Hoffman Estates restores reserve funds

Village revenues generated this fiscal year in the general fund in Hoffman Estates exceeded projections.

Officials did not anticipate this news.

“In all honesty to you, if I would have thought that we would have been $320,000 to the good when we were going through the budget process, we would have discussed it,” Finance Director Michael DuCharme said while expressing his surprise.

This year, revenues from the village’s general fund outpaced expenditures by $320,683.

“I hope the same thing happens in (fiscal year) 2011,” DuCharme said.

These positive financials are why the village board voted on Monday to restore the minimum balance for the general fund reserve to 25 percent. That’s the level it was before 2010. Since then the minimum fund level has been at 18 percent.

So what does this mean to the village?

“We’re still in pretty good shape,” Mayor William McLeod said. “Hopefully the economy is improving, we weathered it pretty well.”

DuCharme said the reason the village reduced its reserve in the first place was because the state was late in paying the village its share of the state income tax. Village officials couldn’t rely on money from the income tax and needed to adjust the budget. The same problem existed in waiting for the village’s share of the telecommunications tax.

“It really had nothing to do with our overall estimates. We just couldn’t recognize revenue in a given year,” DuCharme said.

If the village has a surplus and is able to fund the reserve at more than 25 percent, half of that money would go toward capital improvements and the other half to the general fund or another project at the village’s discretion. The village has had surpluses at for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. In 2009 it was 21.5 percent and in 2010 it was 22.1 percent.