As Wilmette village trustees started their 2016 budget talks this month, they said they had to come to grips with one inescapable reality: They have lots of capital needs, notably including street and alley repair projects that staff members believe must be tackled soon, but they don’t have enough revenue to pay for them all.
Village officials including finance committee Chair Carol Ducommun and Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman said they still think Wilmette can pay for enough high-priority projects to keep those streets at levels that are at least substantially the same as they were in 2015.
“The question is, what are we going to do for the short term, for 2016, and then what are we going to do long term?” Ducommun said Sept. 10.
When trustees met Sept. 8 to look at 2016 budget capital recommendations from village staff members, they were greeted by a list of $4 million worth of non-sewer or water-main projects – everything from police car purchases and roofing projects to street and alley work – that administrators labeled critical.
“Critical” was defined in this year’s capital budget proposal, as “must be completed in the year recommended due to safety or operational needs.”
A more accurate description, Braiman said Sept. 14, “is if it’s necessary to maintain our current service level, or to maintain the current quality of life for Wilmette residents.”
The biggest non-water or sewer project listed as “critical” is $2.75 million in street resurfacing that Engineering and Public Works Director Brigitte Berger said needed to be done to keep Wilmette’s more than 89 miles of road in good condition, and to make up for several years of deferred resurfacing projects.
Since 2009, the village has had a goal of doing $2 million in annual road resurfacing, Berger said, but the village has consistently allocated less than that: $1.4 million in 2013, $848,000 in 2014, and $1.16 million in 2015. Her $2.75 million request is an effort to make up for that, she said.
But Wilmette doesn’t have enough revenue to handle all the critical projects – as well as another roughly $2 million in slightly lower-priority “recommended” projects – staff and trustees agreed at the Sept. 8 meeting.
Ducommun said Sept. 10 that Wilmette expects be able to target roughly $3.36 million in revenue for capital needs. If Wilmette uses $1.5 million of that on street resurfacing, it wouldn’t meet Berger’s goal, “but it’s still a very great improvement over what we’ve spent over the last few years. To be able to spend $1.5 million, we feel good about that.”
By cutting the street resurfacing project from $2.75 million to $1.5 million, the village also cuts its revenue-capital needs gap to about $1.4 million, Ducommun said. Some of that can be eliminated by deferring lower-priority projects to future years, she said Sept. 10.
Braiman said Wilmette officials need at least another year of reviewing existing revenue streams, including the higher sales-tax revenue, before making any significant revenue policy changes.
“Revenues have been better than expected over the last two years,” Braiman said. “Is that trend going to continue to get better? That’s one thing we have to look at.”
Village staff members expect to integrate feasible capital projects into the overall proposed document, which the village board should get at its Oct. 13 meeting. Thereafter, trustees will fine-tune the proposal at workshops and they will approve a final budget in November. The capital improvement budget package is available for review at www.wilmette.com.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
More Top Picks Best Microdermabrasion Machines
Dollars and sense
What: 2016 Wilmette capital budget proposals
Total non-sewer or water proposals: $4 million critical, $2 million recommended
Available revenue: $3.36 million
More info: www.wilmette.com