On Monday evening, Burr Ridge trustees and the mayor got a collective look at the proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
Each trustee had already seen a copy, so the meeting was mostly for public discussion and a chance to express any concerns before approving the document in April. The report was a dense, hourlong presentation that condensed a nearly 200-page budget into highlights that reported a thriving, economically growing community.
Since 2022, Burr Ridge has been debt free, meaning the village saves money by not paying off debt but the village is also growing, with new residents, rising tourism tax dollars and expanding business incomes.
But the rosy financial outlook is also due to planning. Village Administrator Evan Walter pointed out the proposed 2024 budget “was built from zero, every dollar was justified.”
Annmarie Mampe, the village’s financial consultant, told the board the village is expected to go in to FY 2024 well in the black, with just under $6 million in the general-fund fund balance — money in the bank. Capital improvements should carry forward $2 million and the police pension fund balance should hit about $21.3 million.
In the general fund, the village expects to bring in just over $12 million in FY 2024 and spend just under $12 million in the general fund, leaving the village’s fund balance at just over $6 million at the end of FY 2024.
All of the village’s individual fund categories are expected to remain healthy, though at first glance the police pension fund does appear to be down nearly a quarter-million dollars against FY 2023 at the end of FY 2024.
However, digging in to it, the mayor and Mampe pointed out the pension fund is still solid and well-funded beyond state requirements.
The pension fund isn’t fully funded — virtually no city or village can afford to do that — but as Mampe, Mayor Gary Grasso and other have pointed out, the village is funding that fund in excess of state requirements and well beyond what the majority of villages can afford to do.
But Trustee Russ Smith said he’d like to fund the pension fund at a higher level — he’s long pushed for this — especially as the fund is spending more on pensions than it has been in even recent years past.
Mampe pointed out the fund is mature — meaning the number of employees paying into the fund is near equal to the number of retirees taking out pensions — so less income and more expenditure is normal and all pension funds hit that at some point.
“We’re adding $84,000 more than the required contribution,” Mampe said. “This is a very healthy pension fund.”
Grasso said the fund is 71 % funded as it is.
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“It’s very healthy now with 71 % and I’m trying to get to 75 % and after we get there, I think we should stay there,” he said.
That number’s long been a goal for Grasso, but it won’t be a permanent resting place.
By law, cities and villages will be expected to have a 90 % funded pension fund by 2040, but Grasso said there’s already talk of extending that timeline as most municipalities are not on track to hit even that distant goal, though Grasso said he believed Burr Ridge could meet it.
“We may be one of the ones that can make it, and there’s no reason to wait around and see,” Grasso said.
Mostly village department budgets will continue to fund usual maintenance, staff and village services — like any other year — though Public Works Director Dave Pressig said he’s budgeted to hire two new positions full time. Those positions will be a public planner and a field contact for complaints, with that person also able to do minor inspections that don’t require engineers. They’ll be considered community development staff.
No one from the public asked questions or offered up any objections, so Walter said he expected the budget to pass at the April 10 meeting, though he noted the public can still weigh in at the second meeting this month.
The budget planning began in November, and the fiscal year will begin in May.
Only Trustee Tony Sciappa missed the meeting due to illness, though Grasso pointed out he’d already been briefed on the budget and already had an opportunity to offer objections or suggest changes. The entire budget is online at the village’s website.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.