Burr Ridge has adopted an $18.1 million spending plan for the next fiscal year, which is an increase of just 1 percent from this fiscal year.
Police services take up more than half of the $8.3 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2015-16. The Police Department will nab $4.7 million of the general fund. The only other area of the general fund to require seven figures to operate is Public Works, which is slated to take $1.5 million.
The village’s fiscal year runs May 1 to April 30.
Village officials anticipate $17.3 million in revenue and $18.1 million in expenditures for the next fiscal year.
Village Administrator Steve Stricker had said previously the budget is balanced and contains $2.2 million in capital projects.
“In most cases, we are drawing down on equity from the various funds to pay for those expenditures,” he wrote, when providing budget highlights to village leaders earlier this year.
“The general fund appears to be in good shape,” Stricker said. “For the fifth year in a row, we anticipate a surplus in the general fund at the end of FY 14-15, due to better than expected building permit revenues, lower than expected personnel costs in the Police Department, lower fuel costs and lower legal costs.”
Members of the Village Board unanimously adopted the budget April 13. Trustee John Manieri was absent.
Trustee Guy Franzese commended Stricker and other village staff members for keeping the budget to a minimal increase.
“I commend you for holding the line, a very frugal 1-percent increase,” Franzese said. “It is appreciated by the residents.”
Stricker said the budget picture got a little brighter when the cost of employee health insurance coverage dropped 4.9 percent. Employees’ required payment dropped an equal amount, Stricker noted.
He noted another cost-saving move is that police dispatcher salaries were anticipated to increase 5 percent in the next fiscal year. Those salaries will increase just 2.5 percent, Stricker said.
The village is anticipating to end the next fiscal year with an $80,000 surplus, Stricker noted.
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The hotel/motel tax fund, paid by guests lodging in the village, is expected to generate $482,000, with the majority of that money ($250,000) going toward a marketing plan for Burr Ridge hotels. The remaining funds will be used for landscaping maintenance at gateways into the village.
Burr Ridge’s restaurant/place of eating tax, which was instituted in the 2012-13 budget year, is expected to generate $55,000 in the coming fiscal year, with expenses of $52,000.
The capital improvements budget will be $900,000, including $690,000 for the 2015 Road Program.
Expenditures in the sidewalk/pathway budget are expected to be $470,000, which include $458,000 in projects and $11,000 for annual maintenance. This is likely the second-to-last year that funds will be designated into a separate sidewalk fund.
“It is expected that the sidewalk/pathway fund will be depleted by the end of FY 16-17; and all future sidewalk projects will have to compete with the Road Program for limited capital improvement funding,” Stricker said.
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.