Wilmette trustees gave their nod recently to a $64.4 million 2016 budget, but not before two issued separate messages about street and pension problems.
The trustees said that higher property taxes may be needed in future to repair eroding streets and made a frustrated plea for relief from state-imposed police and fire pension burdens and union arbitration rules.
“We briefly entertained the thought of somehow increasing next year’s property taxes” to help pay for the necessary street repairs, finance committee chair Carol Ducommun told listeners on Nov. 25 after outlining a $16 million backlog of roads in need of rehabilitation.
“However, we collectively felt that this was not a decision to be rushed and that, instead, it required a conversation with our residents over the next several months,” she said.
“There are no good guys and bad guys here,” Ducommun said, praising village staff, who she said “manage within the constraints the board establishes for them, making do year after year with increasingly tighter budgets.”
Village President Bob Bielinski, though, called out Springfield legislators for imposing rules that he said cause employee pension costs – especially fire and police pensions – to swallow more and more village revenue.
“My comments may serve as a wake-up call to residents who are understandably unaware of the impact that politicians in Springfield have” on Wilmette’s budget and tax bills, Bielinski said.
The 2016 budget’s property tax increase is $537,000, he said, but the budgeted increase in Wilmette’s employee pension contributions will be $556,000, leaving nothing of the increase to go to any other village needs.
Bielinski said the biggest problem lies in fire and police pension mandates.
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“For communities which have to deal with the costs of unfunded mandates from Springfield, pension reform is not a partisan issue,” Bielinski said. “It’s simply about being able to continue to provide the critical municipal services, which our residents rely upon each and every day, without the need for significant tax increases or service cuts.”
Bielinski also called for changes in state union arbitration rules. While he praised Wilmette’s firefighters and police officers, he said “the current arbitration process makes it all but impossible for municipalities to implement even common-sense changes in work rules or compensation.”
In October, Wilmette approved a firefighter’s contract after a federal arbitrator rejected the village’s attempt to install a two-tier wage system for new hires.
After Bielinski and Ducommun delivered their prepared remarks, the board passed the budget.
The final document represented a budget slightly larger than one when it was introduced Nov. 10. Village figures showed the earlier budget at $63.9 million, and officials said the difference was due to revised salary figures.
The budget includes roughly $36.8 million in general fund spending, another $7.9 million and $8.2 million, respectively, in sewer and water fund spending, and more than $11 million in expenditures for everything from pensions and parking services to debt repayment.
It also includes $66.22 million in revenues, including $36.3 million in general fund revenue. Within the general fund, the largest single segment of the budget, 36 percent of revenues are generated by property taxes and another 16 percent by sales taxes, with the rest composed of revenue from permits, licenses and similar user fees.
Outside of the general fund, Wilmette expects to generate $6.7 million in sewer revenues, and $8.2 million in water revenues, with other revenue coming from, among other sources, the state’s motor fuel tax fund.
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