Antioch budget woes hit new level

For weeks, Antioch officials have grappled with the village's 2008-09 budget and how to handle the $1.2 million deficit.

There have been public hearings, as well as regularly scheduled and special meetings, but no end is in sight.

"I would hate to think this is political," village Trustee Scott Pierce said. "I hope we are just doing our due diligence with this budget. But if I had to guess, I don't think this will get wrapped up until the day it is due by law."

The village board must pass the appropriation ordinance by the end of July, which can't be done until the budget is completed.

The proposed $10.4 million in expenditures is less than this year's more than $11 million budget, but revenues are down due to stagnant housing and commercial development, requiring a bare-bones budget.

Layoffs of 11 full-time and four part-time employees have been proposed, as well as the creation of a 5 percent utility tax on phone, electric, gas and cell phone bills.

But trustees have been reluctant to implement any of the changes.

During the village's last budget meeting, Trustee Robert Caulfield gave village administrator Jill Velan a list of items he wanted to study before moving forward, particularly payroll history from the last four years.

"For some reason, the administrator is having a hard time getting it," Caulfield said. "Payroll has expanded greatly in the last three years and it doesn't appear we've added that many employees. Either people are making a lot more money than they used to or something else is going on."

Caulfield expressed these same sentiments last week before walking out of the meeting, which prompted Pierce to call for an investigation by the Lake County State's Attorney's office.

Rather than allow Caulfield, or anyone else, to make accusations about the financial situation in the village, Pierce said he would like to bring in a third party to investigate.

He has since decided to wait for Caulfield to agree to call the state's attorney's office with him.

"I don't want to be accused of being sneaky," Pierce said. "After the appropriate time, if I haven't heard from Bob, then I'll call. We need to put this to rest once and for all. Pointing fingers does not solve how we move Antioch forward and take care of business."

Caulfield said Tuesday asking the state's attorney to step in seems premature.

"All I'm doing is asking for reports and having a tough time getting them," Caulfield said. "To me, this is a very simple straightforward request for information."

Caulfield is also troubled that trustees only recently learned of the village's $1.2 million deficit.

"The economy has taken a hike, but that's national news," he said. "I don't think it should have that drastic of an effect on us. I think it might be a good idea to look at where we are at and how we got there before we start doing things like adding a tax for the citizens."

But finance director Joy McCarthy said trustees should have known about the village's financial situation for at least a year.

McCarthy said one of the first pages of the 2007-08 budget book states: "We've reached the point where current revenue sources cannot adequately support our rapid growth. While revenues are increasing, they are not keeping pace with increasing operating and capital expenses."