Vernon Hills budget leaner on employees

Like nearly every other community, Vernon Hills trustees have had to contend with less money coming in as they considered what to spend in 2010-11.

After months of discussion, debate and fine tuning, officials last week approved a balanced, though leaner, spending plan.

"It was challenging," said Village Manager Mike Allison. The village board held several Saturday work sessions discussing the numbers, including an all-day meeting on Halloween.

The result is that the village expects to spend about $17.5 million in 2010-11 on day-to-day expenses, about 15 percent less than last year.

The spending plan was crafted with revenues down 15 percent. Sales tax, the most important source of money for Vernon Hills, has declined from about $10 million two years ago to $9 million in 2009-10 and is projected to be slightly below that level in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins May 1.

"The holiday season was slightly better, by 1 percent versus 2008, nothing to get excited about, but then January was down," Allison said.

"Who knows? Things have at least bottomed out."

The balanced budget was the result of significant adjustments in expenses, including an early retirement incentive that proved remarkably popular.

As a result of the program, nine employees retired, including police Cmdr. Mark Chandler; Ed Laudenslager, director of public works; and Village Clerk Linda Pelletier.

Only one of those positions will be replaced in the upcoming year. No layoffs were made. The village now has 99 full-time employees, compared to 128 in 2002.

The reduced salary and benefits from the retirement program will save about $879,000. About $760,000 in improvement projects were shaved.

"We're basically doing core things like some streets, a little bit of sidewalk ... that's it," Allison said.

In related news, Vernon Hills' bond rating on April 19 was upgraded from Aa1 to Aaa, following a review by Moody's Investors Service.

Aaa is the company's highest rating and is described as "gilt-edged."

According to Finance Director Larry Nakrin, Vernon Hills is one of 19 municipalities in Illinois to achieve that rating and one of only three non-home rule towns to have it.