Besides navigating a sea of lakefront development opponents last week, Wilmette park board commissioners accomplished one or two other jobs on their “to-do” list; they approved an $8.5 million tax levy for 2014 when they met Dec. 8, then gave an informal nod the next night to the $21.67 million 2015 budget they intend to pass in January.
Commissioners who reviewed the budget proposal Dec. 9 at a final committee workshop didn’t change the overall revenue and expenses worked out over the past few months by staff and board financial planning committee members, District Director Steve Wilson said.
Those still stand at $25.3 million in operating revenue and $9.14 million in bond proceeds. That’s against $21.67 million in spending, including $18.8 million in operating expenses and $9.1 million in capital spending.
Roughly two-thirds of the district’s revenue comes not from property taxes but from user fees, rentals and retail sales.
As proposed, operations spending will increase 5 percent next year over the 2014 actual budget, while operating revenue will rise 7.4 percent. The overall budget, including capital spending, will actually drop 8.4 percent over what the district expects to spend by the end of 2014.
“This was a final look at everything. Of course there was a lot of talk about the Moody’s rating, and why we disagreed with it,” Wilson said, referring to the investor service’s decision on Dec. 3 to cut the park district’s bond rating from AAA to Aa1.
“Other than that, everyone was comfortable with what has been put together,” he said.
The budget will be on display for the next month at the park board’s offices in Wilmette Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Ave.
Although the board technically has until March to pass it, the board normally does so at its January meeting.
The levy commissioners passed the night before, which increased less than a percent over 2013’s level, generated almost no discussion during a brief public hearing, although Wilmette tax opponent Mark Weyermuller stated his antipathy toward the increase.
More Top Picks Best Flagship Dacs For Audiophiles
It includes $1.8 million in taxes for the district’s general corporate fund, and $3.6 million to retire district debt, as well as $610,000 to help pay for special recreation and ADA-connected costs. The rest of the levy included $625,000 for liability insurance; $300,000 for the district’s recreation fund; $635,000 to go to employee Social Security payments, and $825,000 for the district’s retirement fund; $73,900 for security and $25,000 to pay for the district’s annual financial audit.
That amounted to a 0.15 percent increase over the 2013 tax levy extension.