New Trees, Squad Car Replacement Highlights of 2011-12 Village Budget

Village manager Bill Ganek presented Algonquin’s proposed balanced budget for the upcoming 2011-12 year last night at the committee of the whole meeting.

He said the theme for this year was maintaining growth, albeit slowly.

Things you should keep in mind:

• Algonquin has a conservative expenditure history.

• There are no tax incremented financing districts (TIFs) in Algonquin.

• Algonquin has seen a fairly even growth over time, which allows the village to adequately plan for staffing and utility construction.

• The village gets 7 cents for every dollar of residents’ property taxes.

Highlights from the 2011-12 budget:

• Nearly a 3 percent increase from last year’s general fund, to $18.2 million from $17.7 million. The growth came from a $256,000 excess in past years' insurance fund.
• Personnel expenses comprise 67 percent of the general fund, followed by contractual services at 13 percent, the next largest expenditure category.

Public Works:

• The Public Works Parks and Forestry division is seeing the largest budget increase, at 16 percent to $1.9 million. The village is budgeting $44,000 on tree planting alone to replace trees destroyed by Emerald Ash Borer. In addition to the money allocated by the village to replace those trees, it also received a $20,000 federal grant to alleviate the costs.
• New purchases include: a tree stump grinder to remove trees ruined by the Emerald Ash Borer, a more fuel-efficient supervisor's vehicle, a GMC Topkick, outdoor exercise equipment for Presidential Park and signage at Yellowstone and Willoughby parks.
• More money is also being allocated to the streets, climbing to $2.3 million, a 3 percent increase from last year. It is going to cost nearly $450,000 just to turn on the street lights for the upcoming year. Also another $401,000 to maintain the streets, curbs and traffic lights.

Police:

• The department will see an increase of 3 percent.
• Personnel accounts for 82 percent of the department's budget, ringing in at nearly $7 million.

• The police union has agreed to certain concessions in their contracts, so the village is able to use that money to replace one squad car this year.

Community Development:

• Increasing legal expenditures are costing the village nearly $70,000 for the upcoming year. Ganek said the rising costs are due to increased litigation in property foreclosures.

The final budget will be voted on by the village board next month.