Tax increase on the horizon for MWRD

Even though the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago plans to slash its budget by $625 million next year, taxpayers will probably still end up paying a few extra dollars in property taxes to the district.

At their meeting Thursday, MWRD board members reviewed the proposed $1.03 billion budget for 2011 – the fourth-largest budget in the state – and the proposed $467 million property tax levy.

The board will take a final vote on both items next Thursday, Dec. 16.

Next year's budget is 37.8 percent less than last year's, but the tax levy is 1.6 percent higher. What that means to taxpayers is that a home with a market value of $100,000 will pay an extra $1.06 in property taxes, or roughly $117.52, to the MWRD, said Administrative Services Manager Eileen McElligott.

The budget reduction is partly due to a shrinking work force – 47 employees have been lost to retirement or attrition and replacements will not be hired. While McElligott didn't have an exact dollar amount being saved, she said this amounts to a considerable reduction in salaries and benefits.

Another reason for the lower budget is that most of the current capital improvement projects were awarded in last year's budget, district officials said.

MWRD commissioners say they are looking for ways to trim waste. On Thursday, they approved switching to a paperless payroll system, saving $60,000 a year.

They reconsidered one pay action, however.

Last month, the commissioners voted to save $200,000 a year by requiring roughly 70 of the district's employees – mostly middle managers – to switch from the old pay scale to the new one. This will mean pay cuts for these employees, who will see their paychecks reduced by up to $50 per pay period during a “transition” time of a few years.

On Thursday, commissioners reversed course on this, saying they didn't think it was right to cut people's salaries. However, they acknowledge there's a problem: employees on the old pay scale are making more money than employees doing the same job on the new pay scale. The commissioners decided to hold off on the pay scale switch but plan to come up with a way to make the pay more equitable.

Despite the budget cuts, board President Terrence O'Brien noted that the MWRD is still doing major projects in the suburbs, including a stormwater management project in Cook County and construction of a flood control reservoir at Heritage Park in Wheeling. The reservoir will capture 49 million gallons of rain water upstream of Levee 37, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project adjacent to the Des Plaines River in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights.