fund about $26 million in major sewer projects with a series of bond issues that began in 2013 and will continue through next year, Frenzer wrote.
The total 80 cent increase in the sewer fee will be used to fund the village’s debt service payments in the coming years, Molloy said.
Aside from major sewer projects, the budget also includes $1.4 million for street resurfacing and repairs, and $920,000 for alley maintenance, brick street renovation, and sidewalk and curb repairs, among other improvements.
Additionally, $190,000 will be spent on the replacement of the police department roof; $181,000 will fund five new police squad cars; $170,000 will be used to replace two snow plow trucks; and $820,000 will be spent on sewer lining rehabilitation.
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Village board members expressed enthusiastic support for next year’s budget and thanked staff for all the work that went into it.
“I’ve seen a lot of these budgets and I feel very good about this one — better than I have in a number of years,” said board member Alan Swanson.
All board members present voted in favor of the budget. Board members Ted McKenna and Mike Basil were absent from the meeting.