Libertyville to lay off four employees
Dealing with the upcoming budget has been a tough fight for Libertyville officials, who since last fall have been adjusting to continued bad news.
But with some painful final actions, the 2010-11 document is complete and ready for approval before the fiscal year begins on May 1.
A public hearing precedes the vote during the regular village board meeting at 8 p.m. at village hall, 118 W. Cook Ave.
Major late changes include the early retirement of three employees and the layoff of four others.
Four other positions are being reclassified from full to part-time and nonunion employees will continue to have to take one unpaid furlough day per month.
A hiring freeze remains in place and raises for all nonunion employees have been eliminated.
An array of cuts, deferred expenditures, fee increases, the addition of a utility tax and an increase in the telecom tax were among the actions taken to offset a continued drop in sales tax, state income tax, recreation fees and other revenues.
Sales tax, which is heavily reliant on car sales, has been declining since 2001 and village officials do not expect it to return to previous levels.
In the final budget, the village estimates it will spend about $42 million in 2010-11, a decrease of more than $8.1 million or 16 percent compared to 2009-10.
The bulk of that is due to a reduction in the amount of capital expenditures, mainly because of the completion of a downtown parking garage. Salary reductions and the hiring freeze account for about $655,000 of the total cuts.
Village Administrator Kevin Bowens said it has been the toughest budget process in his 18-plus year tenure, "particularly with the layoffs."
Laid off are a project engineer, building inspector, building maintenance technician and a parks facility technician. Coupled with positions that weren't filed after being vacated, the full time staff dropped to 166 from 180.
"These are people you've known for many years who were loyal to the village and to lay them off was hard,"said Mayor Terry Weppler.
Trustee Rich Moras, who chairs the village board's finance committee, described the process as painful and difficult. Though he said he personally opposed a local tax on gas and electric, it had to be done. That single source is expected to raise $1.9 million.
"There were no sacred cows. We put everything on the table," he said recently.
All told, the actions will lift the general fund, which is used for day to day services, to a surplus of more than $1.2 million for 2010-11. Revenue drops had threatened to turn a small surplus this year into a deficit of nearly $952,000.
"We're going to continue to make changes in how things are structured and how we do things," Moras said.
Officials say the process will allow the village to begin rebuilding its reserves, most of which have been spent over the years to cover the debt on the Libertyville Sports Complex at Route 45 and Peterson Road. Refinancing will lower the annual debt payments on the bonds to buy the land and build the facilities to $1 million from $2.2 million.
"We ran out of breathing room. We're carrying a multiyear IOU in essence. There was no $10 million in the bank, it was just an accounting number," Moras said.