Balanced budget includes iPads, new memorial in Algonquin

As in many other suburbs, Algonquin’s village board members will be getting iPads, an environmentally friendly initiative that officials say will save a lot of wasted paper beginning in the coming fiscal year.

The village’s general fund budget, which accounts for all day-to-day operations, is balanced at $18.4 million — a 1 percent increase over last year’s budget — and maintains all current levels of services, Village President John Schmitt said. The village has a total budget of $35.2 million and just under five months’ worth of cash reserves, officials said. The fiscal year begins May 1.

The village also enacted a 1-percent decrease in its property tax levy for 2011, which residents will pay this year. About 7 percent of local tax bills go to the village. “That’s the one goal we always have — to continue supplying services that residents expect, and at same time maintain or reduce the cost of those services to residents,” Schmitt said.

Village officials project about $7.1 million in sales tax revenues for next year, or 3 percent more than in fiscal year 2011-12. They also project an increase in interest revenues and a decrease in development fees and police and court fines.

Personnel costs, including salaries, benefits and more, represent nearly 70 percent of the village’s projected expenses, or about $12.6 million. An intern position in administration is the only new one included in the budget, Schmitt said. The village has 152 full-time employees.

The seven new iPads, a $4,200 expense, means that board meeting packets won’t need to be printed out any more, Schmitt said. This year, village officials each tried using an iPad on a rotating basis, and the results were positive, he added.

The new budget also includes $300,000 in streetscape improvements for the exterior of Riverside Plaza, the condo and retail development being built downtown, and $10,000 for a new “memorial tree of honor” that will be installed at village hall, Schmitt said. Residents will be able to request having their deceased loved ones’ names engraved on the leaves of the metal tree.

“We often get requests from residents to honor their loved ones who have passed away in a war, or a child who passed away,” Schmitt said. “It’s certainly something we’re going to be proud of.”